PTR-Cheating on Mickey w/Harry!...OMG! Only a month to go!

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

A topiary in progress of Francesco Bernoulli.

Here is a view of the HA loading area from the front of the queue. Now the whole time the ride is playing, Italian music is piped in over the speakers, stuff like “That’s Amore” and other Italian favorites which of course I can’t remember right now!

When you get to this point, the CMs pick out the next group of riders and have them stand around the “L”. Here they instruct you on how to “move” your tire. Pretty much everyone needs to lean the same direction to go that way, if you aren’t all in agreement, then the tire will be at a standstill.

I loved these topiaries

Here we are waiting to load.

Here they are bringing in our tire. You see to load the ride, you must have the capability to step from the ground over the cushion of air onto the platform of the tire. You can’t see it here, but the “tire” is really inflated air and can not be stepped on. Luckily they have a model out front where you can try to get in and out before you get to the ride. Arline was able to get ON the tire OK, but there was no way she could get off without stepping on the edges, so after we discovered that they gave her a special boarding lanyard that let her into the HA queue for the special boarding area.

So with the special boarding area, people with mobility issues are able to simply walk on to their flying tire.

These are the gates that they open up to load the tire.

Here we are on our tire!

This was the craziness…I suggest if you have the chance grab a ball on your way out because it took me the entire ride to snag a ball and throw it at someone!

And then we were done. Everyone had to exit the ride. Then they “repowered up” the air jets, they moved us into the HA loading area, and we disembarked. I think there was a party after us, which actually might have sped things up since the craft was already loaded, but I was so focused on making sure Arline didn’t fall on her way to the scooter that I really didn’t notice.

As we were on our way out of the ride Made was making his way back to the Cozy cone for another photo op.

I had to again remark on these lovely taillight flowers growing in the gardens.

With that we were nearing our patience and stamina’s end. (Remember I had only eaten some pretzel bits halfway through the day, and no one else had ANY food, so we were verging on tired and cranky), I did however stop before we left to get a souvenir cup, but we’ll get to that later, since we were keen to head out of the Park (sort of).

Our last shots of Carsland, and we were on our way.

 

[dgbg100106]

Very cool ride, so you are really riding a tire filled with Air! This is cool!

 

[franandaj]

Very cool ride, so you are really riding a tire filled with Air! This is cool!

They also pump air through the floor which is what gives the tires their "lift". Once the ride is over all the able bodied people leave the ride surface, and then they turn the "floor air" back on and that makes the tire buoyant enough for the CMs to come and push you back to the HA loading area. Once the tire is in the load area, they turn off the floor air and let the next group board.

 

[kmedina]

I can't imagine what it was like when you were there. I heard that they ran out of the souvenir cups, I bet that was a big draw for the lines there. If people couldn't get those, I bet they didn't care about waiting in the lines. I'll post a picture of mine in the next update (or maybe two).

I asked about the cones. They ran out on opening day (June 15, 2012), because people were buying in excess of 10 at a time. The estimated arrival date for the reorder is July 15, 2012. It will be much longer than that before I get mine. I did get a lightning bucket for our popcorn, which was neat.

More excellent shots. Crap and Xander waited in line for over 75 minutes. As soon as they entered the tires, the ride went down. They made everyone exit and re-enter once they restarted it. It even took me a while to get on using the rider swap pass. He did not want to ride at all the second day we were there. All together, it took us an hour and 45 minutes to finish riding. It was fun but not worth a wait that long.

 

[Pinkocto]

What fun! Thanks for the tip if the the line is in the showroom. I just can't get over the detailing of everything, it's fabulous.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Love the mosaic! Thanks for sharing. Looks like CL is a lot of fun and lots of details to take in.

 

[franandaj]

I asked about the cones. They ran out on opening day (June 15, 2012), because people were buying in excess of 10 at a time. The estimated arrival date for the reorder is July 15, 2012. It will be much longer than that before I get mine. I did get a lightning bucket for our popcorn, which was neat.

More excellent shots. Crap and Xander waited in line for over 75 minutes. As soon as they entered the tires, the ride went down. They made everyone exit and re-enter once they restarted it. It even took me a while to get on using the rider swap pass. He did not want to ride at all the second day we were there. All together, it took us an hour and 45 minutes to finish riding. It was fun but not worth a wait that long.

That's NUTS, both the running out of the cones and the wait you had for LFT! I'm glad that I waited in the line to get my little cone. Everyone was walking around with them, so I HAD to have one. In Al Lutz's report he said that they waaaaaaay underestimated demand for merchandise, and will be totally scrambling for the rest of the year to keep the shelves filled.

What fun! Thanks for the tip if the the line is in the showroom. I just can't get over the detailing of everything, it's fabulous.

They really raised the bar on this one, I had high expectations after the D23 Expo session on Carsland. John Lasseter really put his creative direction into this one and had an awesome team to execute it. I bet the new Fantasyland will be equally stunning now that Disney has raised the bar so high. I've seem some reports on the "Be Our Guest" restaurant and it sounds really fabulous, I bet the Beast's Castle will be just as detailed. I'm thinking we will want to go there for lunch, they're going to have a Croque Monsieur and a Steak Sandwich both served with Pomme Frites, that doesn't help you, but you will probably like the Salmon they serve at dinner.

Love the mosaic! Thanks for sharing. Looks like CL is a lot of fun and lots of details to take in.

In the Expo seminar, they mentioned that Luigi's Tires would have an Italian flair to it, hence the topiaries and the mosiac. The whole queue was very clever and did help soothe the wait time. However as I've found with Star Tours that only works for the first few rides. While I still love the queue for new Star Tours, now that I've seen all the droids and their routines several times I'm just anxious to get on the ride. Since the topiaries aren't interactive they will get old after I've been on the ride several times!

 

[Pinkocto]

Ooohhh, I havn't even thought about a meal in the new castle yet. Have you heard when everything will be open? I need to go do some investigating. I'm hoping some more will be open for September and even more for my December trip. I'll try to find something so I don't end up disappointed, hoping for too much. Somebody mentioned the mine roller coaster won't be open until 2014, which I hope won't be the case.

 

[franandaj]

Ooohhh, I havn't even thought about a meal in the new castle yet. Have you heard when everything will be open? I need to go do some investigating. I'm hoping some more will be open for September and even more for my December trip. I'll try to find something so I don't end up disappointed, hoping for too much. Somebody mentioned the mine roller coaster won't be open until 2014, which I hope won't be the case.

The Disney food blog released a "chapter" on Be Our Guest today. It was allover FB, so I read all about the menu today. You might luck out for your December trip.

 

[rentayenta]

Okay, I so need to ride the tire ride as I can't figure out what it really is doing. And do those big balls have to do with anything?

 

[franandaj]

Okay, I so need to ride the tire ride as I can't figure out what it really is doing. And do those big balls have to do with anything?

It's like bumper cars, modeled after the flying saucer ride they took out of Disneyland in the 60's. You try and maneuver around the surface and toss the balls between the various cars. Most people grabbed a ball on their way to their tire, but we didn't start out with one so we spent the whole ride chasing beach calls trying to pick one up. When I finally got one and tosses it towards some other riders, the ride ended. It would be fun with your family in two or three cars trying to hit each other with the beach balls.

 

[dgbg100106]

They also pump air through the floor which is what gives the tires their "lift". Once the ride is over all the able bodied people leave the ride surface, and then they turn the "floor air" back on and that makes the tire buoyant enough for the CMs to come and push you back to the HA loading area. Once the tire is in the load area, they turn off the floor air and let the next group board.

Very cool....

 

[rentayenta]

It's like bumper cars, modeled after the flying saucer ride they took out of Disneyland in the 60's. You try and maneuver around the surface and toss the balls between the various cars. Most people grabbed a ball on their way to their tire, but we didn't start out with one so we spent the whole ride chasing beach calls trying to pick one up. When I finally got one and tosses it towards some other riders, the ride ended. It would be fun with your family in two or three cars trying to hit each other with the beach balls.

Oh ok! I could not figure it out. I'm a little young to remember the similar ride from the 60's. Was it fun?


Hope you're enjoying your Friday and have a nice weekend.

 

[franandaj]

Oh ok! I could not figure it out. I'm a little young to remember the similar ride from the 60's. Was it fun?


Hope you're enjoying your Friday and have a nice weekend.

Remember, I'm the one who didn't get to Disneyland until 1973.

No good weekend for me. We have a 4 hr rehearsal tomorrow and a big concert production Sunday.

 

[Leshaface]

Thanks for explaining what those beach balls are for. I had no idea what they were doing in there in the first place and they looked so out of place with the rest of the theming!

 

[franandaj]

99 days until WDW!!!!​

97 days until the vacation!

Double Digit Dance!​

 

[Leshaface]

99 days until WDW!!!!​

97 days until the vacation!

Double Digit Dance!​

YAY!

 

[Pinkocto]

DOUBLE DIGIT DANCE!!!

 

[franandaj]

I forgot to mention this here, but I booked the Chef's Dinner at the Flying Fish Cafe for October 11. It will be our second night on Disney property. We'll be at the VWL so it will be a trek. They haven't set the price yet, but it's called Viva Italia and will feature wines from the top producing regions of Italy. Also some of the Jamborinis will be there too, should be fun.

 

[franandaj]

Thanks for explaining what those beach balls are for. I had no idea what they were doing in there in the first place and they looked so out of place with the rest of the theming!

It took me a while to figure it out, but since the queue went for so long and it was very slow loading, we had a long time to watch the previous riders.