HydroGuy
A Pirate's Life For Me
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2005
- Messages
- 18,415
Our trip was over five days the last week of July. We were me, DW, DS18, DS17, DS15 and DS14. And DS18's GF18. We stayed at the GCH where we had two rooms for the seven of us. I got to sit on the balcony a few times and even spent an hour or two there in the early morning. But I wish I had more time on that balcony!
View From Our Room 5438 at the GCH
The weather. Oh the weather! As many of you know the weather in SoCal has been very unusual this summer and cool. Coastal areas have had a lot of "marine layer" - another word for annoying clouds. DLR is inland a bit and not as susceptible to marine layer. In any case we lucked out because reports in June and July said there had been lots of marine layer at DLR. Our first full day on Tuesday it was cloudy until 1PM. But Wednesday thru Friday the sun was shining in the morning and there were no clouds all day. It did not get as warm as usual - mostly in the mid to high 70's.
Sunset over the Matterhorn (I was trying to get the monorail here but in hindsight wish I had gotten the Matterhorn peak in the shot too)
The crowds...not bad at all in the morning and even mid-day but more crowded at night. See my crowd mini-report here.
Goodbye Star Tours! Never one of my top favorites but I did make it onto the last flight to Endor. ST closed on July 26 and I rode it that evening. Next summer with Star Tours 2 will be a fun upgrade I am sure.
We did the Segway tour at DCA and that was very cool. Big hit with my family. Kids have to be 16 so DS14 could not make it and got to sleep in. Our guide Tyler did a great job. I will write something up special on the Segway tour soon. See this link for DIS info on Segway.
I have never eaten at Club 33 but at least have been in thru the door now. I did a solo Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour at DL which takes you into the Club 33 lobby. There we got a mini-history lesson about Club 33. This tour was OK - I was hoping for a little more but it was not bad. Segway was more fun.
The Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour did make me more aware of some more hidden Mickey's. Have you ever noticed the hidden Mickey in POTC during the ship to shore battle scene? As you come through the scene there are shadows of sword fighters up above and on the left as you make the turn into town. One of the sword fighters that comes in and out has mouse ears! I never noticed that before but now it is so obvious!
Captain EO was way better than I remember it from the 80's. Why did I dislike it back then? It is a fun attraction and worth doing. We had to drag kids to see it but after they wanted to do it again - but we never made it back. I hope is still there next trip.
Finding Nemo Sub Voyage is a pretty good ride. Until this trip I had only ridden it once - about 2 weeks after it opened in June 2007. And was a bit disappointed. Every time we have tried to ride it since then the line was too long and we skipped it. This trip I rode it twice more. I really wanted to ride it at night but the lines were still a little too long. So both rides were in the morning. One was first ride during MM and the second was during the first hour after MM on a different day. FNSV is not a great ride but it is not quite the disappointment I remember from 2007.
World of Color was spectacular. Ariel's Grotto food for WOC preferred dining was very good (first time at AG). See my World of Color review here.
DCA is shifting in crowds and how it feels to be there. We were there late at night three times thru Glow Fest and back to ToT. See my DCA musings here.
First time we ate at Plaza Inn and for a buffeteria-style place the food is very good. We will go back there.
DLR should consider an age (or height) limit on single rider (SR) lines. Five of us rode Splash one day and there was a father with two young kids in the SR line. One of his sons about eight-years-old got put in the back of our log and I felt sorry for him. He looked sad and lonely back there. I think kids should be at least 12 before they can do SR. And parents should not do that to their young kids.
Indy SR works great. I tried it for the first time on my final morning when I ventured out solo. You get to skip the pre-show and walk all the way up to the jeep vehicles. Then they direct you to an elevator to get you into the loading area.
Abe Lincoln was sparsely attended but worth doing. We did. Kids liked it better than they expected.
GRR at night is a lot of fun. We rode it twice as a walk-on one night at 9PM. Nobody got drenched but we all got wet.
Tigger Tails! Wow! Never had one before. So I got one for everyone to try. Everyone was mildly interested. After trying it they wanted another one. On the final day DS18 and GF18 made a special trip back to Pooh Corner to get still another one. Deceptively yummy! Much better than Dole Whips - which I do like but not as much as Tigger Tails. Now.
The Aladdin show at DCA is just so good. It will be sad to see it leave.
Did the Maliboomer because it is going away this fall forever. Wanted to get on Mulholland Madness before it gets converted to Goofy's Sky Skool later this year but did not make it. I am sure GSS will be better. MM is not a very good ride.
The Fantasmic Reserved Dessert Seating worked well. Fantasmic is a great show at DL! We arrived at about 7:50PM for seat selection. It was nice to see the early 9:05 show instead of the later show we usually see. DS15 said afterwards that he really enjoyed the show but had never understood the story before. He has seen F! 3-4 times over the years. The dessert seating allowed a better view for him and all of us.
Dining out twice a day is too much food! Our first day we did Cafe Orleans for lunch at 11:30AM and then Tortilla Joe's at 6:30PM for dinner. And we had an ice cream in the afternoon. We could not eat even half the TJ food at dinner. We felt horrible! After that we tried hard to eat one of the meals light with shared plates and/or salads. For breakfast we did fruit and bagels and that worked great as usual.
Big Thunder Ranch BBQ was fun and filling (all-you-can-eat). Not great but a solid experience. Kids said they wanted to do it again next time.
We rode StoryBookLand Canal Boats at dusk! We have not done that for probably 10 years. Dusk is our favorite time but is often very crowded. When we came out of BTRBBQ at about 7:15PM DW said "Let's go ride Storybook land". I was aware it closed for the evening parade but thought it would have re-opened already. We got lucky! The current Celebrate Parade goes from MS to IASW in the evening and was just passing thru FL as we came up to SBLCB. And SBLCB was closed. We stayed in the area and the line re-opened at 7:20. We hopped right in and got on the second boat. So with Celebrate running twice a day the timing you want for SBLCB is 7:15PM for a ride at dusk - in the summer.
Got to go into Blue Sky Cellar for 20-30 minutes one day. Not as much stuff there as I was expecting but still worthwhile. CMs were not very busy and I talked to them for a 10-15 minutes. They talked to me about the model for LM and how things would work on the ride. Worth the time!
Nice shot of Space Mtn in the evening
With four boys we have never had a reason to go to the Princess Fantasy Faire. But with DS18's GF18 along we did. And the photo area had her favorite Princess - Belle. We went at 9AM when it opened. Just me, DW, DS18 and GF18. The other boys slept that morning as it was Day Four for them. We were wearing our tie-dye shirts again that day and the face paint ladies there did a paint job that matched each of our shirt colors. DW and GF18 got butterflies, I got a rocket and DS18 got a skull and cross-bones.
Staying at the GCH is oh so convenient. In the east wing where we stayed we had the fire escape short cut to go to DL and the special DCA entrance. The only time it was a bother was when we returned from DL and had to walk all the way to the lobby first. We did use the monorail several times mid-day to get back and forth to DL.
Why is it you never have enough time for all the things you want to do at DLR? On this trip I really wanted to do the Mission Tortilla tour and Boudin Bakery tour. Have never done either and still haven't. I wanted to ride the Mark Twain and see the Rivers of America re-work from the MT. Didn't make it. But we did do the Davy Crockett Canoes and got to see the ROA from that perspective. I wanted to get a portrait drawing of my kids. I wanted to see Magical fireworks.
At the DIS Meet on July 31 I got to meet
ImTooTiredToSleep
Funball
Webmaster Pete
YellowMickeyPonchos
oc Tony
Mortimer Mouse
plus some friends and spouses. And I WON THE PRIZE!
View From Our Room 5438 at the GCH
The weather. Oh the weather! As many of you know the weather in SoCal has been very unusual this summer and cool. Coastal areas have had a lot of "marine layer" - another word for annoying clouds. DLR is inland a bit and not as susceptible to marine layer. In any case we lucked out because reports in June and July said there had been lots of marine layer at DLR. Our first full day on Tuesday it was cloudy until 1PM. But Wednesday thru Friday the sun was shining in the morning and there were no clouds all day. It did not get as warm as usual - mostly in the mid to high 70's.
Sunset over the Matterhorn (I was trying to get the monorail here but in hindsight wish I had gotten the Matterhorn peak in the shot too)
The crowds...not bad at all in the morning and even mid-day but more crowded at night. See my crowd mini-report here.
Goodbye Star Tours! Never one of my top favorites but I did make it onto the last flight to Endor. ST closed on July 26 and I rode it that evening. Next summer with Star Tours 2 will be a fun upgrade I am sure.
We did the Segway tour at DCA and that was very cool. Big hit with my family. Kids have to be 16 so DS14 could not make it and got to sleep in. Our guide Tyler did a great job. I will write something up special on the Segway tour soon. See this link for DIS info on Segway.
I have never eaten at Club 33 but at least have been in thru the door now. I did a solo Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour at DL which takes you into the Club 33 lobby. There we got a mini-history lesson about Club 33. This tour was OK - I was hoping for a little more but it was not bad. Segway was more fun.
The Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour did make me more aware of some more hidden Mickey's. Have you ever noticed the hidden Mickey in POTC during the ship to shore battle scene? As you come through the scene there are shadows of sword fighters up above and on the left as you make the turn into town. One of the sword fighters that comes in and out has mouse ears! I never noticed that before but now it is so obvious!
Captain EO was way better than I remember it from the 80's. Why did I dislike it back then? It is a fun attraction and worth doing. We had to drag kids to see it but after they wanted to do it again - but we never made it back. I hope is still there next trip.
Finding Nemo Sub Voyage is a pretty good ride. Until this trip I had only ridden it once - about 2 weeks after it opened in June 2007. And was a bit disappointed. Every time we have tried to ride it since then the line was too long and we skipped it. This trip I rode it twice more. I really wanted to ride it at night but the lines were still a little too long. So both rides were in the morning. One was first ride during MM and the second was during the first hour after MM on a different day. FNSV is not a great ride but it is not quite the disappointment I remember from 2007.
World of Color was spectacular. Ariel's Grotto food for WOC preferred dining was very good (first time at AG). See my World of Color review here.
DCA is shifting in crowds and how it feels to be there. We were there late at night three times thru Glow Fest and back to ToT. See my DCA musings here.
First time we ate at Plaza Inn and for a buffeteria-style place the food is very good. We will go back there.
DLR should consider an age (or height) limit on single rider (SR) lines. Five of us rode Splash one day and there was a father with two young kids in the SR line. One of his sons about eight-years-old got put in the back of our log and I felt sorry for him. He looked sad and lonely back there. I think kids should be at least 12 before they can do SR. And parents should not do that to their young kids.
Indy SR works great. I tried it for the first time on my final morning when I ventured out solo. You get to skip the pre-show and walk all the way up to the jeep vehicles. Then they direct you to an elevator to get you into the loading area.
Abe Lincoln was sparsely attended but worth doing. We did. Kids liked it better than they expected.
GRR at night is a lot of fun. We rode it twice as a walk-on one night at 9PM. Nobody got drenched but we all got wet.
Tigger Tails! Wow! Never had one before. So I got one for everyone to try. Everyone was mildly interested. After trying it they wanted another one. On the final day DS18 and GF18 made a special trip back to Pooh Corner to get still another one. Deceptively yummy! Much better than Dole Whips - which I do like but not as much as Tigger Tails. Now.
The Aladdin show at DCA is just so good. It will be sad to see it leave.
Did the Maliboomer because it is going away this fall forever. Wanted to get on Mulholland Madness before it gets converted to Goofy's Sky Skool later this year but did not make it. I am sure GSS will be better. MM is not a very good ride.
The Fantasmic Reserved Dessert Seating worked well. Fantasmic is a great show at DL! We arrived at about 7:50PM for seat selection. It was nice to see the early 9:05 show instead of the later show we usually see. DS15 said afterwards that he really enjoyed the show but had never understood the story before. He has seen F! 3-4 times over the years. The dessert seating allowed a better view for him and all of us.
Dining out twice a day is too much food! Our first day we did Cafe Orleans for lunch at 11:30AM and then Tortilla Joe's at 6:30PM for dinner. And we had an ice cream in the afternoon. We could not eat even half the TJ food at dinner. We felt horrible! After that we tried hard to eat one of the meals light with shared plates and/or salads. For breakfast we did fruit and bagels and that worked great as usual.
Big Thunder Ranch BBQ was fun and filling (all-you-can-eat). Not great but a solid experience. Kids said they wanted to do it again next time.
We rode StoryBookLand Canal Boats at dusk! We have not done that for probably 10 years. Dusk is our favorite time but is often very crowded. When we came out of BTRBBQ at about 7:15PM DW said "Let's go ride Storybook land". I was aware it closed for the evening parade but thought it would have re-opened already. We got lucky! The current Celebrate Parade goes from MS to IASW in the evening and was just passing thru FL as we came up to SBLCB. And SBLCB was closed. We stayed in the area and the line re-opened at 7:20. We hopped right in and got on the second boat. So with Celebrate running twice a day the timing you want for SBLCB is 7:15PM for a ride at dusk - in the summer.
Got to go into Blue Sky Cellar for 20-30 minutes one day. Not as much stuff there as I was expecting but still worthwhile. CMs were not very busy and I talked to them for a 10-15 minutes. They talked to me about the model for LM and how things would work on the ride. Worth the time!
Nice shot of Space Mtn in the evening
With four boys we have never had a reason to go to the Princess Fantasy Faire. But with DS18's GF18 along we did. And the photo area had her favorite Princess - Belle. We went at 9AM when it opened. Just me, DW, DS18 and GF18. The other boys slept that morning as it was Day Four for them. We were wearing our tie-dye shirts again that day and the face paint ladies there did a paint job that matched each of our shirt colors. DW and GF18 got butterflies, I got a rocket and DS18 got a skull and cross-bones.
Staying at the GCH is oh so convenient. In the east wing where we stayed we had the fire escape short cut to go to DL and the special DCA entrance. The only time it was a bother was when we returned from DL and had to walk all the way to the lobby first. We did use the monorail several times mid-day to get back and forth to DL.
Why is it you never have enough time for all the things you want to do at DLR? On this trip I really wanted to do the Mission Tortilla tour and Boudin Bakery tour. Have never done either and still haven't. I wanted to ride the Mark Twain and see the Rivers of America re-work from the MT. Didn't make it. But we did do the Davy Crockett Canoes and got to see the ROA from that perspective. I wanted to get a portrait drawing of my kids. I wanted to see Magical fireworks.
At the DIS Meet on July 31 I got to meet
ImTooTiredToSleep
Funball
Webmaster Pete
YellowMickeyPonchos
oc Tony
Mortimer Mouse
plus some friends and spouses. And I WON THE PRIZE!
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), so it's all good. 
I think next time I will only schedule 1 major meal a day and the rest of the time just eat when and where we want/need.
