HydroGuy
A Pirate's Life For Me
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2005
- Messages
- 18,415
We took a day trip to DLR on Wednesday August 5. I really do not like day trips very much as they are so exhausting. When my DS17 decided he wanted to take his DGF to DLR (with me as not only an unpaid tour guide but having to pay for everyone's admission 
) I lobbied for a two day trip but got voted down by the rest of the clan. My DS17's DGF had only been to DL once when she was four and only remembered the Dumbo ride. So we oriented towards getting her on rides she might like. She said she did not like big drops and was not too into rollercoasters, so we did not know what to expect.
My niece and nephew joined us to make a group of eight. My niece's friend's family also happened to show up that day and 2-3 of their kids joined us later in the day so at times we had 11 people.
We arrived at DLR at 7:15AM after a one-hour drive from Riverside. I dropped the kids at the Harbor entrance and went to park the car. They got a spot second in line. I parked the car and that went very quickly. There was no line at Mickey & Friends and I got parked and back to the gates by 7:30AM.
The family in front of us got selected as family of the day. So we moved up to first in our line.
I bought e-tickets about two weeks beforehand and that worked great. The CM scanned them at the turnstiles and gave us paper tickets.
They did the countdown and let us into DL at 7:45AM. We walked to the end of Main Street where the rope held everyone until 8AM.
As I mentioned earlier, the rides we chose were oriented towards DS17's DGF. So we decided to start the day in Fantasyland. And with Peter Pan. So I sent the kids to PP and made a right turn to snag some Space Mtn FPs. But Space Mtn started the day down and so the FP machines were also down.
I did not want to miss the first FP opportunity so told the kids to get in the rapidly building PP line while I went over to get Indy FPs. On a summer day Splash FPs are more popular then Indy in my experience, but Splash was too far to walk with the kids waiting for me at PP. So I got Indy. I joined the kids in line at PP and we got onto PP shortly thereafter.
I ended up getting Splash FPs second that day and Space Mtn third.
Fantasyland and DL was fairly uncrowded this morning.
At 9:30 I sent DS17 and his DGF to Mickey's House in Toontown because she wanted a pic with Mickey. RideMax really helped here as RM told me to expect a line of 30-35 minutes. Knowing that it was not that crowded I told DS17 to expect a line of 30 minutes. When they got there he called me and told me the line was really long. I told him to stick it out. He later told me that they got to Mickey in 30 minutes so RM was right on.
While they were at Mickey's House the other kids rode Star Tours. I wanted to get Soarin FPs and Star Tours is the one ride I cannot do at DLR. So I hopped over to DCA and got FPs at about 9:40AM. For those not aware, while DCA opens at 10AM they do open one ride, Soarin Over California at 9:30. And they also open the FP machines. So I got them and headed back to DL.
I met up with the Star Tours kids and we went on BLAB. After that we hooked up with DS17 and DGF and we continued on. Turns out DS17's DGF had lost her fear of fast rides and really loved Space Mtn. She rode everything at DL with no problem.
It was somewhat hot that day (mid-80's) and I had made a PS for Rainforest Cafe at 1:30. We exited DL at about 1:20. I sent the kids over to RFC and I went in to DCA to get GRR FPs. After I got the FPs I used the GCH special entrance/exit to shortcut back to DTD and RFC. On the way out I asked the CM if we could re-enter there even though we were not hotel guests and he said "no problem".
We took about 90 minutes at lunch and drank lots of fluids and cooled off in the air conditioned RFC. Not as good as a swim and nap at a local hotel but it worked to restore some energy.
I sent DS17 and his DGF on their own to DL to try and get a picture with Belle at 3PM. But that did not work out. See http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2243646
The rest of us successfully re-entered DCA through the GCH entrance. DS17 and DGF met us at Soarin and we used our Soarin FPs.
We did six rides at DCA, with DS17's DGF riding California Screamin with much trepidation. After we got off she insisted we ride it again. Go girl!
She also rode Tower of Terror with us and liked it too. RideMax helped here as well as it told me the line for TSMM went down in the afternoon. I heard the line got up to 60 minutes but by the time we got to TSMM at 5PM it was 30 minutes long - just about what RM predicted. So we got in the standby line and waited it out since my two older kids had never done TSMM.
We got back to DL at about 7 and did some shopping on Main Street. We did Tiki Room and IASW which my teen boys always want to skip but this time they came along. It was the first time I got on IASW since the refurb and personally I liked the changes that were so controversial.
We saw the 10:30 Fantasmic show where DS17's DGF got to see Belle in the show which made her happy. We used the Light Tower Trick to get a spot. See "Fantasmic Light Tower Trick" http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2225094.
We rode some more rides after Fantasmic and left at 11:45. We wanted to get in another ride on BTMRR but it had trouble that day and had a 50 minute line at 11:45. We had FPs but the FP return line was 25 minutes long according to the CMs. So we left.
We had a 15 hour and 45 minute day and were terribly exhausted. We did 25 rides. After it got into the evening we were all dragging but all the kids were determined to stay until midnight. Of course the great thing about multi-day trips is that you can get that afternoon break and the evenings are so much more enjoyable.
) I lobbied for a two day trip but got voted down by the rest of the clan. My DS17's DGF had only been to DL once when she was four and only remembered the Dumbo ride. So we oriented towards getting her on rides she might like. She said she did not like big drops and was not too into rollercoasters, so we did not know what to expect.My niece and nephew joined us to make a group of eight. My niece's friend's family also happened to show up that day and 2-3 of their kids joined us later in the day so at times we had 11 people.
We arrived at DLR at 7:15AM after a one-hour drive from Riverside. I dropped the kids at the Harbor entrance and went to park the car. They got a spot second in line. I parked the car and that went very quickly. There was no line at Mickey & Friends and I got parked and back to the gates by 7:30AM.
The family in front of us got selected as family of the day. So we moved up to first in our line.
I bought e-tickets about two weeks beforehand and that worked great. The CM scanned them at the turnstiles and gave us paper tickets.
They did the countdown and let us into DL at 7:45AM. We walked to the end of Main Street where the rope held everyone until 8AM.
As I mentioned earlier, the rides we chose were oriented towards DS17's DGF. So we decided to start the day in Fantasyland. And with Peter Pan. So I sent the kids to PP and made a right turn to snag some Space Mtn FPs. But Space Mtn started the day down and so the FP machines were also down.
I did not want to miss the first FP opportunity so told the kids to get in the rapidly building PP line while I went over to get Indy FPs. On a summer day Splash FPs are more popular then Indy in my experience, but Splash was too far to walk with the kids waiting for me at PP. So I got Indy. I joined the kids in line at PP and we got onto PP shortly thereafter.
I ended up getting Splash FPs second that day and Space Mtn third.
Fantasyland and DL was fairly uncrowded this morning.
At 9:30 I sent DS17 and his DGF to Mickey's House in Toontown because she wanted a pic with Mickey. RideMax really helped here as RM told me to expect a line of 30-35 minutes. Knowing that it was not that crowded I told DS17 to expect a line of 30 minutes. When they got there he called me and told me the line was really long. I told him to stick it out. He later told me that they got to Mickey in 30 minutes so RM was right on.
While they were at Mickey's House the other kids rode Star Tours. I wanted to get Soarin FPs and Star Tours is the one ride I cannot do at DLR. So I hopped over to DCA and got FPs at about 9:40AM. For those not aware, while DCA opens at 10AM they do open one ride, Soarin Over California at 9:30. And they also open the FP machines. So I got them and headed back to DL.
I met up with the Star Tours kids and we went on BLAB. After that we hooked up with DS17 and DGF and we continued on. Turns out DS17's DGF had lost her fear of fast rides and really loved Space Mtn. She rode everything at DL with no problem.
It was somewhat hot that day (mid-80's) and I had made a PS for Rainforest Cafe at 1:30. We exited DL at about 1:20. I sent the kids over to RFC and I went in to DCA to get GRR FPs. After I got the FPs I used the GCH special entrance/exit to shortcut back to DTD and RFC. On the way out I asked the CM if we could re-enter there even though we were not hotel guests and he said "no problem".
We took about 90 minutes at lunch and drank lots of fluids and cooled off in the air conditioned RFC. Not as good as a swim and nap at a local hotel but it worked to restore some energy.
I sent DS17 and his DGF on their own to DL to try and get a picture with Belle at 3PM. But that did not work out. See http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2243646
The rest of us successfully re-entered DCA through the GCH entrance. DS17 and DGF met us at Soarin and we used our Soarin FPs.
We did six rides at DCA, with DS17's DGF riding California Screamin with much trepidation. After we got off she insisted we ride it again. Go girl!
She also rode Tower of Terror with us and liked it too. RideMax helped here as well as it told me the line for TSMM went down in the afternoon. I heard the line got up to 60 minutes but by the time we got to TSMM at 5PM it was 30 minutes long - just about what RM predicted. So we got in the standby line and waited it out since my two older kids had never done TSMM.We got back to DL at about 7 and did some shopping on Main Street. We did Tiki Room and IASW which my teen boys always want to skip but this time they came along. It was the first time I got on IASW since the refurb and personally I liked the changes that were so controversial.
We saw the 10:30 Fantasmic show where DS17's DGF got to see Belle in the show which made her happy. We used the Light Tower Trick to get a spot. See "Fantasmic Light Tower Trick" http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2225094.
We rode some more rides after Fantasmic and left at 11:45. We wanted to get in another ride on BTMRR but it had trouble that day and had a 50 minute line at 11:45. We had FPs but the FP return line was 25 minutes long according to the CMs. So we left.
We had a 15 hour and 45 minute day and were terribly exhausted. We did 25 rides. After it got into the evening we were all dragging but all the kids were determined to stay until midnight. Of course the great thing about multi-day trips is that you can get that afternoon break and the evenings are so much more enjoyable.
I just decided 'screw the FPs, I'm going back to wait in line for PPF' 
In 2007 we had a PS at Storytellers but something came up and we did not make it.
