My thoughts from a quick trip

[shaws2003]

Just a few thoughts from my quick (and first ever) trip to DLR.

Background: We are WDW veterans, three 10 day trips between 2003-2009 with kids, and a few trips BC (Before Children) with DW, so I am familiar with the ways of Disney.

I had 2 days, Monday June 9th I was solo while the wife was in conference, and we toured together Tuesday

My post game talks with my youth sports teams start with what needs improvement, and I finish with the positives

I'll start with the breakdowns. I knew, thanks to the countless hours on the disboards that they were imminent, but I didn't expect the extent to which I experienced them.
I knew the rehabs and everyone has to deal with them no matter what time of year you visit. On this visit, Nemo, SM, Alice, and GRR in CA were down. No problem, I've never been to WDW without rehabs either
IJA, in the FIRST car of the day, we broke down for almost 20 minutes
SWSA broke down, while I was in the queue
POTC broke down for 20 minutes while we were in the last scene. The "A Pirates Life For Me" song will probably haunt me for a while
CS broke down and was not running for both days I was there. This one was hard for me, I am a coaster junkie and couldn't wait to ride it.
MFW. I got to ride it Monday, but was down Tuesday so the wife didn't get to ride.
BLAB broke down. This one was to our advantage as they were JUST reopening the ride when we walked by putting us on one of the first cars out!
Bottom line, I was was very surprised at all the breakdowns.

Grad Nights. I have a DS12 and a DD17 so kids are not an inconvenience to me. The kids were well behaved and I didn't see any incidents, but it did add to the crowd immensely, especially on Tuesday when it was EMH. We've been to WDW during Pop Warner/cheerleading week, and never experienced the crowds that Grad night added to DLR

Now for the positives
The people of DLR were extremely nice. Never once did I experience a rude CM and any interaction I had with them was great
Single Rider was a lifesaver especially on my first day when I was solo. The wife and I used it and it saved us a LOT of time
I loved that IASW queued and unloaded outside.
Wide right for RSR was a perfect plan. We were at the rope and stayed right the whole way and were maybe 20th to ride.
The park was very clean and spotless. Very Disney-esque
I didn't enjoy an adult beverage, it didn't fit into my plan, but I thought that it was cool (As long as people didn't get carried away with it!)
Thank you for not emptying me into the gift shop at the exit of every ride!

All in all, I got in almost every ride offered at DLR and CA and I enjoyed every bit of my 2 days in the park. I'm not sure If I'll ever get back out on the left coast, much less to DLR again, but thank you all for helping make the experience worth it!

-Sam

 

[Cheshirecatty]

So, so glad that you had a wonderful trip, in spite of the refurbs, and breakdowns---what a great attitude!

It's wonderful that reading up on the Boards helped/prepared you for lots of things, and happy for you that you felt the trip was worth it, even though you missed out on a few thing, and had some inconveniences!

 

[Midnightred]

That's funny about the "gift shop" part, my DH noticed that about WDW and he had never visited a Disney Park before! I told him DL was not like that. I agree with the too many breakdowns part. We were stuck on Peter Pan for most of our Magic Morning. The lights were on and it ruined my favorite ride! It seems as though we are hearing about it happening more frequently. BTW, I have made one trip to WDW, and 6 trips to DLR.

Midnightred

 

[DznyPrnces]

I've been going to Disneyland once or twice a year my whole life and I just had to look up your acronyms. Lol

It's funny how things work, because we were there last week (Tuesday 6/3 and Wednesday 6/4) and nothing broke down that we are aware of. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, it just didn't happen to us.

 

[smiles33]

We were there 6/7-6/10 and in addition to the breakdowns you mentioned, Goofy's broke down while DD8 and I were on it (thankfully, our car was on a flat part that was easy for us to climb down from and then walk down the stairs). Another car was positioned at the top of a bump and they had to bring a ladder for them to climb down out of their car! Yikes. Luckily, it was our third time on the ride so I wasn't too disappointed. Plus, we were able to use the special pass to go on TSMM! Did you get one, too, for the rides you got stuck on?

CS and TSMM were both down on both of our EMH days on Sunday and Monday, which really frustrated me as we sped walked our way over there, intending to just use FP for RSR (I have a 5 year old, so we can't do SR). On the first day, we didn't know TSMM was down until right when we were about to get in line! On the second day, I stopped and asked at an Information podium at the entrance to Carsland and the CM said it was open. But as we approached the bridge near Ariel's Grotto, a bunch of CM in TSMM outfits told us that it and CS were closed again. It still wasted some of our precious EMG minutes, but at least they came to the beginning of the bridge so we didn't have to walk all the way to TSMM. But ultimately we wasted the entire EMH on both days waiting in line for RSR. Sigh. Oh well, at least we got to get FP for subsequent rides later in the day.

 

[Albertan mom]

What do you mean by wide right for rsr?

 

[smiles33]

What do you mean by wide right for rsr?

Search for it here on the Disneyland side of the DISBoards. It basically means you stay to the right of the crowd when walking down Buena Vista toward Carsland, as CMs will start to "herd" the crowd so folks on the left side get pushed to merge behind those on the right. If you are at the front of the group at rope drop and remain on the far right side of the crowd, you should manage to walk right onto the ride.