Random thoughts and observations after our July trip to DLR

[NewbieMouse]

In hindsight I would have just done a mid-day ride in the 45 minute line. Getting to DCA and to the rope at 9:45 allowed me to ride TSMM at 10:20 - a 35 minute wait. Not all that better than the 45 minute wait the rest of the day.

The problem with my family is they are so spoiled with Magic Mornings and FPs, we rarely wait in any line more than 20 minutes. Even 20 is pushing it. To try and get them into a 45 minute line is like pushing a boulder uphill.

That is the same with my family whenever we go. 20 minutes even is pushing it for us too! LOL

I totally know what you mean about TSMM. I had come to the conclusion when I first heard about it's opening, and the opening rush and how long you had to wait then, that I decided it wasn't any better than waiting in the normal line during the day. That is the only way we do it so it doesn't eat up our early hours in DL.

Thanks for the insight. When we were there the lines were huge in the a.m. - even worse than later in the day at times, but still too long for us every time. With two young kids, waiting is also not our strong suit, so it may be one of those rides that we save for our next big trip after the other new stuff has gone in and the TSM-"mania" has worn off. I think we will just see how the lines look when we are by there midday and play it by ear.

 

[Funball]

HYDROGUY!

It truly was an honor to meet you at the mini DIS meet hosted by imtoexcitedtoosleep. And I am sooo glad that you loved DCA, and glow fest and that you and your family got to have an awesome time at WOC. loved the family photo BTW!

 

[Michelle2]

Thanks for the insight. When we were there the lines were huge in the a.m. - even worse than later in the day at times, but still too long for us every time. With two young kids, waiting is also not our strong suit, so it may be one of those rides that we save for our next big trip after the other new stuff has gone in and the TSM-"mania" has worn off. I think we will just see how the lines look when we are by there midday and play it by ear.

I think that with this ride, playing it by ear is a great way to go, especially with young ones!

Hydroguy, I just thought of something very important to ask you. We are leaving in a week (YAY!) and I was wondering do they let you in directly from the turnstiles at DL every morning both for MM and non-MM days? If I remember correctly since it is so early (7am or 8am), they won't hold and corral people back at the rope at the end of Main street like they do at slower seasons/later openings do they??

You would think that I have not been in the summer, but its been about 2 years so I forget. That is one of the biggest things that I hate, everyone herded back by that rope.

 

[HydroGuy]

Hydroguy:

I like this report the best not so much particular information but a little about a lot of things.


I have a question what was your score on TSMM?


I was really confused about the caption on your picture of the sun peeking around the matterhorn. Until I realized that all of the state of California is *** backwards and the sun does RISE in the WEST there.

OK, sure enough, it was sunset! I checked the photo time. I will change the OP.

I am not all that good on TSMM. I got 157k.

 

[HydroGuy]

I think that with this ride, playing it by ear is a great way to go, especially with young ones!

Hydroguy, I just thought of something very important to ask you. We are leaving in a week (YAY!) and I was wondering do they let you in directly from the turnstiles at DL every morning both for MM and non-MM days? If I remember correctly since it is so early (7am or 8am), they won't hold and corral people back at the rope at the end of Main street like they do at slower seasons/later openings do they??

You would think that I have not been in the summer, but its been about 2 years so I forget. That is one of the biggest things that I hate, everyone herded back by that rope.

For 7AM MM I have never seen them let people in early. Everyone waits at turnstiles in my experience.

However, by 8AM they do seem to let people onto the end of Main Street before 8AM. Depends on the day.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

However, by 8AM they do seem to let people onto the end of Main Street before 8AM. Depends on the day.

Yep, we have experienced this several times in the last year. We actually like this because while our family is usually not too far back in line, we are also not usually among the first 5-10 groups. This way, when we inevitably get stuck behind the group holding the line up while they wait for a straggler and then all look for their tickets at the turnstile and then have some inexplicable problem with those tickets and then want the gate CM to explain the entire map and schedule to them, we don't feel as frustrated since it's all happening before 8:00, and we couldn't be riding Peter Pan anyway.

 

[HydroGuy]

I'm sorry you missed some things, but at the same time I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one.

We just spent 5 full days in the parks, and here's what we missed:

Pirate's Lair on TSI
Mark Twain or S. S. Columbia
Storybook Land Canal Boats (when will we see this at dusk? )
Peter Pan !
Roger Rabbit (RRCTS)
GRR
TTwC

And I just plain ran out of time, and I missed Splash, BTMRR, and TSM.

But we saw WOC 3x, Fantasmic 3x, Captain EO 2x, Mr. Lincoln, Aladdin, and the Magical fireworks 1.66 times (seeing Magical from the IASW area doesn't count as a full time ), so it's all good.

Your post reminded me I wanted to include this in my OP - so I am going to edit it...

We have not done SBLCB at dusk for probably 10 years. Dusk is our favorite time too! Instead we have gone early morning because it is such a slow loader.

On this trip we came out of BTRBBQ at about 7:15PM and DW said "Let's go ride Storybook land". I figured the ride would have a long line but we would just do it. 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. I asked a CM when it would re-open and she said "7:30". So we stayed in the area and the line re-opened at 7:20. And we hopped right in. We 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. Which of course only works in the summer.

 

[DLR29]

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.

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.

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.

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.

Just saying, I was riding rides by myself around the age of 9-10 because my parents would not ride and my brother wouldn't either. Fortunately, now my brother likes big rides and my mom has been getting better too. But I had no problems riding by myself at amusement parks.

Did you notice a bunch of the effects on Indy had been spruced up? I liked that both Mara eyes were smoking and the rat room was super clear!

I also did Abe Lincoln for the first time. Great show! Definitely worth doing!

Also rode Maliboomer one last time before it closes in the fall. The SR line here works great because it is one ride that my mom still won't do, and there are always groups of 3.

Tortilla Jo's has some of the biggest portions on property! HUGE!

I still haven't done any of the Rivers of America but we did do the Bakery Tour and Tortilla Factory! I really liked doing the small things on my last trip because usually we're so concerned about getting all the major stuff done. The Bakery was fun...the tortilla factory was just ok.

Glad you had a good time!

 

[Michelle2]

For 7AM MM I have never seen them let people in early. Everyone waits at turnstiles in my experience.

However, by 8AM they do seem to let people onto the end of Main Street before 8AM. Depends on the day.

Thanks so much for the info. I had a feeling that they didn't for the early 7 am MM openings, but had read some others' experiences that they open at about 7:45 for 8 am openings. I will be sure to be prepared for this. I like it when the crowds let in are more staggered from the turnstiles.

Your post reminded me I wanted to include this in my OP - so I am going to edit it...

We have not done SBLCB at dusk for probably 10 years. Dusk is our favorite time too! Instead we have gone early morning because it is such a slow loader.

On this trip we came out of BTRBBQ at about 7:15PM and DW said "Let's go ride Storybook land". I figured the ride would have a long line but we would just do it. 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. I asked a CM when it would re-open and she said "7:30". So we stayed in the area and the line re-opened at 7:20. And we hopped right in. We 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. Which of course only works in the summer.

That is great info! I have never done this (only being my 2nd time going in summer which I love!), and might give it a try this time, especially since I will know the timing for it. Thanks so much!

 

[jenergy]

I'm responding a little late but I just wanted to ask how getting to the fantasmic dessert line at 7:50 went? I know you were wondering if your party would be split up so did you get seats all together? Also, did anyone have any trouble seeing? I'm planning on doing the same as I also think its kind of nuts to pay $59 pp then still wait 2 hrs just to reserve a spot.

 

[HydroGuy]

I'm responding a little late but I just wanted to ask how getting to the fantasmic dessert line at 7:50 went? I know you were wondering if your party would be split up so did you get seats all together? Also, did anyone have any trouble seeing? I'm planning on doing the same as I also think its kind of nuts to pay $59 pp then still wait 2 hrs just to reserve a spot.

It worked fine. We all sat together. The seats are grouped in different sections and they move them around to accomodate the groups. We could have been in the second row further from center or the back third row nearer the center and I chose the latter. Since we were in the back row the CMs told us we could stand if we wanted to. So during the show we stood up at times to see better and then sat back down.