Vacation Dad
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2007
- Messages
- 148
Good morning everyone. We (myself, my wife, and 3 teenaged children) went to So. California Sunday Friday last week. We went to DLR Sunday evening, Monday & Wednesday of the week, and there were many things we learned that made the trip go smoother. Some of these I already knew, some I learned here before the trip, and some we learned along the way. Hopefully these are of use to some folks out there.
Be ready for additional Entrance lines to be opened up right before park opening. On Wed., 11/21, not an early entry day, we arrived at the park at 7:30am and were about 25th in line the park opened at 8am. We lined up at Gate 21 which was the open line farthest to the right side (east) at the time. Between 7:45 & 7:55, 3 additional entrance lines were suddenly opened up to the right of that line by a CM bringing up people from the back of other lines. We moved over quickly as we saw this happening, and we ended up being the 2nd family through the gates at one of these lines.
See Fantasmic! the easy way. There is a stack of speakers in front of Pirates that appears to be blocking the view of most of the Fantasmic show, but about 10 minutes before the show starts these speakers rise up in the air and you have a great view of the show. We got there at 8:40pm on Sunday, 11/18, 20 minutes before the start of the first show and got a great spot right behind the speakers. At about 8:50 the speakers raised up in the air, and this empty spot filled up within seconds. I want to mention that the speaker pole (about a foot wide) does block some of the view of Mickeys activity on the island if you are directly behind it. If you can stand a little off to the side of the actual pole it is good. We also enjoyed watching Fantasmic from the Hungry Bear restaurant area one night and it was not busy at all. You are watching from the side, but the view isnt bad and you can see some of the behind-the-scenes activities that you dont notice from in front of the show.
All 3 days, Splash Mountain was almost a walk-on from about 9:30 until park closing (midnight), and the water level seemed to be a bit less at that time of night. It is definitely cooler at that time of day, but since we are from near Seattle the colder temperatures still seemed warm. If your schedule doesnt allow you to get to this ride earlier in the day, give it a try late in the day. I think the chillier evenings these days keep people away, but for others it creates a quality ride opportunity.
If you come across a ride that is closed for a while, do not despair! Try walking past again a little later, if it has opened up you might be in for a shorter wait than normal. On Sunday, we walked past Indy about 7pm and it was closed. We continued on to ride on Pirates, and then went back to check on Indy. It was open then, so we only had about a 15 minute wait. By the time we were off the ride the wait time was back up to 45 minutes. On Wed., 11/21, we went to Splash about 10am and the wait time was only 5 minutes because it had just recently opened back up.
The PhotoPass photographers are happy (or at least willing) to take pictures with your personal cameras. We often asked them to take our picture with our personal camera, and they were always as cheerful as possible to do it. It is nice to have some pictures with all of us, rather than just 4 out of 5. We also let them take some with their cameras, it doesnt cost anything unless you eventually buy something, and they might take that one picture that captures your trip perfectly.
We bought a CityPass and also went to Universal Studios and Sea World. We all especially enjoyed Universal Studios. The Citypass coupons for both those 2 parks were accepted directly at the entrance gates, we did not have to go through a ticket booth of through will call.
I will make a posting in the trip report area within the next day with that type of information, but I thought this information might be of use here. If I happen to think of any other useful items, I will add them here. Have fun!
Be ready for additional Entrance lines to be opened up right before park opening. On Wed., 11/21, not an early entry day, we arrived at the park at 7:30am and were about 25th in line the park opened at 8am. We lined up at Gate 21 which was the open line farthest to the right side (east) at the time. Between 7:45 & 7:55, 3 additional entrance lines were suddenly opened up to the right of that line by a CM bringing up people from the back of other lines. We moved over quickly as we saw this happening, and we ended up being the 2nd family through the gates at one of these lines.
See Fantasmic! the easy way. There is a stack of speakers in front of Pirates that appears to be blocking the view of most of the Fantasmic show, but about 10 minutes before the show starts these speakers rise up in the air and you have a great view of the show. We got there at 8:40pm on Sunday, 11/18, 20 minutes before the start of the first show and got a great spot right behind the speakers. At about 8:50 the speakers raised up in the air, and this empty spot filled up within seconds. I want to mention that the speaker pole (about a foot wide) does block some of the view of Mickeys activity on the island if you are directly behind it. If you can stand a little off to the side of the actual pole it is good. We also enjoyed watching Fantasmic from the Hungry Bear restaurant area one night and it was not busy at all. You are watching from the side, but the view isnt bad and you can see some of the behind-the-scenes activities that you dont notice from in front of the show.
All 3 days, Splash Mountain was almost a walk-on from about 9:30 until park closing (midnight), and the water level seemed to be a bit less at that time of night. It is definitely cooler at that time of day, but since we are from near Seattle the colder temperatures still seemed warm. If your schedule doesnt allow you to get to this ride earlier in the day, give it a try late in the day. I think the chillier evenings these days keep people away, but for others it creates a quality ride opportunity.
If you come across a ride that is closed for a while, do not despair! Try walking past again a little later, if it has opened up you might be in for a shorter wait than normal. On Sunday, we walked past Indy about 7pm and it was closed. We continued on to ride on Pirates, and then went back to check on Indy. It was open then, so we only had about a 15 minute wait. By the time we were off the ride the wait time was back up to 45 minutes. On Wed., 11/21, we went to Splash about 10am and the wait time was only 5 minutes because it had just recently opened back up.
The PhotoPass photographers are happy (or at least willing) to take pictures with your personal cameras. We often asked them to take our picture with our personal camera, and they were always as cheerful as possible to do it. It is nice to have some pictures with all of us, rather than just 4 out of 5. We also let them take some with their cameras, it doesnt cost anything unless you eventually buy something, and they might take that one picture that captures your trip perfectly.
We bought a CityPass and also went to Universal Studios and Sea World. We all especially enjoyed Universal Studios. The Citypass coupons for both those 2 parks were accepted directly at the entrance gates, we did not have to go through a ticket booth of through will call.
I will make a posting in the trip report area within the next day with that type of information, but I thought this information might be of use here. If I happen to think of any other useful items, I will add them here. Have fun!
I will keep those in mind when we get there next week 
