WonkaKid
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2009
Yesterday was the best visit I’ve had to DL in quite some time for several reasons. At the rope, I met a nice family from Washington and the couple that accompanied me on the dash to Indiana Jones was also cool and kind. One of them was a fellow Chicagoan.
Rope drop was slightly unusual. At 7:55 CMs took the rope down – a few minutes earlier than what’s typical -- and had us wait until 8:00. However, on the Frontierland side, we all saw guests begin to stream in at 7:57. Several of us pointed this out to the CMs handling the drop but they asked that we wait. I recall one nearby guest saying “You’re gonna have a riot on your hands!” I shared her feelings if not her choice of words ;-). As we continued to watch guests flow in like a swollen river that’s been dosed with a laxative, a few of us could no longer tolerate the inequity and took off. Shortly after that, another CM intervened and had us wait until the safety announcement had finished. Then we were allowed in. Aside: later I returned to that area and located one of the CMs who’d worked the rope. I apologized for stepping off early. I explained that I and a few others had simply gotten caught up in the frenzy. The principle of scarcity be real ;-).
I was first on IJ and chatted with the couple behind me both before and after the ride. I still love the new effects. They’re a great improvement over the previous ones.
After IJ, I went to POTC, which was still a walk-on. That was another treat and, in fact, I got my own boat! I don’t think that’s ever happened before. Or at least not in a long time.
Shortly after POTC, I observed my usual Sunday Buzz ritual (i.e. obsession). On my first ride, I scored 2,003,100. I’d lost count and stopped shooting early because I thought I’d scored closer to 2,080,000. I was pleased with this as a first score… until I reached the photo kiosk and found that “NAP” was already well ahead of me with 2,083,400. I’ve yet to meet “NAP” but he’s beaten me a few times in recent weeks. As I exited the ride for the first time, a CM I know said to me “Rob, you’ve got some competition today.” She was vaguely acquainted with NAP and described him to me. I kept an eye out to say hello but never saw him. Perhaps next week. In any case, I later scored 2,092,500 and snatched the first-place spot from him. As I've explained several times before, that's a hard score to beat for three main reasons. 1: It's simply difficult to get a score that high. 2: Once your score exceeds about 2,097,000, it resets and you lose everything. It's happened to me countless times. 3. Scores on the cruizer displays only show 999999 once one million is passed. So you have to try to keep track in your head, which isn't always easy. In short, the closer a score is to 2,097,000, the smaller the score target is that you have to hit. You can see from the leaderboard pic below that NAP and I seem to be fairly matched, Buzz-wise.
Often at the park I’ll see guests trying to take a group pic with one of them holding the cam. I’ll usually offer to help and did so about eight times yesterday. Earlier in the day I happened upon a pair of girls from Japan (Osaka, actually). I took two years of Japanese in college and was able to ask them some basic questions. I tell visitors from Japan that our Disneyland is my favorite and Tokyo’s is my second favorite. One of my challenges with Japanese is that – like most people, I suspect – I was taught formal Japanese. Nearly always when I ask a question to visitors, their reply will be in informal Japanese, which often I don’t understand.
As I walked past Jungle Cruise at around noon, I could see that the line was short. The sign indicated that it was a ten-minute wait. It turned out to be more like three. That’s an unusually short wait for JC at that time.
Another nice thing: I rode Space Mountain as a single rider at around 10:30. When I entered, both the SR and standby lines were super short – only about eight people in each. I wondered if the ride had been down and had just reopened. Never got an answer. But I spoke with the girl behind me and she agreed that lines were oddly short. It took me about 90 seconds from the time I walked in until I boarded.
Nothing but good luck yesterday. Still no postcards available anywhere, though. Or at least none of the simple single ones that show the castle or Mickey. The few that they do have are artistic renderings and are around $7 apiece. I’m looking to spend no more than two bucks. Like I used to.
I saw several ducklings throughout the day. A few pics below.
Incidentally, I’m house-sitting for a friend in Calabasas, which made my drive to DL yesterday twice as long as usual – sixty miles versus thirty. In the afternoon, it took me nearly 2.5 hours to drive home! But it was worth it, of course. Calabasas is fantastic and we’re only eight miles from Malibu. I got up early this morning and took a friend’s dog to the beach there. He loved it! I’ll head back this evening. I’d hoped to see dolphins but no luck. That’s the first time that I’ve been to Malibu that early and haven’t seen them.
I’ve got maps, if anyone would like a set.
Park pics aplenty.
Rope drop was slightly unusual. At 7:55 CMs took the rope down – a few minutes earlier than what’s typical -- and had us wait until 8:00. However, on the Frontierland side, we all saw guests begin to stream in at 7:57. Several of us pointed this out to the CMs handling the drop but they asked that we wait. I recall one nearby guest saying “You’re gonna have a riot on your hands!” I shared her feelings if not her choice of words ;-). As we continued to watch guests flow in like a swollen river that’s been dosed with a laxative, a few of us could no longer tolerate the inequity and took off. Shortly after that, another CM intervened and had us wait until the safety announcement had finished. Then we were allowed in. Aside: later I returned to that area and located one of the CMs who’d worked the rope. I apologized for stepping off early. I explained that I and a few others had simply gotten caught up in the frenzy. The principle of scarcity be real ;-).
I was first on IJ and chatted with the couple behind me both before and after the ride. I still love the new effects. They’re a great improvement over the previous ones.
After IJ, I went to POTC, which was still a walk-on. That was another treat and, in fact, I got my own boat! I don’t think that’s ever happened before. Or at least not in a long time.
Shortly after POTC, I observed my usual Sunday Buzz ritual (i.e. obsession). On my first ride, I scored 2,003,100. I’d lost count and stopped shooting early because I thought I’d scored closer to 2,080,000. I was pleased with this as a first score… until I reached the photo kiosk and found that “NAP” was already well ahead of me with 2,083,400. I’ve yet to meet “NAP” but he’s beaten me a few times in recent weeks. As I exited the ride for the first time, a CM I know said to me “Rob, you’ve got some competition today.” She was vaguely acquainted with NAP and described him to me. I kept an eye out to say hello but never saw him. Perhaps next week. In any case, I later scored 2,092,500 and snatched the first-place spot from him. As I've explained several times before, that's a hard score to beat for three main reasons. 1: It's simply difficult to get a score that high. 2: Once your score exceeds about 2,097,000, it resets and you lose everything. It's happened to me countless times. 3. Scores on the cruizer displays only show 999999 once one million is passed. So you have to try to keep track in your head, which isn't always easy. In short, the closer a score is to 2,097,000, the smaller the score target is that you have to hit. You can see from the leaderboard pic below that NAP and I seem to be fairly matched, Buzz-wise.
Often at the park I’ll see guests trying to take a group pic with one of them holding the cam. I’ll usually offer to help and did so about eight times yesterday. Earlier in the day I happened upon a pair of girls from Japan (Osaka, actually). I took two years of Japanese in college and was able to ask them some basic questions. I tell visitors from Japan that our Disneyland is my favorite and Tokyo’s is my second favorite. One of my challenges with Japanese is that – like most people, I suspect – I was taught formal Japanese. Nearly always when I ask a question to visitors, their reply will be in informal Japanese, which often I don’t understand.
As I walked past Jungle Cruise at around noon, I could see that the line was short. The sign indicated that it was a ten-minute wait. It turned out to be more like three. That’s an unusually short wait for JC at that time.
Another nice thing: I rode Space Mountain as a single rider at around 10:30. When I entered, both the SR and standby lines were super short – only about eight people in each. I wondered if the ride had been down and had just reopened. Never got an answer. But I spoke with the girl behind me and she agreed that lines were oddly short. It took me about 90 seconds from the time I walked in until I boarded.
Nothing but good luck yesterday. Still no postcards available anywhere, though. Or at least none of the simple single ones that show the castle or Mickey. The few that they do have are artistic renderings and are around $7 apiece. I’m looking to spend no more than two bucks. Like I used to.
I saw several ducklings throughout the day. A few pics below.
Incidentally, I’m house-sitting for a friend in Calabasas, which made my drive to DL yesterday twice as long as usual – sixty miles versus thirty. In the afternoon, it took me nearly 2.5 hours to drive home! But it was worth it, of course. Calabasas is fantastic and we’re only eight miles from Malibu. I got up early this morning and took a friend’s dog to the beach there. He loved it! I’ll head back this evening. I’d hoped to see dolphins but no luck. That’s the first time that I’ve been to Malibu that early and haven’t seen them.
I’ve got maps, if anyone would like a set.
Park pics aplenty.
.
