Things I learned on this trip...

[blackjackdelta]

We go in August too sometimes and FWIW Jack and I have discussed August before. I agree with everything he said here. Except for the 8-10 miles a day thing beforehand!

In a previous life I use to walk a lot on a daily basis and walking afterwork helps me calm the mind. We just walk a bit farther when plan to go to DLR. Being my age the bones get creeky and the muscles with inactivity get cranky, so I take an engineers approach to prevention. Sometimes a bit fanatical. Have a great Friday.

Jack

 

[blackjackdelta]

I have not heard of the "fastpass ticket" before! Thanks.

Jack

 

[HydroGuy]

I think Intsmom was a first time DLR visitor and all such advice is very valuable because once you have gone a few times you tend to lose perspective. So my comments here are not meant to be argumentative but just provide an alternative point of view...

1. If you want to see the fireworks, be in front of to the right of the castle. You can't see anything from the leftside of the castle.

I have not seen the brand new fireworks show. Maybe this is true now. For past shows including RDCT we have viewed the fireworks from the left of the hub and that worked great and gave a great view of Tink.

3. Don't bother asking CMs for information. We got bad information repeatedly, even from the CM at the info desk at the hub. Your best bet is to talk to the security guards. They were the only CMs who seemed to have even a clue as to what was going on.

Since I know my way around DLR I rarely have to ask questions and cannot comment on this specifically. I will say on my first trip to WDW in 2006 I had the same experience as the OP. Tons of inaccurate info. On one night we were leaving Jungle Cruise at MK while SpectroMagic was starting and wanted to find a way across the parade route to ride Splash Mtn. The JC CM told us not to bother because Splash always closes for the night at dusk. (!)

Bottom line for me when dealing with CMs is if the info you want is important to you always ask at least two if not three CMs.

5. For those staying at Hojo's...the ART is now on summer schedule, meaning they run all day. That said, you can get to DLR in 15 minutes or so, including the wait. However, getting from DLR to Hojo's is a 45 minute affair. We only used the ART one day...the day we went back midday to swim.

ART has a poor reputation around here on DIS. Not that it is bad but just that it is often inefficient for DLR visits. Some people have good experiences but there are enough bad experiences to keep many of us away. A good percentage of us including me are sold on walking distance hotels where there is no need to depend on ART or other transportation. The CCI seems to make their guests happy with a reliable and frequent shuttle service.

HoJo's is considered a walking distance hotel although it is a bit of a hike. I would tell people to plan to walk from HoJo's.

7. Disneyland is for free spirits. If you are a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants person, you'll have a great time. If you're a planner, it will stress you out...especially if you're used to the way WDW works!

Agree and disagree.

DLR does not require as much planning as WDW. No ADR's 6 months out required. Thank God! No planning around EMH's both morning AND night. Only two theme parks. No need to learn bus and boat routes. Etc., etc.

On the other hand, I agree with some of the other responders that going to DLR with no planning at all only works for those who hate planning and do not mind waiting in lines and missing shows because of a failure to plan.

For instance, if you are a WDW vet you are used to reliable shows of Wishes and Illuminations. The fireworks shows at DLR are much more finicky and subject to cancellation. So a person who does some planning will pick up on a line of thought many of us on DIS hold which is do not save fireworks for the last night of your trip. See them the first night you can so that if they do get cancelled (which happens often) you have the maximum number of nights left to see them. This is DLR planning and of the type you do not have to do for WDW.

8. Want to ride the subs without waiting? Go first thing on an early entry day. We walked right on!

Yep. Same thing for PP and Dumbo. Popular slow loaders which build up significant lines.

9. Be prepared, your ticket will probably come up as being invalid on the last day of your visit. It happened to us and to two other families that rode the subs with us. I was lucky to have read about it here prior to our visit. They now require both tickets and handstamps each time you go in an out of a park. I was worried that all our hopping would cause this to happen to us. Luckily, the CM at the gate let us in.

Hmmmm. Never heard of that one. I do not think it is common. But it happened to the OP and is worthing be aware of.

 

[HydroGuy]

In a previous life I use to walk a lot on a daily basis and walking afterwork helps me calm the mind. We just walk a bit farther when plan to go to DLR. Being my age the bones get creeky and the muscles with inactivity get cranky, so I take an engineers approach to prevention. Sometimes a bit fanatical. Have a great Friday.

Jack

In truth I do the walking and hiking thing year round and do 25-35 miles a week in summer and 15-20 miles a week in winter. But not in prep for Disney trips! And none of my family does this with me with any regularity. That is porbably why they are so eager to let me be the FP runner!

 

[bumbershoot]

I have not heard of the "fastpass ticket" before! Thanks.

Jack

I hadn't either until I had problems with my AP. And it took quite a bit of work to figure out what the CM was talking about...we both thought the other was crazy or stupid until we had an "aha" moment and finally I got that he was talking about another slip of paper and he finally got that I was thinking he was saying I needed another "ticket".... Because we were able to work it through I ended up giving him an official "thanks"...not many people are able to explain things to me when I'm confused, b/c I can get REALLY confused, LOL. But he stuck it through with me!



I think the left side of the castle might be difficult b/c of the trees. Of course I haven't seen the new show, but we snagged some spots on the left side fairly close to the castle in May, and it was half obscured by the trees (so much easier to see through those things in December/January, LOL).

 

[HydroGuy]

I, unpopularily, agree with number 7. My inlaws who went with their ridemax software were SO IRRITABLE and rarely saw the rest of us.

Those of us who were fly by the seat of our pants had the best time ever. I hate sticking to a schedule in Disneyland (which is unlike me..I plan to plan to plan..I love organization!). It's probably the one place where you really CAN just go and have fun and whatever happens happens. I'd hate to have a set plan telling me to ride *this ride* and walk past another that had no line and still continue to the first ride! Heck no! I'm riding the WALK ON ride!!!

I can't follow a plan just b/c I forget about it...but on this last trip on the 3rd day I got my guys to listen to my basic ideas, and we did MUCH better after that! So I need some sort of plan.

Hmmm. When I hear "planning" it does not mean the same thing as a ride itinerary to me (like using RideMax).

Here is what planning at DLR means to me:

1. Having a basic idea of which rides are slow loaders, which are fast loaders, and which rides are best to hit early or late in the day and which others can be saved for mid-day.

2. Knowing how FP works and which FPs are best to get first

3. Knowing how MM works and which rides are best to do first. Also knowing how to tour DL on an MM day when you do not have MM.

4. When on summer trips knowing which rides are air conditioned

5. Knowing which rides have single rider lines

6. Knowing that fireworks get cancelled often and seeing them as early in your trip as possible

7. Knowing that Aladdin is a great show and which days it shows so you can plan to hit DCA on those days

8. Knowing that the Animation Studios exist at DCA and is a hidden gem for kids and adults too

9. Knowing that if Fantasmic shows twice to see the second show if possible

10. Knowing about the speaker tower trick at Fantasmic in case you are running late and need a decent viewing spot (I have never used the trick but I know about it just in case)

11. Knowing that since Fantasmic uses the Rivers of America that the rides that use ROA close early and must be done earlier in the day - PLATSI, MT, Columbia Ship and the DC Canoe ride.

12. Knowing that parkhopping is so easy at DLR and hopping every day at least once usually lets you experience more of DLR.

 

[HydroGuy]

I think the left side of the castle might be difficult b/c of the trees. Of course I haven't seen the new show, but we snagged some spots on the left side fairly close to the castle in May, and it was half obscured by the trees (so much easier to see through those things in December/January, LOL).

Well the right side has trees too! Wherever you are you need to be careful about trees. There are spots on the left where no trees obscure.

 

[bumbershoot]

Hmmm. When I hear "planning" it does not mean the same thing as a ride itinerary to me (like using RideMax).

Good point.

Well the right side has trees too! Wherever you are you need to be careful about trees. There are spots on the left where no trees obscure.

What I noticed is that when standing on that left side, we were looking up to the left for most of the show that we saw (it ended just after the Pirates part started, thanks to winds)...it would seem that if we'd been in the right hand mirror spot (meaning the same spot we were in, just mirrored on the right) we wouldn't have been so obstructed, b/c we would see on the other side of the trees. That's just how it seemed though...i'm definitely NOT an expert in the fireworks, mainly b/c I can't get my bearings on where exactly they are. DLR's layout mystifies me and the fireworks are the worst.

 

[blackjackdelta]

In truth I do the walking and hiking thing year round and do 25-35 miles a week in summer and 15-20 miles a week in winter. But not in prep for Disney trips! And none of my family does this with me with any regularity. That is porbably why they are so eager to let me be the FP runner!

We just kick it up a notch prior to Disney. I am also the runner of the group and use your analysis extensively. Would love to live in Colorado near the springs but no work there.

Jack

 

[Disney Dreams]

Hmmm. When I hear "planning" it does not mean the same thing as a ride itinerary to me (like using RideMax).

Here is what planning at DLR means to me:

...12. Knowing that parkhopping is so easy at DLR and hopping every day at least once usually lets you experience more of DLR.

And if I may add:

13. Knowing the shorter DCA hours (compared to DL) so you can play accordingly.

14. Knowing that all of ToonTown and a decent part of Fantasyland are closed during fireworks (for RDCT anyway).

15. Knowing ToonTown (and meeting Mickey in his house) closes earlier than the rest of the Park.

 

[avalon451]

Very much agree with Hydroguy about the difference between a "plan" and an itinerary. Just knowing the general things he talks about it makes it easy for you to plan in your head as you go. You know not to jump in a 60 minute line for Space Mountain at 6 p.m. Why would you? You already knew to pick up a fastpass for it early in the day.

I enjoyed playing with Ridemax and making my own detailed itinerary, but after our first trip, I realized that no itinerary will ever be perfect. I was much happier once I realized that you will certainly deviate from it. Once you are reconciled to the fact that your plans can and will change quickly, you'll know how to roll with the changes because of your research.

There were times on our second trip when I felt like we were being lazy, because we seemed to go at a leisurely pace and took LONG breaks back at the hotel midday. Yet when I looked back over everything we did (Space Mountain 11 times during our trip!) we did SO much. But we never waited in a line more than 15 minutes.

I'll never forget one time in NOS when my daughter suddenly got a hankering to deviate from the plan, and I said unerringly, "sure, that's over there, let's go this way. " She said, "Mom, you're like having a live park map and schedule with me. You know when and where everything is." Shortly thereafter we saw an irritated gentleman pushing a stroller with a cranky toddler in it, and saying through clenched teeth into his cell phone, "No, I DON'T know where we are, because YOU took the map!" And I said a silent and fervent thank you to DISboarders everywhere!

 

[LavenderPeach]

I think the left side of the castle might be difficult b/c of the trees. Of course I haven't seen the new show, but we snagged some spots on the left side fairly close to the castle in May, and it was half obscured by the trees (so much easier to see through those things in December/January, LOL).

I don't think Dec/Jan is much better. We were on the left side of the castle to see the Christmas fireworks this past December and we couldn't see much. It was a little bit foggy so we could see the reflection of the colors of the fireworks over the trees which was kind of pretty but no actual fireworks on the left side except for a few glimpses here and there. We don't often stop to watch the fireworks shows but next time I will definitely be looking for a spot on the right side.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

I'll agree with that.

You can know things to help and plan that way (I very much did that before we left but it all flew out the window for the most part)

I guess I was just thinking of my poor inlaws who would NOT listen to anyone else and had a horrible time.

 

[Saskiwi]

Agree - we saw very few Photopass people - I had joined up for a Photoshare here and had to bail, and felt bad about it, but we just hadn't had any pics taken!

We stayed at Hojo's and never considered taking the ART - unless you have walking issues, it's an 8 minute stroll, so waiting for a shuttle made no sense to us - our kids are pretty good walkers and had no problems with it.

As for planning vs seat of the pants - that depends on the individual! I'm a planner and we memorised Hydroguys's tips, maxed out FP everyday, park-hopped, got to the gates early most days and had a blast, but I know that's not for everyone...

 

[mac_daddy]

I don't think Dec/Jan is much better.

True, global warming is fixing that in every climate Zone!

 

[bumbershoot]

It might just have been different trees. In Jan '08 and Dec '08 we stood further back (from where we were standing last month) and the trees in front of us were bare. However, standing further back allowed us to not have the BIG trees (that were blocking some of the fireworks for us in May) be such a bother.

So I don't know about the BIG trees, but the little trees around Main Street and the area near the castle have a definite seasonal difference.

 

[mystic_path]

I am going to agree with your photopass tip. There really werent that many photo pass people around. I saw 3 in DCA and 1 in DL. Even half the time I was there even for popular characters such as Pinocchio on Main Street (Which is rare) there wasnt a photo pass person around to be had. It was a shame.

 

[lntsmom]

I'm a planner. I had our itinerary written for days 1-4 of our trip before we left. I am flexible, and on previous trips was used to tweaking the plan as the day went on, but tweaking wouldn't do anything to salvage our basic plans on day 3. Maybe we just hit a bad week, but a common theme for our week was that we had to plan our day around when the rides were up and running. You can plan all you want, but when Indy goes down half a day and then off-and-on for the rest of the week, you have to either skip Indy or throw out your plan and stay in that area so you can keep checking to see whether it's up or not.

I had many, many people that week make the comment that they'd never seen the rides having the kind of trouble they did while we were there. I can't tell you the number of times we were told that we couldn't get fast passes or use single rider lines because they were having trouble with rides and had closed those until the ride was running correctly. Even rides like Pooh...I mean, how does Pooh go down???

On top of that, they were having trouble with their cash register systems one day and much of what went on there seemed random. Some was good random...like getting to see at least part of the new fireworks show and getting to ride Peter Pan. Other was bad random...like the boats at the Disneyland Hotel being closed off.

I guess you had to be there last week to understand. Maybe it was very unusual, but for this trip I found that planning ahead was iffy at best.

The good news is, lines were short for most rides (under 10 minutes!) and we were able to use Fast Pass enough that we missed the lines that were long.

It didn't have a whole lot of impact on our trip as we had 4 1/2 days there this time. Had I tried to stick to even the general plan, we would have ended up skipping a bunch of rides trying to stay on schedule.

On another topic....

Yes, it's only 8 minutes to HoJo's. HOWEVER...It was day 5 of a 6 day trip. We'd already spent 3 1/2 full days in the park and we were going back to the hotel for a rest. As I mentioned, we only used the ART one day of our 6 day trip. I was just trying to give an honest account of how it worked for us. Mind you, there were people who got on it thinking they could take it to Universal Studios, so maybe it was an unusually long trip due to the folks who wandered on during our trip to the hotel. We waited over 20 minutes for it to start with. Again, maybe I'm the only person in history who's ever had the ride back to HoJo's take 45 minutes. It's what happened, and I thought it was worth sharing for others who might be planning to do the same.

 

[lntsmom]

Did you have the 5-for-3 tickets? I've heard they had problems witht hose. For anyone who has a problem that is fixed, but then they have problems getting FPs, stop in City Hall and get a "fastpass ticket", which is another slip of paper that you use in the machines, rather than having to find a CM at every FP machine. And that goes for APs that go awry too.

Yep, we had the 5-for-3 deal. There may just have been something wrong with the computers that day, though, as at least one other family who mentioned having issues didn't have the same deal.

Oddly, our tickets still worked for Fast Passes that day!

 

[lntsmom]

This was a sneak preview, meaning that other than Dave, the security guard at CA who said there would be a show unless there were high winds, everyone else was denying it. Less than 5 minutes before the show they made an announcement that there was going to be a sneak preview...so everyone in the park was stampeding for Main Street.

We stopped at the first open roped off area we found...the by the sidewalk on the left side of the Hub (if you're facing the castle). In front of us were trees that blocked our view of everything but about a 6' x6' patch of the castle that we could spy through them. Oh, and the umbrellas on the stands around the Hub were left open...they also blocked the view.

Additionally, I can't tell you whether Dumbo, Tink, both, or neither flew that night because we couldn't see the wires at all.

I didn't think ya'll needed this much detail...I was just trying to share some advice that I thought might be helpful.

For those of you who seem to be implying that my experience was invalid, more power to you for being superhuman and being able to know exactly what I experienced despite that fact that you weren't there last week, and even if you were, you weren't with me.

I guess I could have posted a list of all the things that went exactly as I'd expected, but I'm not sure how that would have helped anyone with their plans.

I think I'll skip my trip report this time and bid you all farewell!