B9erSteve
Disney Dad
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2005
- Messages
- 3,485
Yesterday, we were surprised at the Matterhorn exit with a Disney Dream Team with a pass for an extra hour in the park after the park closing. I had reservations about this after reading about how the DCA extra hour went. (People were confused: Disney held the "winners" for over an hour waiting for the park to be cleared: most left immediately after the hour was up, etc) But, in the end I decided to stick it out and see how the event went.
I'm glad I did. The only problem that we had was that the instructions on the lanyard stated that we were to meet at the Festival Arena after the park closed. Now, I'm a big Disneyland fan... but I have to admit, I had no idea where this part of the park was. Turns out, it is a staging area located in the Big Thunder Ranch area. Once we found the stage, we had a great time dancing to some real corny music and listening to an impromptu proposal from a young Arizona man to his soon-to-be bride.
We had planned to use the extra hour to ride Nemo w/o a wait, but appearantly about 1000 of the 3000 people in attendance had the same idea, so a line formed quickly. As a result, ditched our plans and walked onto Space Mountain. (The first time, I've been on it since the new ride vehicles and soundtrack) Then split up with my DWand 3 y/o DD ran off to enjoy fantasyland wait time free (yes, even Peter Pan!) while my 6y/o DS sprinted to Adventureland for Indiana Jones. Once that ride was over, and there were no, people in the queue(!). The cast members reset the cars and allowed us a back to back ride. By the time we were done, our hour was almost over and we decided to wait for my DW and DD to rejoin us.
All in All it was a Dream come true. Sharing Disneyland with 3000 others was truly like having the park to ourselves. We enjoyed every minute of it!
I'm glad I did. The only problem that we had was that the instructions on the lanyard stated that we were to meet at the Festival Arena after the park closed. Now, I'm a big Disneyland fan... but I have to admit, I had no idea where this part of the park was. Turns out, it is a staging area located in the Big Thunder Ranch area. Once we found the stage, we had a great time dancing to some real corny music and listening to an impromptu proposal from a young Arizona man to his soon-to-be bride.
We had planned to use the extra hour to ride Nemo w/o a wait, but appearantly about 1000 of the 3000 people in attendance had the same idea, so a line formed quickly. As a result, ditched our plans and walked onto Space Mountain. (The first time, I've been on it since the new ride vehicles and soundtrack) Then split up with my DWand 3 y/o DD ran off to enjoy fantasyland wait time free (yes, even Peter Pan!) while my 6y/o DS sprinted to Adventureland for Indiana Jones. Once that ride was over, and there were no, people in the queue(!). The cast members reset the cars and allowed us a back to back ride. By the time we were done, our hour was almost over and we decided to wait for my DW and DD to rejoin us.
All in All it was a Dream come true. Sharing Disneyland with 3000 others was truly like having the park to ourselves. We enjoyed every minute of it!