Share your Hits & Misses of 2013 with the DIS Unplugged

ImTooExcitedToSleep

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Jul 15, 2007
Tonight we record the final DIS Unplugged: Disneyland Edition podcast episodes for the year, including our annual Hits & Misses segment.

What were YOUR "Hits & Misses" at the Disneyland Resort this year??

If I use your comment on the show, I'll send you a DIS Unplugged: Disneyland Edition button!
 
I Don't know if this will officially count for 2013 but announcing the removal of Billy Hill and the Hill Billy's was rough. They are such a loved show that is hard to believe they are getting rid of the show.

Another would be the extended renovation schedule for BTMR. I can think of many people who planned their holiday trip with the understanding it would be up and running...
 
Out of the ball park hits -
Radiator Springs Racers, and the daily race to fast pass and first ride, only so I could ignore it the rest of the trip because of 120 minute lines. Every day on a five day park hopper, two rides a day....loved it

Dole Whips - Always a hit

Golden Horseshoe - Finding the shows this year was a hit, I have always been ride-centric, nice to learn the importance of the other attractions at the park

Jedi Training Academy - Big fun with the only problem being that Darth Vader and Darth Maul don't exist at the same time!!!! (did I say geek alert?)

Downtown Disney and RideMakerz - The kids loved this and we got an exciting albeit expensive present for the boys.

Pacific Wharf Breadbowls and World of Color - Such good soup on a chilly February night.

Animation Academy - Fun for all ages

Misses -
Old Thunder Mountain being closed all year long

Being kicked off Space Mountain, only to be reset in another car, away from my family because I was 'sitting wrong' I'm 6'6" and 300...so I tend to sit 'wrong'...but they got me seated correctly and I rode...but was a bad moment. (on a side note, immediately rode Star Tours just after and guess who was the 'rebel spy'... Disney Magic strikes again...bad mood gone)

We missed Fantasmic this year but that was my fault

But my big hit of the year...no kissing up here...

Finding Disunplugged, thanks for the great podcast. This year has been my complete falling in love with all things Disney...at 43 I didn't think I would but the kids love it and I loved it, going again next February during Dapper days and just love geeking out to this new thing. I look forward to all your Thursday releases as it helps me keep my geek focus.

David
 
My hit for the year was making my family go to DLR over New Years week so we could ride BTMRR before the long refurb. We loved the holiday decorations, and braving those crowds made me feel I could tackle DLR any time of year.
The big miss of the year is that BTMRR ended up being closed the entire rest of the year.
Another big miss was all of the Cal OSHA closures that took place in April. We had a trip scheduled during that time, and I would never dream of canceling. Having so many e-tickets down was a bummer, but we still managed to have a great trip.
 


Hits :

Viva Navidad, very well done. The food is tasty and love the entertainment

WOC holiday, I still prefer the original, but I love that there was a change up.

DTD Disney winter village and ice rink... It has improved since last year

Anna & Elsa meet and greet, very cute and Olfa out side is always fun to watch while in line

JJJ, really like that they have the Country Bears out and about

The projection show on IASWH and snow every 15 minutes after 6:30PM

Mickey and the Magical Map

Princess Fantasy Faire, DD4 and I love that area.




Misses:

Villains Dance Party on Friday the 13th

Over selling MHP

Jingle Cruise, great idea, but poorly executed

The View tapping, I felt really bad for people who had their trip disrupted due closures and their stage blocking the Castle view.




Ysell :-)
 
I don't need a button, but since I didn't participate in a holiday season-themed DIS Unplugged show this year, I will throw in my 2 cents.

Hits -

The extensive level of resort-wide decor for the holidays. It was everywhere, and I was fully engulfed and enveloped in the Disney holiday bubble. I found Christmas trees where I didn't even know there would be trees. Themed decorations and music were all over the place -- even where you might not notice them, such as the musical notes and sheet music in the garland at Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe, or the Christmas tree in the Adventure tower of the DLH.

I love the new reindeer greeting guests at the entrance to the GCH! Nice touch for the holidays (even though one of the reindeer was wiped out by the strong wind early last week!:scared:).

I love that Hollywood Land finally got in the spirit, with shiny garland and festive window displays -- and the Santa-reindeer display at the end of the street that reminded me of what I used to see suspended above Hollywood Blvd. as a child on my way to the "Santa Claus Lane Parade" (now the Hollywood Christmas Parade).

I also enjoyed the Limited Time Magic Walk With an Imagineer tour -- that was a big hit for me, and I loved that it ended with a visit to 1901! Awesome! Thumbs up to the (free) Carthay Circle tour as well!:thumbsup2

Viva Navidad is great -- it is joyous, jubilant, celebratory, uplifting and festive. I don't know that it particularly fits in that area of DCA, but I also don't know where else it could go.





Misses --

The Unleash the Villains event on September 13th. It was not handled well. It was not promoted well. It was not managed well. The crowds in Town Square were madness. Speaking of which...

The reduction of the Candlelight Procession down to 2 nights. After last year's 20-night marathon, Disney must have realized that many, many new CP fans were roped in -- enchanted and enthralled by this lovely ceremony. I understand why they could not run it for 20 nights again, but to cut it down to 2 after gaining sooooo many new fans was a recipe for Mayhem on Main Street. Clearly, many of the new fans wanted to come out to see it in its limited 2-night window, adding further congestion and traffic to Town Square that was worse than it had been pre-2012. It just seems to me that there should have been a middle ground -- something between 2 nights and 20 nights, to help spread the crowds out a bit more instead of packing them into a small time frame.
 
2013 Hits
Deciding to return to DLR in 2014 and becoming an active DISr!
Learning about the YES program via the podcast and saving over $300 on 5-day park hopper tickets (for our family of 6). Thanks, guys! (hopefully the classes will be a "hit" for 2014)

Misses
I got thru all the archived podcasts and am reduced to listening to the WDW podcast while I wait for the new show on Tuesday. :worship:

Mahalo for all you do!
 


Hits and misses from our July 2013 trip (our 3rd trip to DLR):

Hits:
The carpet flying again in Aladin. On our first trip in Sept 2011 we were at the show where Jasmine and Aladin got stuck on the ceiling from their feet. I'll never forget that scream Jasmine let out, and seeing Aladin's hat fall off!

Mickey and the Magical Map. My kids loved it!

Dancing with Disney at stage 17. Really wish we hadn't left this until our last day. The character interaction was amazing!

Earl of Sandwich free birthday sandwich and Patima group $30 off gift certificate!

Doing the discover the magic tour for DD's 6th birthday.

Getting an unexpected room upgrade at DLH from standard to premium view!

The new royal hall princess meet and greet taking 10 minutes instead of the 2hr line up we encountered in the past.

Also, I LOVED the fastpass return window being enforced. It made the fastpass line actually go FAST!


Misses:

A lady screamed at me because I told her 3 year old son to stop hitting my daughter :confused3 and I encountered a lot of line jumpers ("budgers" as my kindergarten students would call them!)

The spinach dip from Rainforest Cafe made DH and myself sick :sick:

BTMRR being down.

DS being 41 inches tall during our trip, and therefore too short to ride the matterhorn.

There seemed to be a lot more ride breakdowns during our trip this summer compared to our 2 previous trips.

Surf's up breakfast was a big letdown for us. The service was awful and the CM wouldn't listen to me about my DD's food allergies and brought her a brownie that she know DD couldn't eat for her bday. She said "It's just for show, there's lots of other stuff she can eat." So, basically, it was "Happy Birthday, you can't eat this" to a 6 year old!
 
Surprise hit for us: storytelling at the Princess Fantasy Faire. I have two boys, ages 12 and 14, so we had never bothered going to the princess area before. With the new Fantasy Faire so prominently located though, I insisted we visit, and I also insisted on watching the storytelling show because I like to watch every show at least once. Everybody in my family loved both the shows, and we have now seen them each multiple times. I actually like the way the Fantasy Faire area was done, and even though none of us have any interest in meeting princesses we like to visit the area at least once per trip to see the show, look at the details, and/or get a snack or drink from Maurice's Treats.

Mickey's Magical Map was mostly a hit for us too. Seen it three times now, and it does seem like a show that is getting better.

While not quite a home run, I have to say the holiday World of Color was a nice addition to the holiday season. No one in our family is really a WoC fan, but we all enjoyed the holiday version. There's room for improvement for sure, but I am glad Disney tried. As repeat visitors, we love to see them change things up every so often.

Another "hit" for us: the Marvel stuff in Innoventions. I hadn't thought there was anything that would ever get me to step foot in that place again. The Marvel stuff was a nice little diversion, but we are still turned off by the rest of what Innoventions is.

Misses for us:
Jingle Cruise. Much as I like them to change things up, this just didn't do anything for me. I think like the regular Jungle Cruise a lot of the charm of this ride is reliant upon the skipper. Our skipper wasn't so great, and the afternoon and evening wait times were so daunting during our holiday trip, that it wasn't worth a repeat visit. Also, I think maybe some of the queue theming is upstairs? We really didn't get to see much since we went when there was a short line. It would be nice if there was special theming in a queue to get to walk through the whole queue even if the line was short. It wasn't going to be worth waiting 25 minutes plus though just to come back when it was busy to see the queue.

Soarin'. Gosh, I hope this one really is going to get a 2014 refurb. It's just looking tired and old. Someone needs to clean the camera, the film, or both. Used to really enjoy this ride.

Vinylmation trading. Both my sons are really disappointed in how scarce vinylmation trading has become.
 
Surprise hit for us: storytelling at the Princess Fantasy Faire. I have two boys, ages 12 and 14, so we had never bothered going to the princess area before. With the new Fantasy Faire so prominently located though, I insisted we visit, and I also insisted on watching the storytelling show because I like to watch every show at least once. Everybody in my family loved both the shows, and we have now seen them each multiple times. I actually like the way the Fantasy Faire area was done, and even though none of us have any interest in meeting princesses we like to visit the area at least once per trip to see the show, look at the details, and/or get a snack or drink from Maurice's Treats.

Mickey's Magical Map was mostly a hit for us too. Seen it three times now, and it does seem like a show that is getting better.

While not quite a home run, I have to say the holiday World of Color was a nice addition to the holiday season. No one in our family is really a WoC fan, but we all enjoyed the holiday version. There's room for improvement for sure, but I am glad Disney tried. As repeat visitors, we love to see them change things up every so often.

Another "hit" for us: the Marvel stuff in Innoventions. I hadn't thought there was anything that would ever get me to step foot in that place again. The Marvel stuff was a nice little diversion, but we are still turned off by the rest of what Innoventions is.

Misses for us:
Jingle Cruise. Much as I like them to change things up, this just didn't do anything for me. I think like the regular Jungle Cruise a lot of the charm of this ride is reliant upon the skipper. Our skipper wasn't so great, and the afternoon and evening wait times were so daunting during our holiday trip, that it wasn't worth a repeat visit. Also, I think maybe some of the queue theming is upstairs? We really didn't get to see much since we went when there was a short line. It would be nice if there was special theming in a queue to get to walk through the whole queue even if the line was short. It wasn't going to be worth waiting 25 minutes plus though just to come back when it was busy to see the queue.

Soarin'. Gosh, I hope this one really is going to get a 2014 refurb. It's just looking tired and old. Someone needs to clean the camera, the film, or both. Used to really enjoy this ride.

Vinylmation trading. Both my sons are really disappointed in how scarce vinylmation trading has become.

longtimedisneylurker --

Thank you for reminding me of something I forgot to add to my Misses list -- the Jingle Cruise queue!

I'm not even really going to address the fact that it's only a minor overlay on the ride and not a major one. I don't know if a major holiday overlay on that ride would work or if it would go over well with the general public, and I do appreciate that Disney tried something new with it (even if it was kind of weak). I think the name is catchy. I like the artwork for it (with the elephant). It's a cute idea, just not fully fleshed out.

My main issue is the fact that because it is such a minor overlay, and the bulk of the overlay resides in the queue, it makes a difference if you don't get to go upstairs and see the rest of the decorations. There aren't that many new holiday touches added to it to begin with, and to miss the upstairs portion of the queue means that you miss part of the overlay in general. The only way to see the upstairs queue, of course, is if you get in a long line that takes you up there. My line was short, so I missed the entire upstairs section.

The other Jingle Cruise-related thing I am annoyed with is the extremely "limited" mini-poster supply, handed out as part of Limited Time Magic -- for apparently only 2 days or so. I think that was a big misstep on Disney's part. The mini-posters would obviously be a big hit, as this was the first year of Jingle Cruise. Why they didn't print up enough to last through the holiday season -- even if they sold them instead of handed them out for free -- is beyond me. To only give them out for a weekend to whoever happened to be there on those days seems ridiculous. At least extend the handouts for a couple of weeks! That was very limited Limited Time Magic! Now those posters are being sold on eBay.
 
Miss-sept 13, unless the villains. Not enough employees, unorganized, and too many people.

Hits- pixie dusted by CM. IASW holiday, Christmas lights/ lighting.
 

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