My first & Fantasmic solo trip report Nov. 17-21 2009

[KRIS10420]

So this is my first trip report and also my first trip going solo. DH said he has had enough Disney for a few lifetimes and everyone else has families and jobs to tend to. It never really occurred to me before that I could do Disney alone but after thinking about it, why not? I had some inhibitions about going alone, feeling awkward and out of place but not once did I feel that way. It was great to be able to do whatever whenever and had the benefits of using the single rider line and almost always being able to ride alone. I also chose the perfect week to go with beautiful weather, low crowds and the holiday decorations. So on with the report………..

I flew into John Wayne airport around 3:45pm on the 17th of November. This was a way more pleasant experience than going through LAX. I arrived at my hotel via the SuperShuttle at about 4:30pm. After checking in and putting my suit case in my room, I headed over to Downtown Disney.
The hotel I stayed at, Park Vue Inn, taken from underneath this picture ↓

I walked around a bit looking in the stores and at all the beautiful lights. I was feeling pretty hungry so I walked into the bar area of the Rainforest Café. I ordered a very yummy Rainbow Colada in an overpriced novelty cup, but what the heck, I’m on vacation right?
I ordered the Rasta Pasta, which was also quite good, and enjoyed the ambiance.

After checking out some more of the shops I went back to the hotel. I was exhausted from traveling all day........

 

[KRIS10420]

Nov 18

I was awake at 6:30am and excited to get going. The only problem was that the park doesn’t open until 10, Hmm….What to do? I showered and got ready, then went up to the breakfast area of the hotel for a bite to eat. They have a nice continental breakfast here.
I then headed over to Downtown Disney to get a coffee at the La Brea Bakery Café. This place doesn’t have plain old sugar, just Splenda and Aspartame crap. What is that about?
Wandered over to the DL gates and got in line, it was around 9am. After standing there for about 15 minutes I came to the realization that my park ticket was sitting on the bed back at the hotel. A lot of good it was going to do me over there. So back to the hotel I went and I was still back at the gates well before the opening of the park. I browsed through some shops while waiting for the rope to drop.

When the rope dropped it was a race to Space Mountain where I immediately grabbed a fastpass and walked right on; LOVE this ride! I then did Buzz Lighyear, Indiana Jones, Matterhorn x2, Thunder Mountain, Mr. Toads Wild Ride, Pinochio and Small World with the longest line being about 15 minutes on the Matterhorn. (This was my fourth trip to DL and my first time riding the Matterhorn, I have to say I like the left side better)

I went into Toon Town with the purpose of getting a pic with the Mouse. There wasn’t anyone in the house when I went through and ended up pretty much walking right in to meet Mickey. Two families came in behind me and must have thought I was a cast member or something because both families went right infront of me to get their pics done. This was actually okay cause then I got him all to myself.

Caught the train from Toon Town to New Orleans to take some pics and also walked on the POTC.

After this ride I was getting quite hungry so back to Tommorow Land for some pizza at Rockett’s Pizza Port. $10 for a piece of pizza and a pop, crazy, I don’t know how people feed their families here.
From here I headed back to Main St. where I proceeded to do my Mickey Mouse Christmas decoration shopping. My Christmas tree is all Mickey Mouse and ornaments are hard to find in Canada. So much cool stuff and such little suitcase room, oh how to choose.

cont. next post..........

 

[KRIS10420]

......Nov 18th continued

Back to the hotel with my treasures for a little rest. At 4:30pm I headed to DTD to advance purchase a ticket to see New Moon on the 20th, then back to the DL park. I found a great spot up at the train station to watch the parade.

After the last float rolled through I quickly got on the train that was just approaching the station and rode to New Orleans Square. Walked right into the Haunted Mansion then decided it was a good time to go take some pics of the castle and Small World all lit up. It’s so beautiful!

On to the Matterhorn then over to Space Mountain to use my fastpass. Found a spot near the hub and waited for the Fireworks to start. I love how it snows at the end, it just adds to the magic. I shuffled with the sea of people down Main St. and out of the park. I was thinking perhaps it was time to find some dinner but I really wasn’t all that hungry so I decided to get some guacamole and chips from Tortilla Joe’s. I had such a great day but I was tired and my legs were aching. I stopped at the ice cream shop at the hotel for some chocolate ice cream then off to bed I went.......

 

[KRIS10420]

Nov. 19

Today is DCA day and it’s a good thing cause the line up for DL was half way to DCA. The park was so empty, I walked right up to Mickey for a picture then over to Soarin to wait for the official opening of the park and the rides to begin.

Next over to Paradise Pier to do Screamin, Toy Story Mania(love this ride!) and Mulholland Madness (which IMO the scariest ride in the parks,I’ll take loopdeloops anyday). Decided to bypass Maliboomer as I wasn’t sure my stomach could take that today and also didn’t do Tower of Terror. Normally I’m all for TOT but not today.

I wandered in and out of shops working my way to the Hyperion Theatre to get in line for the Aladdin Musical. WOW! What an amazing show, I’m so glad I went and I don’t usually like musicals but I hadn’t heard one negative review of it so thought it must be worth seeing. Was it ever! I totally recommend seeing it if you are able.

Lunch was at the Asian place on Paradise Pier. I had the Beef Teriyaki with rice and found it to be ok, nothing special. However there was a lot of food there, enough for two people to share.

At this point I decided I had done everything I wanted to do in this park for now so I headed back to the hotel for a short break.

Back over to DL, first stop is for a Dole Whip. On the Disboards I’ve heard people rave about these, but for me it didn’t live up to it’s reputation, oh well it was another thing to check off my list.

I sauntered on over to Thunder Mountain with less than a 5 minute wait. I headed over to New Orleans Square to browse the shops and take some pics, on the way there I got caught up in the Tiana Parade to the Showboat, Yikes!

I went through all the shops and enjoyed the decorations, then headed over to Toon Town to see if I may be able to get another picture with the Mouse……..But when I got there it was packed so I turned around back to Main St. Did a little clothes shopping then back to the hotel as I had a dinner date with an aunt who lives close by. Chose the Rain Forest Café for dinner but had just a mediocre meal and was too noisy to talk, should have eaten in the bar area. I hadn’t seen her in at least ten years, we had a great visit......

 

[KRIS10420]

Nov. 20

Another beautiful day although I woke up at 5:30, ugh. After what seemed like forever, I finally drifted back to sleep but back awake at 7:30. I got up, showered and headed to DL. First stop – Space Mountain then Buzz Lightyear, Jungle Cruise (because it finally opened up from refurb), POTC(where I got a whole boat to myself), Winnie the Pooh, Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan and the Nemo Submarine ride; this was a cute ride and liked how they used the laser images to move along with the ride.

One small problem, at this point in the ride the sub stopped………..

……and stopped. The captain then tells us they are having some technical difficulties. Now this is not really the ride I want to be on when there is technical difficulties, but after sitting for at least 5 minutes, I’m thinking it was more than that, we finally carried on. I was so happy to get out of that sub and onto land. I had collected fastpass’ for SM, BL & TM in the morning.

I was getting hungry so I went over to the Pizza Port for lunch. When planning for this trip I had huge intentions of trying all kinds of good food, but it seams that when I go on holidays I lose my appetite and eat what’s familiar to me.

I jumped on the mono rail and got off in DTD. I had a ticket for the 1pm show of New Moon at the theatre. The movie was great and the seats reclined back to make it even more enjoyable. After the show I stopped into the World of Disney to pick up some more clothes. This store consumes a lot of your time, there is so much to see. Back to the hotel to freshen up.

I remembered that I wanted to ride Screamin when it’s dark and also take some night pics of DCA so off I went. I headed straight for the coaster and had maybe a five minute wait. Got some night pics in and headed back over to DL.

Had the roast beef dinner at the French Market; it was just ok, not terrible but nothing special. There must have been cheese in the mashed potatoes because they were really stringy.

Having some time to waste before I needed to stake out my spot for Fantasmic, I headed off to do the rides I had fastpass’ for, which turned out each of these rides had little to no lines.

It was time to go stake out a spot for Fantasmic so off I went. Coming out of Tomorrow Land was a sea of people watching the parade. I stopped to ponder how I was going to get to the other side when a castmember opened a section of the rope to let people cross, woohoo! I sat on the wall directly across from the middle light stand. After being there about a half hour a cast member came by and told those of us sitting there that at a certain time they were going to clear the wall, no sitting. That’s fine, a little closer to the time I’ll cross the path to the railing around the light stand. Minutes after thinking this a family showed up and parked themselves in front of the light stand so I had to go claim my spot. While sitting on the wall a cast member was telling people that the light tower rises up so if they stayed around it would be a good spot. I yelled over to the cast member and said “Hey! Don’t be telling everyone that, sheesh”, he laughed.
Fantasmic was late starting but it’s such a great show that hardly mattered. Trying to capture pictures when you are mesmerized by the show is not easy.

When the show was done I parked my butt down thinking I was going to let a lot of the crowd to thin before I attempted to leave. Shortly after the fireworks started, so I got some pictures of them from a different angle.
As it turns out, the middle light stand also doubles as the “snow” making machine. It was like a blizzard, everyone was covered in white.

I then slipped into the herd and shuffled my way to Main St. – Pre trip intentions was to stay until park closing, midnight, but I was really tired. I wanted to save buying sweets for the end of my trip so I didn’t have to pack it around or have open packages in my luggage. I ducked into the candy store on Main St. only to come to a quick halt. The store was packed and the line for the till was, well actually I never even looked for the end it was too long. Oh well I guess I won’t be buying sweets to take home so I took my last pic and left the park.

While I was sad to be leaving I was also ready to go home. I kept telling myself this trip that I will be back so I’ll do it next time. What a Fantastic trip!

 

[letthembelittle]

It looks like you had a wonderful trip!

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

You got a lot done! What a great trip for you. Are you planning on doing DLR solo more often now?

I would be freaked if Nemo stopped, even 5 minutes. I'm not a claustrophobic person, but I would not want to be stuck on that ride. Ewww!

 

[Eeee-va]

What a fun trip! I'm glad you had such a great time! Sorry you weren't feeling too well at DCA (I hate drops so I don't know if I'll ever make it on ToT ). And yes, the thought of being trapped on Nemo is pretty scary! I wonder how they'd evacuate? Have everyone jump into the lagoon?

That's rude of people to push by you when you're alone, but I've had that happen to me when I rode PotC alone...ah well.

Loved seeing your pictures too. Thanks for sharing!

 

[KRIS10420]

Thanks everyone, I had written out the report before hand and had all the pics ready to be inserted. Yes I am seriously considering making a solo trip every year, that's if I can't drag someone along
While trapped on the Nemo ride I happened to notice behind each seat is a floatation cushion that's when I started to get a bit more worried. I wonder if they've ever had to evacuate from POTC and how they do that?

 

[TKDizneyluver]

Hey Kris, great job on your TR!!!

I like the way you put your pictures together with the report!

I would definitely consider doing a solo trip if I had to, you made it seem like a piece of cake!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[goofycathy]

I really enjoyed reading your TR. I would love to do DL solo one day (in the far future, like when kids are grown and on their own lol) Love dyour pics too, definately makes me want to book a trip at Christmas time! thanks for being so detailed!

 

[KRIS10420]

Hey Kris, great job on your TR!!!

I like the way you put your pictures together with the report!

I would definitely consider doing a solo trip if I had to, you made it seem like a piece of cake!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Tammy! The whole trip was easier than I anticipated and the only time I wished someone was with me was on Toy Story Mania for the competition.

I really enjoyed reading your TR. I would love to do DL solo one day (in the far future, like when kids are grown and on their own lol) Love dyour pics too, definately makes me want to book a trip at Christmas time! thanks for being so detailed!

Thanks Cathy, it's funny you say it's so detailed, I actually shortened up some of it from the original draft

 

[Eeee-va]

Thanks everyone, I had written out the report before hand and had all the pics ready to be inserted. Yes I am seriously considering making a solo trip every year, that's if I can't drag someone along
While trapped on the Nemo ride I happened to notice behind each seat is a floatation cushion that's when I started to get a bit more worried. I wonder if they've ever had to evacuate from POTC and how they do that?

If you actually mean PotC it's happened before (I haven't been on, but I think there's even a bit of backstage footage from someone's evacuation on YouTube). Not entirely sure how it worked though. Nemo, I would think we'd have heard of an evacuation, since it would quite possibly involve rafts and/or getting wet.

 

[maddhatir]

Great TR Kris!! I think a solo trip would be both exciting and scary. Sounds like you made out just fine!

The only taste I ever got of being solo in a park was last year. SIL and my niece were sleeping in and I walked over to Epcot alone (from BWV) I really loved the feeling of being "alone" in the park.

Loved your pics!

 

[KRIS10420]

Thanks Madd The only other taste of solo I had was in WDW when DH was sick at the hotel so I went off to DTD to do some shopping and had such a great time.

 

[maddhatir]

ITA! It felt so relaxing! Not that DH hinders me in any way but it does feel nice to be alone for a little while.

I think the ONLY problem I would have (OK 2 problems) would be eating alone and I have a tendency to "scream like a little girl" (as DH says) when I am on ToT, RRC, Test Track etc. Not sure if I could scream all alone

 

[KRIS10420]

ITA! It felt so relaxing! Not that DH hinders me in any way but it does feel nice to be alone for a little while.

I think the ONLY problem I would have (OK 2 problems) would be eating alone and I have a tendency to "scream like a little girl" (as DH says) when I am on ToT, RRC, Test Track etc. Not sure if I could scream all alone

I know I screamed a few times and when I was on PotC and had a boat to myself I sang along the whole ride, it was awesome.
I was worried about eating alone but never felt uncomfortable even once, mind you DL/DCA is more counter service than table service so that may make a difference.

 

[roxy72]

Wow, you were so busy! When I've gone to the park alone, I get kind of sad. I wish I didn't feel that way, but I do.

I spent half the day at the park in March, after my family joined me for lunch at Club 33. I was tired and stayed a total of 12 hours straight in the parks. Never again!

Then, I spent the morning there alone on my birthday..waiting for my dad to finish up his conference call. Eating breakfast alone sucked, especially since my server was a jerk and didn't even say Happy BDay to me!

Oh well. I'm glad you had a good time. I just need to get better about enjoying the park alone.

 

[KRIS10420]

Wow, you were so busy! When I've gone to the park alone, I get kind of sad. I wish I didn't feel that way, but I do.

I spent half the day at the park in March, after my family joined me for lunch at Club 33. I was tired and stayed a total of 12 hours straight in the parks. Never again!

Then, I spent the morning there alone on my birthday..waiting for my dad to finish up his conference call. Eating breakfast alone sucked, especially since my server was a jerk and didn't even say Happy BDay to me!

Oh well. I'm glad you had a good time. I just need to get better about enjoying the park alone.

That's too bad you feel that way, maybe you need to go more often to get used to it That sucks your server didn't acknowledge your birthday, did you have a button? Wow, 12 consecutive hours in the parks is a little much, how tiring. I need to have a short break sometime during the day.
I know the first night there I started to get anxiety and wishing someone was with me but I had a little talk with myself, I was there to have fun and just go with it. After that I was completely oblivious to everything, in my own little world and had alot of fun. The only concrete plans I had were dinner with my aunt and the Aladdin show on the Thursday and New Moon, Jungle Cruise and Fantasmic on Friday. Other than that I just winged it, did whatever I felt like at the moment and kept the thought that if I didn't get to it this time then I will next time.