Spring Break Trip=Lesson Learned

[DisGirl819]

Ok, here is my very first trip report...for my not very first trip to DLR. I grew up going to DLR so I am a nut like everyone else here.

Cast of Characters: Me The craziest disney nut alive!
DH Puts up with the craziest disney nut alive!

We got to Disneyland on Monday evening (4/2/07). We spent the morning/afternoon at the San Diego Zoo. After checking into the Desert Inn & Suites (and finding parking in the skinny little garage they have) we headed out for dinner. We were starving so we walked back and forth on Harbor Blvd for a while. We got accosted by the time share people in front of the Park Vue Inn (BEWARE!) and settled on eating at Mimi's. It was a nice restaurant with good food. The service left a bit to be desired but overall it was good food at a good price.

We headed over to DCA for the first ride of the night. We decided on TOT first since it is our favorite! The wait was 30 minutes so we decided it was good so we waited. Then we headed to Cali Screamin' (Rockin') and the wait was abouta 45 minutes. We were in line behing the most concerned person ever. He had never ridden Cali Screamin' before and asked us a million questions about it and craned his neck over everyone to check it out. We were excited about the "rockin'" aspect of the ride so we were thrilled to hear the Chili Pepper's bass coming from the cars while we were in line. We must have gotten a crappy car because the speakers were shot and we couldn't hear the music. It was fun anyhow and it was the first time we'd been on it at night. Way cool!

So we decided to ride TOT and Monsters Inc. before we left the park. We rode TOT again and walked right on Monsters Inc. It always saddens me to see the lack of people in line for that ride. I love that ride for the smells, Roz's personal comments and just the coolness of the story...A Human child is on the loose in Monstropolis!!! AAAHH!

As we wandered our way out of the park we stumbled upon the electrical parade. It had not made its way to Hollywood Studios yet so we jumped in the watching section (out of the walkway and behind others so as not to be rude) to watch. DH was impressed with it and said it was way better than Spectromagic in WDW. I happen to agree...but I love the electrical parade (I have it set as a ringtone on my cell).

We walked over to Downtown Disney to check out movie times for Meet the Robinsons...none listed for tomorrow and only one really late showing that night so we took the monorail to DL (FINALLY) to try to ride Space Mtn. BIG MISTAKE!!! The wait was 90 minutes and no fastpasses! We said no way and rode POTC (10 minute wait) and HM (5 minute wait, in the stretching room). I had a bet with DH about the length of POTC...he said about 10 mins and I said closer to 15. Well turns out (we timed it) it was about 18 minutes (give or take some time for bumper boats and back up).

We ended the night with our favorite treat...a Tigger Tail! from the shop in Pooh Corner. Was really nice and quiet back there because there was no traffice as Splash Mtn. was closed. We ate the Tigger Tail as we walked to the front of the park. We were calling it a night after the rides at DL and the tons of walking at the San Diego Zoo our feet and legs had it. (Side note: I had on my Mickey Crocs so my feet were ok...I did notice that the Mickey Crocs aren't as soft as the regular crocs so I was back and forth between those during the trip.)

The parks weren't that busy (not as bad as at Thanksgiving) so we thought, hey it should be alright for the next couple days...

BOY WERE WE WRONG!! More to come later...

 

[disneyfanatic4]

Great start!! Looking forward to more.

 

[CdnMouseEars]

Sounds like a great start to your trip!
Can't wait to hear more!

 

[rentayenta]

Can't wait for the next day!

 

[lulubelle]

Great first day, thanks for sharing. You guys know how to go with the flow and make the best of the crowds. Can't wait for the next installment!

 

[nurse.darcy]

I already know about the crowds. . .the 3rd was busy and the 4th was WAY OVER CROWDED. . .thank god for the dream fastpasses. . .lol

 

[DisGirl819]

I already know about the crowds. . .the 3rd was busy and the 4th was WAY OVER CROWDED. . .thank god for the dream fastpasses. . .lol

I wish!! I was longing for a dream fastpass the whole time!

 

[DisGirl819]

Today we were really tired (from the walking yesterday) so we decided to sleep in...DH decided, I wanted to get up early. So we woke up about 8 am (opening for the park) and grabbed breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast was decent but we had toast, juice and coffee. Their options were toast, oranges, danishes, milk, juice and coffee. Not the best but good enough to get us started.

We headed to DL first and got fastpasses for Space Mtn. The wait (at 9 am) was about 50 minutes! Our fastpass return time was about 1:30. So we went to Buzz Lightyear to try to defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg! I beat DH by about 29000 points which was pretty good considering I hadn't ridden since November. Tried to email the photo home but the photo was not there (this is not the first of the missing ride photos, as you will soon see). So now that I had my Buzz Lightyear fix (he's my favorite Disney guy!) we went to Adventureland to check out Indiana Jones. The wait was about 40 minutes so we thought we'd ride. I love the queue anyway so I didn't mind.

I messed around with the settings on my camera and took some really cool sepia tone pics of the queue area. I will post them as soon as i get batteries for my camera and can upload them to the computer. My goal this trip was to try to find the skeleton "Bones" with the Mickey hat on this ride...

By now it was lunch time-ish (we were hungry) so we found a bench and enjoyed our sandwiches. We brought snacks and sandwiches with us ( we have a backpack with cooler) to save $$. It was getting crowded in DL so we hopped (not literally, although I could have) to DCA. We grabbed fastpasses for Soarin' at about noon and got a return time of 6:45!! Waits for Cali Screamin' and TOT were horrendous so we left DCA with not one ride in...

Walked back to DL (here is the really frustrating, tedious part) to try to ride Space Mtn. We got up to the queueing area and realized we were about 45 minutes short of our return time. So we went to Frontierland (yes I know it was a ton of walking...and for nothing!) to ride BTMRR. It was broken down, so no fastpasses either. We hopped onto the Sailing Ship Columbia thinking it would take us around the island...we hung out for about 10 minutes until we realized that this wasn't going to move. So we had seen the canoes and DH was intrigued...he had never been on them and I had only been once. So we got in line for that. After about a 30 minute wait, we canoed around the island. The island, BTW, is getting a great makeover and is already starting to resemble a pirate lair or something to that effect.

Since we were still in Frontierland-ish, we went back to BTMRR and it was now up and running! However, the wait was about 50 minutes, so we grabbed some fastpasses. (Note, I now had 3 sets of fastpasses for use later, none were good now). We hadn't ridden another of my favorites, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, so we headed to Toontown.

So far, the day was really disappointing and frustrating because we had ridden a total of 3 rides and it was about 1 pm now!

Ok, we arrive in Toontown and the line is a bit long (around the circle where the fountain is) but doesn't seem unmanageable. So we hop in. It takes about 20 minutes and we barely make it to the door (we're not inside yet). I am very angry and frustrated by now and just hop out of line. DH is very confused by my behavior because I never hop out of line, I usually put up with the waits. He knew I was frustrated so he didn't say anything...isn't he great?! So we grabbed more fastpasses (count 'em: 4 now) because I knew that RRCTS was disconnected and I could do it!

We went to Space Mtn as it was now about time for our fastpasses. We were so excited about the Rockin' version. So we waited about 10 minutes and were given a card from the CM at the front of the line to take to our "ride host" as he called it to time the wait. The rockin' version was fun but less fun than the real version in the complete darkness. It was mostly dark but light enough to see the track. I really liked the effect at the beginning. We get off the ride and go to check out the photo...nope not there. Second ride photo missing...so much for that. With the wait for this ride and the fact that all fastpasses were gone by about noon, we didn't ride it again this trip.

AFter Space Mtn. DH wanted to go back to the hotel, but I really wanted to see Meet the Robinsons. See what we did next...Coming up in part 3!

 

[Illuminations_Rocks]

great TR so far - I went on the 5th and couldn't stand the crowds either, but did get on some rides with the aid of fastpasses. not too many, mind you, as most were gone, butttt we did get Indy FP's when we first got in and that ride was super cool so were were glad to have gotten them!

Looking forward to the rest!

 

[flyinshirer]

I feel your pain! We were there on Tues and Wed. I was so disapointed in the lines and felt like crying!! We promised the girls that we would return in a few weeks to make up for all of the waiting that we had to indure. So we are returning on the 24th hoping that we will not have to wait so much.

I knew that Spring Break woudl be busy but I had no idea how bad!!! Crazy!!
Good luck!

 

[JennCa]

Sorry to hear of the long waits, it makes it frustrating to say the least.

What is a tigger tail???

Jenn

 

[DisGirl819]

Sorry to hear of the long waits, it makes it frustrating to say the least.

What is a tigger tail???

Jenn

A tigger tail is the best sweet treat in the world (Land)! It is marshmallows on a stick covered in caramel and orange creame flavored coating with chocolate stripes. Yummy!!

 

[onederland]

That tigger tail sounds really good i will have to try one...

 

[DisGirl819]

Forgive me...I have been so busy and haven't had time to update my Trip Report...Will try to add more tonight or tomorrow!!

 

[DisGirl819]

Alright...my apologies... I had a crazy two weeks back from spring break. I'm a teacher and it was a zoo...

So...I left off where we were sick of the crowds and NOT riding any rides.

Well, I prevailed and we went to DTD to catch a movie. Meet the Robinsons was playing so we went in. Boy it was cute movie and really good with 3D effects. DH fell asleep during part of it, he was totally worn out, but I kept poking him awake!

Afterwards, we were hungry so we decided to get dinner. The wait at ESPN Zone was really awful, so we wandered to the other restaurants to check out their waits. We ended up in Tortilla Jo's (the restaurant not the TO GO section) with a 30 minute wait. It was the yummiest Mexican food I have had in a while and I live in Arizona! I was impressed. We even took our leftovers so that we could put them in the hotel fridge.

It was about time for our 6:45 return time to Soarin' so we walked thru the GCH (AMAZING!!) into DCA. What a great entrance, right behind Soarin! So we rode and I enjoyed the yummy evergreen smell, watched for the 2 hidden mickey's (the golf ball and the fireworks) . It was ok, try not to get stuck on the edge (we were on the absolute edge in the front row) because the screen is distorted somewhat and gets a little blurry. Kinda ruins the effect too when you can see the ride operator out of your peripheral vision!

We then didn't want to leave DCA, we have become so enamored with that park that we almost spend more time there than in DL!! So we walked over to TOT to ride (45 minute wait...no way), on our way out, we rode MOnsters Inc. I think this is a totally cool ride that is completely underappreciated. I love the smells...and from Soarin'...I'm a nerd. The lemon smell is cool, the smell of the restaurant is great as is the smell in the locker room (Smelly socks!!). The electrical parade was starting up so we decided to skeedaddle out of DCA.

The leftovers were securely in the cooler part of our backpack, for those of you worried about the food!

We decided to make it an early night because we didn't want to get stuck in the mob in DL for fireworks and we headed back to the hotel. As we were pooped anyhow, we just took it easy and decided to get up early the next day...

DH said we were going to do whatever I wanted to do that day (including getting up early and no going back to the hotel for a nap/rest...which is amazing considering he gets really grumpy if we don't take rests and sleep in ) So I was really happy that I mentally planned the next day.

My plans were (Fantasyland first-Peter Pan, Mr. Toad, Pinnochio, Snow White, Matterhorn, Indy, Haunted Mansion, Pooh...then lunch and any fastpasses, etc.)...
Day 3 coming up...MUCH SOONER, I promise!!

 

[lulubelle]

Great report! I love how you just meandered around DCA and took it all in. We enjoy both parks and I get bummed when people bash DCA, anyway, I hope your well laid plans to hit all the FL rides tomorrow pan out. It really is the best plan of attack when going on a busy day.

Thanks again for sharing