Metalliman98
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2015
- Messages
- 406
Trip #5 of 6 on our Premium APs, during the heat wave. Highlights:
Weather: Incredibly hot Sunday and Monday but this had the pleasant side effect of keeping wait times down. We arrived Sunday afternoon after a long drive from Sacramento (made about an hour longer by yours truly leaving his cell phone at a pit stop and having to backtrack 30 miles for it!), so we didn't do much in terms of rides, though we did hit Toy Story with a 15 minute wait around 6:30 or 7, which is unheard of if you know anything about that ride. Tuesday through Thursday were much cooler by the thermometer (low to mid 80s) but the humidity was awful, and made those days worse than Sunday or Monday in my opinion. Of course, Friday, the day we left, had the best weather all week, low 80s and not nearly as humid.
Accommodations: We were at the Courtyard Theme Park Entrance, our third time staying at the hotel. I am a big Marriott guy (travel for work) and we love that hotel. Made use of the waterpark several times. Only downside is it is a bit of a long walk to/from the parks, but no longer than the DLH. Staying at BW Anaheim Inn in August, we'll see how that goes.
Parks: Looked beautiful, with everything up and running, though it did seem that some attractions were running at low capacity in morning hours, CA Screamin' most notably, running only two trains/one loading side until about 10 or 11 o'clock. ThanksShanghai or standard operating procedure? In any event, that was the only real noticeable cutback, and it wasn't all day. Good to see ToT back to full capacity finally. Amazing to see how much progress on Star Wars land, as viewed from Big Thunder Mountain. The new Soarin was a "meh" for me, beautiful visuals but the Taj Mahal scene looked totally fake, and for some reason it seemed like they crammed too many sights into the movie. The CA version seemed to have the appropriate length of time on each scene, whereas in the new version several scenes seemed rushed.
Food: Pretty good this trip. We luckily had ADRs for ESPN zone on the 19th. I've been wanting to try it and always make ADRs regardless of location or date, and glad that I did as there ended up being a game 7 to the NBA finals, so the place was packed. They actually called me the day before to try to get us to come before 4 or after 8, but that wasn't happening. We checked in and were 6th in line for ADRs at about 6 o'clock; people checking in for walk-up were being told there were 83 parties ahead of them! Saw all of third quarter and start of the 4th; disappointed about the result, but not enough to put a damper on our trip. Other food highlights: PTN package at the Blue Bayou for my sister-in-laws 30th birthday, great food, great ambiance, great cake; Minnie's character breakfast was good food-wise as usual, but there seemed to be several new characters that I'd never seen there before, including Gepetto, Pinocchio, Rafiki, and the penguin from Mary Poppins. Maybe because we never usually go during the busy summer months? Anyway, great time there. Food lowlights: Carthay circle WoC dinner, I thought the food was ok, but my father-in-law was not happy, and I can't blame him; ordered the pork chop medium rare, clearly expressed this to the waiter, and it came out beyond well done. They replaced it with one cooked to his liking, but by then most of the rest of us were almost done eating and he was still in a foul mood about it; he's had bad luck there so I suspect the in-laws will not be returning to that restaurant.
Entertainment: PTN was great as always, and I thought the Blue Bayou package location was good. As a bonus, the college band played a set of Star Wars music right in front of us before the start of the parade. DF afterward was our best view of it yet from near the flagpole, though someday I am going to see it on Main Street. WoC was fine, we'd seen it before and I think it has too much NPH, but my mother-in-law had never seen it and absolutely loved it. Didn't make it to Frozen, saving it for August when it is likely to be even hotter and we need a mid to late afternoon break from the heat. The new Turtle Talk was cute. Our son decided he wanted to do the Jedi Training, but not until Wednesday night, when DL had early entry the next day (the last full day of the trip), so that wasn't happening. Again, something to look forward to in August.
And that's it. No bad CM or other guest experiences, even with the heat. Some internal meltdowns and squabbles but that's true of any family trip. Looking forward to our final AP trip in August, sad that we won't be APs any more, but with DS going to kindergarten it'll be too hard to pull him out of school. Plus, after this last trip it kind of feels like we've done everything, save for Jedi and Frozen show, and so we probably need a break, and will look forward to coming back (after this August trip) after the ROA and Railroad are back up and running.
Weather: Incredibly hot Sunday and Monday but this had the pleasant side effect of keeping wait times down. We arrived Sunday afternoon after a long drive from Sacramento (made about an hour longer by yours truly leaving his cell phone at a pit stop and having to backtrack 30 miles for it!), so we didn't do much in terms of rides, though we did hit Toy Story with a 15 minute wait around 6:30 or 7, which is unheard of if you know anything about that ride. Tuesday through Thursday were much cooler by the thermometer (low to mid 80s) but the humidity was awful, and made those days worse than Sunday or Monday in my opinion. Of course, Friday, the day we left, had the best weather all week, low 80s and not nearly as humid.
Accommodations: We were at the Courtyard Theme Park Entrance, our third time staying at the hotel. I am a big Marriott guy (travel for work) and we love that hotel. Made use of the waterpark several times. Only downside is it is a bit of a long walk to/from the parks, but no longer than the DLH. Staying at BW Anaheim Inn in August, we'll see how that goes.
Parks: Looked beautiful, with everything up and running, though it did seem that some attractions were running at low capacity in morning hours, CA Screamin' most notably, running only two trains/one loading side until about 10 or 11 o'clock. ThanksShanghai or standard operating procedure? In any event, that was the only real noticeable cutback, and it wasn't all day. Good to see ToT back to full capacity finally. Amazing to see how much progress on Star Wars land, as viewed from Big Thunder Mountain. The new Soarin was a "meh" for me, beautiful visuals but the Taj Mahal scene looked totally fake, and for some reason it seemed like they crammed too many sights into the movie. The CA version seemed to have the appropriate length of time on each scene, whereas in the new version several scenes seemed rushed.
Food: Pretty good this trip. We luckily had ADRs for ESPN zone on the 19th. I've been wanting to try it and always make ADRs regardless of location or date, and glad that I did as there ended up being a game 7 to the NBA finals, so the place was packed. They actually called me the day before to try to get us to come before 4 or after 8, but that wasn't happening. We checked in and were 6th in line for ADRs at about 6 o'clock; people checking in for walk-up were being told there were 83 parties ahead of them! Saw all of third quarter and start of the 4th; disappointed about the result, but not enough to put a damper on our trip. Other food highlights: PTN package at the Blue Bayou for my sister-in-laws 30th birthday, great food, great ambiance, great cake; Minnie's character breakfast was good food-wise as usual, but there seemed to be several new characters that I'd never seen there before, including Gepetto, Pinocchio, Rafiki, and the penguin from Mary Poppins. Maybe because we never usually go during the busy summer months? Anyway, great time there. Food lowlights: Carthay circle WoC dinner, I thought the food was ok, but my father-in-law was not happy, and I can't blame him; ordered the pork chop medium rare, clearly expressed this to the waiter, and it came out beyond well done. They replaced it with one cooked to his liking, but by then most of the rest of us were almost done eating and he was still in a foul mood about it; he's had bad luck there so I suspect the in-laws will not be returning to that restaurant.
Entertainment: PTN was great as always, and I thought the Blue Bayou package location was good. As a bonus, the college band played a set of Star Wars music right in front of us before the start of the parade. DF afterward was our best view of it yet from near the flagpole, though someday I am going to see it on Main Street. WoC was fine, we'd seen it before and I think it has too much NPH, but my mother-in-law had never seen it and absolutely loved it. Didn't make it to Frozen, saving it for August when it is likely to be even hotter and we need a mid to late afternoon break from the heat. The new Turtle Talk was cute. Our son decided he wanted to do the Jedi Training, but not until Wednesday night, when DL had early entry the next day (the last full day of the trip), so that wasn't happening. Again, something to look forward to in August.
And that's it. No bad CM or other guest experiences, even with the heat. Some internal meltdowns and squabbles but that's true of any family trip. Looking forward to our final AP trip in August, sad that we won't be APs any more, but with DS going to kindergarten it'll be too hard to pull him out of school. Plus, after this last trip it kind of feels like we've done everything, save for Jedi and Frozen show, and so we probably need a break, and will look forward to coming back (after this August trip) after the ROA and Railroad are back up and running.
