Eeyore11081
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2007
- Messages
- 114
(EDIT: PICS ADDED 2/2/08)
DW and I had the opportunity to make a quick trip to SoCal from Arizona. Yesterday we made the drive from our San Diego base up to DL for our best Disney day ever.
The weather set up perfectly for the day. The forecast was cold enough to scare people away by So Cal standards but not so chilly to detract from the enjoyment of the parks. First on the itinerary was a visit to Stitch at PCH grill. DW is an enormous Stitch fan who regularly tunes into the Disney Channel show, and I must say that the little guy has grown on me over time. We showed up a bit early for our 8:10 reservation and knew we were in for a good morning when the restaurant was mostly empty with the only occupants being business travelers. More time for us with Stitch.
We have been to see Stitch at DL once before so we knew what to expect with food. It has become one of our favorite, if not the favorite, culinary choice on both coasts. However, our playtime with Stitch far exceeded our expectations yesterday. It was basically one constant hourlong play session with Stitch, Lilo, Minnie, Pluto, and Daisy. Stitch did take a short break in the middle, which allowed us to consume our food. If there is any lesson to be learned from this dining experience it is that when you dine makes all the difference in the world. I have seen some negative reviews of the place and we have done our share of busy meals with the obligatory quick "pose and snap" when the character shows up at your table. I think the only way you could not like PCH grill is if it is jam packed or if you are simply a fuddy duddy. There were actually points in the meal when Stitch pulled us from our food because he needed someone to play with! What really made the experience extra special was that we brought our little plush Stitch from home. He turned out to be the star of the morning, attracting attention like a newborn baby.
From Stitch we headed into DL park with perfect timing for the opening of the day. Our first stops included Pirates, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Indy in less than an hour thanks to no lines. Perhaps it is just me, but it seems like they added some intensity to the car on Indy that wasn't there before. On Splash, there were five other people waiting to get on the ride when we got to the front of the line. We got our own toboggan with no one in front or back of us because the fivesome was messing with their ponchos and delayed their start. Pooh turned out to be a decent ride as well. We were one of the first to ride Pooh several years ago during its soft release and it was very uninspiring as it raced by way to fast to appreciate anything in the ride. They have also added some gentle undulations that are more interesting than a flat line.
After our tours of Adventureland, NO Square, and Critter Country we crossed the park to Tomorrowland. We hit Buzz Lightyear first since there were no lines. Still lingering at Level 3 on the point chart there
We then checked out the line at Nemo because I had not seen it before, though DW rode it during the summer in my absence. At 30 minutes of wait, it was not worth the time because we figured that would be the worst line of the day. We then headed to Space Mountain, and much to our surprise and pleasure we boarded the ship in a matter of minutes. After Space, we paid a visit to Toontown and saw Roger Rabbit and Mickey and Minnie's houses. Minnie wasn't there but we had to wait only seven minutes or so to get our picture with Mickey in his Fantasia outfit. Unfortunately, Small World was undergoing renovation so our visit to that realm of the park was brief. We passed by the new Princess Faire but it didn't have anything terribly inspiring for us. Our next stop took us to Pan's flight, which I believe is one of the most underrated rides in all of the parks. It proved to be our longest line of the day at 15 minutes.
At this point, our itinerary called for us to head to CA Adventure. On our way out we were surprised to see Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey in the main entrance to the park all decked out in their Year of a Million Dreams outfits. These were "must have" pics and in a matter of twenty minutes we had some treasured photos with the big three in their special costumes.
Our first task in CA adventure was to book some reservations for Goofys Kitchen for dinner. Naturally we visited the guest services desk at the CA adventure entry point and asked. The attendant said, "We do things a bit differently than at DW. Just go the the pay phone and press the button for Disney Dining." At DW they will book your dining for you at guest services without you waiting on the phone. We got a 7:50 reservation for Goofys, which was perfectly timed for the end of the parade.
Perhaps our favorite ride in all of the parks is Soarin. I have listened to the music to the ride in my car from my Disney parks CD countless times since my last visit. I was getting pretty antsy to finally put some visual back with the music. In keeping with our "no line" theme of the day, we strode directly to front of the waiting area. Luck shined upon us at this moment, when the two ladies in front of us offered us their special Dream Extra Park Hour Pass to use for the evening (which they were unable to use due to early morning work the next day).
Wanting to get some more character pics, we headed back toward the center of the park to see who might be milling about. In transit, we happened to catch a performance of High School Musical. It was pretty good, though it wasn't something I would go out of my way to see. Hollywood backlot is usually a good place for characters so we then headed over there and were greeted by Snow White, Cinderella, and Minnie. We got some pics with Snow White and Cindy but decided to skip Minnie for the moment since we had two of her already. You know it is a good day of park travelling when you can turn down pics with Minnie because you already have multiple ones from early in the day.
We decided we could use a little snack at this point so we went to the Tortilla and sourdough factories for some free samples. Neither of us had been to the Bug's land so we took a brief tour of that area and then took in the Bug's life show, which is new to CA adventure but has been an Animal Kingdom centerpiece for several years. Next we could have gone to the rapids but with the temperature hovering in the low-mid 50s we didn't want to spend the rest of our evening cold and wet. One more flight on Soarin and we were back to DL for the flag ceremony.
The flag ceremony is another underrated feature of the parks. Because it was a Tuesday, we did not have the privilege of hearing the DL band play their normal patriotice faire for the ceremony. The Dapper Dans usually do the honors on Tue and Wed from what I understand. There are some areas of the park that people might criticize as overly contrived, but the flag lowering ceremony is 100pct real. Hard to describe everything that goes on there to fully capture the patriotic feel, but it is every bit as moving as a Fourth of July ceremony or the like.
Because of our good fortune in securing an extra magic hour at the end of the day, we changed our dining itinerary to eat with Goofy at 500pm. We made the trek across DTD and went to the DL Hotel. This dining experience was another great time. As one of the first to be seated for the dinner time period we enjoyed quality interaction with Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Alice, and Jasmine.
Goofy even made two trips to our table.
The food was quite excellent with plenty of food options for all and we got to the buffet when it was nearly untouched. The desert options were some of the best I have seen. We were glad to eat at the 5pm slot because the crowds started to build for the 6 o clock hour.
It was then back to the park for the parade and our anticipated extra magic hour. Once the parade finished we made our way back to the rendezvous point behind Big Thunder Mtn at 8pm. The rendezvous point was more of a cattle call holding tank than anything else. Basically, all of us extra magic pass holders were herded to the back corner of the park so the park operators could clear the non-pass holders out of the park. For 30 minutes we basically played cheezy wedding DJ games in a big open backlot type of area. At 830 sharp Mickey showed up to release us from our holding pen and the charge began. Many people, including us, joined the stampede to Nemo. Despite the promise of "no lines" there was such a demand to see Nemo that several people stood in line for more than 10 minutes. The Nemo ride takes forever to load and unload so the lines there move slower than most rides. However, thanks to a virtually empty park we were able to ride Pan twice without getting off our flying ship. We then headed to Pirates (which is a very long ride now) to finish our evening. In the end, I don't know that the extra magic hour was entirely worth the 30 minutes of doing nothing in the cattle call holding tank, especially given that we still faced a 90 minute drive home after starting our day at 5AM. If the day had been packed with crowds and we had spent all day waiting, I might have thought differently. However, it was a very cool experience to walk through the park at closing time with virtually no one around. As we exited, Mickey and Minnie were there to bid us farewell, something I don't recall seeing in the past.
DW and I had the opportunity to make a quick trip to SoCal from Arizona. Yesterday we made the drive from our San Diego base up to DL for our best Disney day ever.
The weather set up perfectly for the day. The forecast was cold enough to scare people away by So Cal standards but not so chilly to detract from the enjoyment of the parks. First on the itinerary was a visit to Stitch at PCH grill. DW is an enormous Stitch fan who regularly tunes into the Disney Channel show, and I must say that the little guy has grown on me over time. We showed up a bit early for our 8:10 reservation and knew we were in for a good morning when the restaurant was mostly empty with the only occupants being business travelers. More time for us with Stitch.
We have been to see Stitch at DL once before so we knew what to expect with food. It has become one of our favorite, if not the favorite, culinary choice on both coasts. However, our playtime with Stitch far exceeded our expectations yesterday. It was basically one constant hourlong play session with Stitch, Lilo, Minnie, Pluto, and Daisy. Stitch did take a short break in the middle, which allowed us to consume our food. If there is any lesson to be learned from this dining experience it is that when you dine makes all the difference in the world. I have seen some negative reviews of the place and we have done our share of busy meals with the obligatory quick "pose and snap" when the character shows up at your table. I think the only way you could not like PCH grill is if it is jam packed or if you are simply a fuddy duddy. There were actually points in the meal when Stitch pulled us from our food because he needed someone to play with! What really made the experience extra special was that we brought our little plush Stitch from home. He turned out to be the star of the morning, attracting attention like a newborn baby.
From Stitch we headed into DL park with perfect timing for the opening of the day. Our first stops included Pirates, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Indy in less than an hour thanks to no lines. Perhaps it is just me, but it seems like they added some intensity to the car on Indy that wasn't there before. On Splash, there were five other people waiting to get on the ride when we got to the front of the line. We got our own toboggan with no one in front or back of us because the fivesome was messing with their ponchos and delayed their start. Pooh turned out to be a decent ride as well. We were one of the first to ride Pooh several years ago during its soft release and it was very uninspiring as it raced by way to fast to appreciate anything in the ride. They have also added some gentle undulations that are more interesting than a flat line.
After our tours of Adventureland, NO Square, and Critter Country we crossed the park to Tomorrowland. We hit Buzz Lightyear first since there were no lines. Still lingering at Level 3 on the point chart there
We then checked out the line at Nemo because I had not seen it before, though DW rode it during the summer in my absence. At 30 minutes of wait, it was not worth the time because we figured that would be the worst line of the day. We then headed to Space Mountain, and much to our surprise and pleasure we boarded the ship in a matter of minutes. After Space, we paid a visit to Toontown and saw Roger Rabbit and Mickey and Minnie's houses. Minnie wasn't there but we had to wait only seven minutes or so to get our picture with Mickey in his Fantasia outfit. Unfortunately, Small World was undergoing renovation so our visit to that realm of the park was brief. We passed by the new Princess Faire but it didn't have anything terribly inspiring for us. Our next stop took us to Pan's flight, which I believe is one of the most underrated rides in all of the parks. It proved to be our longest line of the day at 15 minutes.At this point, our itinerary called for us to head to CA Adventure. On our way out we were surprised to see Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey in the main entrance to the park all decked out in their Year of a Million Dreams outfits. These were "must have" pics and in a matter of twenty minutes we had some treasured photos with the big three in their special costumes.
Our first task in CA adventure was to book some reservations for Goofys Kitchen for dinner. Naturally we visited the guest services desk at the CA adventure entry point and asked. The attendant said, "We do things a bit differently than at DW. Just go the the pay phone and press the button for Disney Dining." At DW they will book your dining for you at guest services without you waiting on the phone. We got a 7:50 reservation for Goofys, which was perfectly timed for the end of the parade.
Perhaps our favorite ride in all of the parks is Soarin. I have listened to the music to the ride in my car from my Disney parks CD countless times since my last visit. I was getting pretty antsy to finally put some visual back with the music. In keeping with our "no line" theme of the day, we strode directly to front of the waiting area. Luck shined upon us at this moment, when the two ladies in front of us offered us their special Dream Extra Park Hour Pass to use for the evening (which they were unable to use due to early morning work the next day).
Wanting to get some more character pics, we headed back toward the center of the park to see who might be milling about. In transit, we happened to catch a performance of High School Musical. It was pretty good, though it wasn't something I would go out of my way to see. Hollywood backlot is usually a good place for characters so we then headed over there and were greeted by Snow White, Cinderella, and Minnie. We got some pics with Snow White and Cindy but decided to skip Minnie for the moment since we had two of her already. You know it is a good day of park travelling when you can turn down pics with Minnie because you already have multiple ones from early in the day.
We decided we could use a little snack at this point so we went to the Tortilla and sourdough factories for some free samples. Neither of us had been to the Bug's land so we took a brief tour of that area and then took in the Bug's life show, which is new to CA adventure but has been an Animal Kingdom centerpiece for several years. Next we could have gone to the rapids but with the temperature hovering in the low-mid 50s we didn't want to spend the rest of our evening cold and wet. One more flight on Soarin and we were back to DL for the flag ceremony.
The flag ceremony is another underrated feature of the parks. Because it was a Tuesday, we did not have the privilege of hearing the DL band play their normal patriotice faire for the ceremony. The Dapper Dans usually do the honors on Tue and Wed from what I understand. There are some areas of the park that people might criticize as overly contrived, but the flag lowering ceremony is 100pct real. Hard to describe everything that goes on there to fully capture the patriotic feel, but it is every bit as moving as a Fourth of July ceremony or the like.
Because of our good fortune in securing an extra magic hour at the end of the day, we changed our dining itinerary to eat with Goofy at 500pm. We made the trek across DTD and went to the DL Hotel. This dining experience was another great time. As one of the first to be seated for the dinner time period we enjoyed quality interaction with Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Alice, and Jasmine.
Goofy even made two trips to our table.
The food was quite excellent with plenty of food options for all and we got to the buffet when it was nearly untouched. The desert options were some of the best I have seen. We were glad to eat at the 5pm slot because the crowds started to build for the 6 o clock hour.
It was then back to the park for the parade and our anticipated extra magic hour. Once the parade finished we made our way back to the rendezvous point behind Big Thunder Mtn at 8pm. The rendezvous point was more of a cattle call holding tank than anything else. Basically, all of us extra magic pass holders were herded to the back corner of the park so the park operators could clear the non-pass holders out of the park. For 30 minutes we basically played cheezy wedding DJ games in a big open backlot type of area. At 830 sharp Mickey showed up to release us from our holding pen and the charge began. Many people, including us, joined the stampede to Nemo. Despite the promise of "no lines" there was such a demand to see Nemo that several people stood in line for more than 10 minutes. The Nemo ride takes forever to load and unload so the lines there move slower than most rides. However, thanks to a virtually empty park we were able to ride Pan twice without getting off our flying ship. We then headed to Pirates (which is a very long ride now) to finish our evening. In the end, I don't know that the extra magic hour was entirely worth the 30 minutes of doing nothing in the cattle call holding tank, especially given that we still faced a 90 minute drive home after starting our day at 5AM. If the day had been packed with crowds and we had spent all day waiting, I might have thought differently. However, it was a very cool experience to walk through the park at closing time with virtually no one around. As we exited, Mickey and Minnie were there to bid us farewell, something I don't recall seeing in the past.
)
