My Fall, 2014 Dapper Day Trip Report... first trip as a couple without the kids.

[whoever]

Welcome to my Fall, 2014 Dapper Day(s) trip report!!!

This is my second time attending a Dapper Day at Disneyland, the previous being my trip with my wife and my three daughters back in February of this year. It seems like a lifetime ago. This trip would prove to be much different. We left the kids at our house with their Aunt and Grandmother and the wife and I did the trip alone. It was her first time spending a night away from the kids in nearly 8 years, so it was a bit of an adjustment for her.

This trip report starts off as my last few have, in San Diego where work often finds me once or twice per month. This has been a good improvement to my work-life balance as I've actually been taking a Friday off per month and heading up to Disneyland. It has been great and I've gotten a LOT of utility out of my Premium Annual Pass to date.


2014-09-12...06:25... left the San Diego condo nearly half an hour behind schedule. One thing which making the drive to and from San Diego/Anaheim has continuously perplexed me. No matter the time of the day whether it be early, late, middle of the week, weekend, going North, going South, is that the I5 is PACKED no matter the situation/time of the day the entire distance between San Diego and Anaheim. I've been all over this country and NEVER seen such a phenomenon. I just expect it now, and traffic GENERALLY moves OK as long as you aren't in the work-week rush hour exodus.

07:43... made poor time... pulling on to Disneyland Way from Katella. Lined up at the entrance to the Grand. There was a stream of people coming from across the street at Paradise Pier flooding through the Grand heading towards the parks... that was NOT a good omen. EMH today was 08:00 at Disney's California Adventure... and we were LATE!!! The lost/confused vehicles in front of me at the guard shack (or in Disney-speak... greeter shack) were finally turned around or waved through and I was in. Grabbed a valet slip, had Bell Services grab our extensive array of luggage, and it was off to check in. There was a little confusion with the reception hostess. Did we need an accessible room or not? King or two queens.... The queens were ready now, but the King is what we wanted... We would wait.

Got the keys/info packet, and we were OFF towards the GCH entrance to DCA... We no sooner passed the gift shop and out the doors, and made an immediate about face. It was backed up beyond Storyteller's Cafe (after it went down to White Water Snacks and looped back on itself towards the lobby). It wasn't going to be a quick entrance. We headed towards our usual Downtown Disney route to the Esplanade at a hurried pace.

We cruised through bag check headed for the turnstiles and got into the park with minimal disruption. Rope drop had already happened, so the Cars Land rush was already dissipating by the time we got into line for Radiator Springs Racers at 08:06.

 

[whoever]

The line at this point was pretty well established, and the end of it was directly in front of Flo's V8 Cafe. We relaxed a little bit after the power walk, had some Cliff bars, and commented about how it was already getting warm, and was going to be a hot day. I hadn't seen but one or two Dappers on the way in, but that would soon change. Normally on our trips, we don't get to go through the bottle house, so this was either a treat or a curse. We took the time to take it all in, and the young girl in line behind us reminded me of my eldest daughter as she scaled the wall of bottle ends (my eldest scaled the outside of our local REI free-climbing up the rock pillars). In no time at all, we were on the ride, and had a great time through... until we LOST... my wife remarked how she never had won on all her times on the ride... maybe that would change over the weekend....The wait in the queue and the ride itself had taken 24 minutes, which is more than double what I can usually do it in utilizing single rider.

Upon disembarking the attraction, we gave the queue a look on the way out, and it was already filling up. Time to move onto something else. Right about now (well after a rider swap pass ride on RSR that is), we'd be heading towards Paradise Pier and Toy Story Midway Mania, but today being without children, we went the opposite direction, and cut through a very EMPTY Bug's land towards The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. A scant 9 minutes later we were waiting on the lobby for our rooms to be readied. We made our way into the library as we usually do, and were greeted with a very interesting "documentary" on the hotel. A short "drop" later and we were walking out of the hotel at 08:50.

 

[whoever]

It took us about 11 minutes to grab a RSR fast pass, and then leisurely walk over to Toy Story Midway Mania. Our rushing was over. The park was open, so we'd do what fancied us when it fancied us and nothing more. A 13 minute wait in queue and ride time left us wondering what to do next. Being a glutton for punishment, a spin on Mickey's Fun Wheel of DEATH was absolutely in order. I love how a simple Ferris wheel is the only attraction in the parks with barf bags. We chose swinging gondolas... of course. One of these days we'll try the stationary gondolas.... maybe. The twice-around took 15 minutes. For those who've never ridden, they do once-around to fill the gondolas, pausing every three gondolas to load/unload, and then you get once around at maximum rotation for the REAL fun.

It was now getting pretty toasty, so we made our way over to Goofy's Sky School for a quick circuit. It was a bit strange riding that without my eldest child who is a certifiable Goofy's Sky School ADICT. Kid's crazy for it (and Screamin'). That took about 6 minutes, which was mainly walking, and then shoehorning ourselves into the front of one of the cars. I may be outgrowing that attraction I'm sad to say. The lap bar just kind of ran into my knees and somewhat over them onto the front of my upper legs... barely.

After Goofy's, it was getting VERY hot, so what better way to cool off than a trip under the sea!! The 10 minutes we spent dropping underwater, having a great gala under the waves, defeating a sea witch, and attending a royal wedding barely cooled us off. We were left with what to do. A quick time check put us at the perfect time to make our way back to Cars Land.

 

[whoever]

We made our way across the esplanade, and the wife was now required to get her picture taken for her pass. Curious why they didn't do it at DCA, but it was quick enough, and we were off down Main Street USA. We hung a left at Adventureland, a right to Frontierland, and headed towards the Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road Fast pass location, and pulled one at 11:05. It was getting terribly hot, so attractions would have to wait because we needed some refreshments and food. Ten minutes later we were sipping on a Mint Julep at the French Market while we waited for Cafe Orleans to start taking names for lunch sittings.

A short time later, we were seated at our table at the front of COL looking out onto the Rivers of America. While it was still warm, there was a nice breeze, we were shaded and hydrated and enjoyed people watching while we waited for our order of Pommes Frite and Gumbo to arrive. I must say... Pommes Frite dipped in Gumbo is HEAVENLY. It’s nearly as good as the Chowder Fries I had at Ironside in San Diego (for those who may be in San Diego, there's a seafood restaurant name of Ironside in Little Italy. If you are ever in the area, you MUST try the Chowder Fries... they are TO DIE FOR!!!). At any rate, the fries and the gumbo quickly disappeared. We were debating dessert, but couldn't decide between the pumpkin beignets or the regular beignets. Our server let us debate after making her recommendation and returned a short time later with the chef, and a special offering. They had a preview of a Halloween Dessert they were not yet offering... on the house... with a candle in it. My wife remarked "how did you know we were here celebrating our birthday?" Talk about Disney magic. That sealed the deal, we were getting the regular beignets with both the vanilla and raspberry dipping sauces. The pumpkin beignets would have to wait. We REALLY enjoyed the coffin dessert, and after we dug into the beignets as well, we were stuffed. City Hall would get a visit on our way out of the park later that day with a compliment filed for our server who hailed all the way from San Miguel, El Salvador.

 

[whoever]

By 12:35, we were stuffed, and it was time to use that FP for BTMRR to get quickly on the ride in the ever more oppressive growing heat. 11 minutes later, we had navigated the queue, had a blast on the attraction (literally), and were ready for one more ride before retreating to the cool of the AC in our room. We decided our last ride in the park this morning was to be Indy, and with no other expedient options we jumped in the normal rider queue line at 12:56. I don't think I've ever actually waited in the lower queue before, so I had a chance to check it out... well themed. Line was moving pretty quickly as Indy tends to do (barring any breakdowns) and we were through the queue and off the ride by 13:29. Indy was having some trouble today which is sad to see after a fairly recent refurb. The Bamboo in the spike hall wasn't working (it was on my last trip in August), but the rope in the Mara dome was. The most alarming dysfunction of the ride was the hall of doors at the beginning. Not only was the wall not moving (which it hasn't for a while), but the doors weren't even closing. As soon as you turned the corner out of the loading area, you could see down to Mara. Indy really needs some TLC in the queue and the door section. The boulder, and all other effects were working perfectly though, so it was a great ride, albeit the bumpiness was cranked up to 11 on our ride vehicle.

By now it was 13:29, and we were pretty well exhausted from the heat and early morning. We made our way through the shops on the West side of Main Street and headed towards City hall to file our compliments for our server at Cafe Orleans. Afterwards, we made our way through Downtown Disney and spent some time lingering in World of Disney. The wife was on the lookout for a souvenir for her sister who was helping watch our kids. None was to be found. We made a quick pass through Vault 28 as well looking for the newest HM Dooneys... to no avail.

Hit the Grand, and made our way through the hotel. I swung by the Hearthstone as I really needed an adult beverage, and imagine my dismay when I learned they had discontinued carrying my favorite California beer (Tower 10 by Karl Straus). Ugh... I had some in my bag, it was sure to be warm by now. Defeated, I made it towards the room and crossed the threshold at 14:00.

We had booked into an accessible room (wheelchair accessible) #2243, so the bathroom was oversized compared to what we normally get, and this was our first time with a King bed vs. a Queen and bunk beds. It was a welcome change and the room felt much larger. Sadly, the view was not great, but at half the normal price, beggars can't be choosers. A call to bell services and the luggage was delivered in under 5 minutes. I dug into the bag, produced my muscle-relaxing supplies, and filled a bucket with ice water to get them down to consumption temperature...in a few short hours, we'd need to be dappered up and down to the Hearthstone for the Disboards/DisUnplugged Dapper Day meet.

 

[whoever]

After a nap for the wife, and some catching up on stuff for me, it was time to start getting ready. Getting ready for our Dapper outing turned out to be a bit of a chore. The wife had tried to set her curls by sleeping in rollers the night before, but the heat, humidity, and fast/windy rides had done a number on them... She was to spend a LONG time with a curling iron getting them back in order. My attire was much easier with the most difficult part deciding which of the four trilbys I had brought would work best for the evening. I settled on the gray straw one. (I would wear all but my black one over the weekend).

We headed down to the lobby and then made our way over to the Hearthstone Lounge. I recognized Tom Bell from the DisUnplugged as soon as I walked in, and DizMe and Disneyluvr2 were NOT to be missed. We chatted as more arrived, and after a long wait were finally able to place our drink orders. I'd go with a Manhattan and the Amy would have a Sidecar. The place was PACKED, and it was extremely difficult to get a server's attention.

Several more dapper Disers joined us, including Vintage Mouseketeer and her daughter, Lcasa, her daughter, granddaughter, and son-in-law, as well as two of the other hosts of the DisUnplugged, Tony Spittell and Mary Jo Mellado Willey. Sadly Nancy Johnson wouldn't make it. We chatted about all of the outfits, the parks, the podcast, and took some pics. After another Manhattan, everybody was getting ready to go their separate ways, and the wife and I headed towards DCA around 18:00

Pictured above, Left to Right: Disneyluvr2, Lcasa, her granddaughter, her son-in-law, her daughter, Vintage Mouseketeer and her daughter, myself, my wife, Amy, and DizMe (thanks to Mary Jo for operating my camera for the group shot)

 

[whoever]

We entered DCA, and made our way towards Carthay. We had about an hour to spend before the Micechat Meet. We found ourselves in the queue for Soarin' at 18:05. It had probably been since 2010 or 2011 since I had done Soarin' so it was a welcome opportunity. The queue was fairly short, and we got a front-row, middle seating position. The movie was really showing its age, and needs an upgrade in a bad way. There was dust on the film reels which could be seen projected, and the smells weren't working. I thought that it was going down for a newly shot sequence and digital upgrade (yes, I realize the resolution on digital is actually a step backwards). Guess not.

Twenty-seven minutes after we entered the queue, we were off, and continued heading towards Carthay. We stopped for some pics at the Partner's statue. The Disney photog did pretty well with my setup. They did a photo pass shot for me too, but I doubt it’s any better than what they shot on my camera. After that, it was getting pretty close to the time to go meet up with the MiceChat crew, so we headed towards Paradise Garden Grill to find everybody.

We made our way through, and as we were leaving to do a second loop, in they came. Joe, Theresa, and Ian, accompanied by Jacob, Kelly and Sean with Sophia, and Steve with his two daughters, Mikayla and Samantha. Cassie also showed up a bit later with her niece, Sarah. Dawn and Hudson also showed up a bit later.

 

[Disneyluvr2]

Great trip report whoever!! It was so fun meeting you and Amy and the reset of the DISers. Amy did a great job on her dress and your vest. You both looked amazing in your Dapper attire!

 

[whoever]

After we all ate, we took some pics, chatted for a long while, and then debated which attractions to go on and who was going. The little ones were getting tired, so Cassie and her niece called it a night along with Sean and Sophia, Theresa and Ian, and Jacob.

For those keeping count, that left us with Joe, Kelly, Steve and his two daughters, Dawn and Hudson, and the wife and I. We headed over to Tower of Terror to get a good group attraction photo. When we arrived, the posted wait time was I believe 70 minutes. I had never waited in the outside queue for this ride before, and didn't actually even realize it existed I guess, but it is large, long, and extensive. I forgot to keep track, but I'm fairly certain based upon camera timestamps that it was around 21:00 when we entered the queue. We had a great time chatting in the queue, and the ride had its ups and downs (queue cheesy drum solo).

We were off TOT at 22:25, and wondering what to do next. Disneyland was clearly the only option as DCA was well past closed by now. BTMRR seemed the perfect way to end the night, and off we went. We were also now down to Joe, Kelly, Steve and his daughters, and my wife and I.

We arrived at BTMRR and got in the queue at 22:50. The queue was pretty darn long, extending all the way over to Rancho Zocalo. It was going to be a long wait I could tell. I really love BTMRR at night. I think the effects take on a whole new perspective when your eyes aren't trying to transition from light to dark continuously. You do miss out on some of the exterior practical effects, but the interior scenes are so much better at night. It would end up taking us 40 minutes to make our way through the queue and to take our run-away train ride. Afterwards, it was time for Steve, Mikayla, and Samantha to hit the road. They had a long drive ahead of them, and it wasn't getting any easier the longer they stayed. We said our good byes, and the four of us looked at each other wondering what was to be the next adventure.

After about 3 seconds of pondering, we decided Splash was going to be a MUST DO to round out the night. We headed over and got in the queue. We were moving a bit slow with the girls in heals and me being going non-stop most of the day. There was literally no line, and as soon as we walked through the queue, we boarded our log. The ride was great as usual (I'm a huge splash fan, with my eldest and I holding our personal record of 12 consecutive rides through it one night). At the last drop, we got a bit wet, but not too bad all things considered. As we rounded into the loading area, the CM's asked "Again?" to which we all screamed YES!!! We were off again. This time, we got stuck by Brear Bear's house in a log jam. We took the time to make shadow puppets on the wall next to the log before the jam was cleared and we were off. Our second drop of the night was NOT quite as dry as the first. I think tsunami best describes it. We were SOAKED. Upon exiting the ride Joe was seen POURING water out of his shoes. The girls weren't going to make it home in soaking wet heals, so they had to end up doing a little barefoot up until about Main Street. I fared the best of the bunch being in the back of the log and only had my left leg and shoe completely soaked. Amy also lost one of the feathers out of her hat on that last drop/tidal wave.

At 00:23, we limped through the turnstiles and made our way back to the Grand. We paused in the lobby, said our goodbyes wishing each other a great rest of our stay and hoping we'd see each other before too long. The wife and I were in bed, and fast asleep a mere 20 minutes after leaving the park... it was going to be another early morning with an EMH for Disneyland.

 

[whoever]

Great trip report whoever!! It was so fun meeting you and Amy and the reset of the DISers. Amy did a great job on her dress and your vest. You both looked amazing in your Dapper attire!

Thanks!!! It was great meeting you as well. I hope to run into you again on one of our coming trips!!!

This TR is just getting started... I've got two more action-packed days to get posted up, and some 33 goodness to review.

 

[crystal1313]

Loving your TR as usual. I love you and your wife's outfits!

 

[whoever]

One last thing I forgot to add but just remembered. As we were walking out, we posed for a group photo in front of the train station with the Mickey flowers in the background. Then a group asked us to take their picture...... with an iPhone. Joe and I looked at this device incredulously, as I attempted to operate it. Here we go.... nope, extra dark... let's try again.... same results.... Is there a flash on this thing? Yes, I located it.... now the scene is a grayish haze... their lens must be immensely scratched or dirty... I clean it and try again... same results.... Joe tries to time his speedlite to me taking the pic.... we are not successful.... I hope they can save those pics in post-processing. I was ready to just take a real picture and give them my email and tell them to email me for a link to the pic. I can appreciate not wanting to lug around a camera in the parks, but I can also recognize that a cellphone isn't going to take a pic in the dark. I hope the best for them with their final picture in the park.

 

[DizMe]

Love all of your details and beautiful pictures!!! I had so much fun meeting you and Mrs. Who. You guys looked amazing as usual and huge nods to the dress and hat your wife made

BTW, I love the expressions on her face on Screamin'!

Can't wait to read the rest of your report.

 

[whoever]

Love all of your details and beautiful pictures!!! I had so much fun meeting you and Mrs. Who. You guys looked amazing as usual and huge nods to the dress and hat your wife made

THanks so much!! Appreciate it, and you looked Mah-vel-ous yourself.

BTW, I love the expressions on her face on Screamin'!

Heck, that's just Goofy's Sky School. Wait for the Screamin' pics...

Can't wait to read the rest of your report.

Working on the pics for day two right now.

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

Sounds like you guys had a good time.

I was there solo on Friday, man was it hot. Felt bad for everyone dressed up, most seemed to show up late afternoon to early evening. It was so packed over at DL after the fireworks I couldn't take any photos with my tripod-I know first world problems. Camera was knocked over twice while i was attempting photos (I was able to grab the tripod both times)-so I left around 10.

 

[Disneyluvr2]

Sounds like you guys had a good time.

I was there solo on Friday, man was it hot. Felt bad for everyone dressed up, most seemed to show up late afternoon to early evening. It was so packed over at DL after the fireworks I couldn't take any photos with my tripod-I know first world problems. Camera was knocked over twice while i was attempting photos (I was able to grab the tripod both times)-so I left around 10.

We had friends that tried to enter Disneyland after the fireworks and the line was almost all the way back to DCA! Crazy busy!!

Sitting on pins and needles waiting for more TR!! Where are you whoever??

 

[whoever]

I'm still working on the pics from day 2. I was up until almost midnight going through and post-processing them. I'll finish them tonight and start my write ups and post as I go. I'll get at least a segment or two up tonight.

 

[petals]

joining in. Luvin all your pics. The little coffin cake looks so cute

 

[whoever]

After the late night, we were a little bit slow rising. Without the kids to force us up, it was a rough rise and shine. Disneyland was an 08:00 EMH, and we didn't get into the Esplanade until 07:45. That was going to put us behind quite a few people for rope-drop.

By 07:50 we were waiting for rope drop.

They were doing quite a bit of work even during the morning opening. The smell of fresh sprayed paint was overwhelming the smellerators on Main Street.

After we made our way to Peter Pan, there was a small group of people standing there looking confused. They informed us that PP was going to be a 5 minute wait until it was ready... turns out it was only 2 minutes, but that 2 minutes resulted in a LONG line.. (check out Stan Lee in the black with a white hat)

By 08:10 we were off Peter and headed towards Alice. We got there and the queue was EMPTY... it was 101 and wouldn't be back up for a few, so on to Matterhorn after a short debate about what to do next.

 

[whoever]

After a brief wait (they closed the Tomorrowland side of the ride while we were in that queue and funneled us into the Fantasyland side queue) we had our EXTREMELY rough/bumpy/painful ride. They really need to either smooth out the track or get bobsleds with actual padding. I can't believe its gone this long without remedy. We got off at 08:33, and headed back towards Alice. Alice was up and running, but the queue was FULL... and even extending out the end, past the drinking fountains, and to the door of the Mad Hatter. We jumped in line and started the wait.