Trip report July 8th to 13th

[disneydreamer74]

In thinking about this some more.... On site guests have always had access to every MM at DL, correct? So what has changed? Why is there such a rush to MM now? Is this ONLY because of the emphasis DLR is placing on that extra hour now?

True, DLR resorts do not advertise this to guests. When I stayed onsite I was never told about this. When I read about it here on the boards I was surprised! Now, they are heavily advertising this as a perk so I guess that is why the crowds are in the parks so early.

 

[rramstad]

Thanks for the report. Very helpful in terms of your experience in doing things in order.

I didn't see you mention the other two Carsland rides. Did you skip those or were they easier to fit in than it appears by the wait times I've seen posted?

We skipped them, the lines seemed insane, and my family didn't think Luigi's looked all that fun... and Mater's seemed pretty similar to the "Scrambler" which is a very typical midway attraction, with extra theming, so we didn't bother with it either.

I suspect that the right time with either would be very very first thing in the morning (when everyone is in line for RSR) or very very very last thing at night (when everyone is in line for RSR).

 

[rramstad]

Yes hotel guests have had access to EE before same mornings as anyone with MM on their ticket, but it hasn't been advertised before. Although I've been told about it at checkin before. The only other possible thing I can think of is that its a different type of crowd? Not just your casual visitor that is unwilling to get up early on vacation?

I think it's both. I know that people staying at DLR are being told that the ONLY way to experience the Cars rides in any sort of reasonable fashion is to take advantage of EMH, and so as an extension, I think you end up kind of retraining people -- in years past, they might have not known about the MM for on site guests, or they might have known but not bothered, but now, given the situation with RSR, they quickly recalibrate and end up making a point of doing things early.

(It's news to me that EMH can be had at either park every day, that's a new wrinkle, but probably smart on the part of Disney as it was very clear that APEE was involving a very very limited number of people. I don't know if EMH at both parks every day was in effect the time we were there, from the 8th to the 13th, if it was, it's possible that some hotel guests and/or CMs were working off of old information, like we were.)

 

[rramstad]

We did MM at DL on Tuesday the 10th and had no problems whipping through all the FL rides with short lines. We rode Matterhorn last and we waited maybe 10 minutes in the regular line. It was about 8:15-8:30.

Yeah, I regret not having used our MM on the Tuesday. Bad move in retrospect. I have no idea why DL was so crowded Thursday, but it was super crowded all day, as compared to Tuesday which was much more manageable.

 

[rramstad]

One other tidbit:

We did have one evening where we saw both the fireworks and the second showing of Fantasmic. It was actually quite easy.

We made a point of finding a spot near one of the ropes at the entrance to Frontierland. We got there around 9 PM, maybe just a tad later, and when the CMs came by asking for people to move forward, we did not, we made an aisle near us so people who wanted to join the crowd could easily get into the area.

From that vantage point, the fireworks were easy to see for the most part, except for some trees, and the angle was a bit silly, in that a lot of the fireworks are supposed to go off over and around the castle, but from our angle, they were off center. On the plus side, we could easily see Tink and Dumbo. (Last year we watched from over by Pixie Hollow and couldn't see them very easily because the castle got in the way most of the time.)

When the fireworks ended, we headed directly to Frontierland and near the steamboat / riverboat queue, they had a rope up so that people leaving the first Fantasmic could get out of there without the (now large) crowd interfering. Probably around 10:10 PM they walked us up into the area, and interestingly, most of the crowd dropped off super early, around the Golden Horseshoe. We kept walking up to the soundboard and light towers, and the area right in front of the soundboard is a "sitting only" area, dead center. The ushers wouldn't allow strollers to be left unfolded, or wheelchairs to be in the way, as anything above three feet or so would interfere with the soundboard operators being able to see everything.

This was a GREAT spot to watch Fantasmic... but if you needed to stand or had a wheelchair, you could have just kept going, closer to the launch for the Pirate Lair rafts, and had a great spot there, too, again, for whatever reason, the second show crowds all seemed to stop at that closest point to BTMRR or POTC and try to find seating there, as opposed to going further into New Orleans Square.

BTW, with that great vantage point for Fantasmic, I still think that show is probably the weakest of the major night shows... World of Color to me is the best, and I like the fireworks better than F! but they are pretty different.

(I have to make an effort some time to get down in front for WoC, we've had nice spots for the two times we've seen it, kind of dead center in the blue section, not too far back, no one directly in front of us, but it would be fun on a really hot day to be in the wet zone.)

 

[dlinne]

We did MM at DL on Tuesday the 10th and had no problems whipping through all the FL rides with short lines. We rode Matterhorn last and we waited maybe 10 minutes in the regular line. It was about 8:15-8:30.

My family was at DL for MM on Tues 7/10 as well and went through all of FL and Buzz before 8am.

On Thu 7/12 we were at CA Adv by 720, husband got in the FP line for RSR and me and DD did rope drop.

It sounds like Thur 7/12 at DL MM was not the place to be for some reason. I was really pleased with our MM on Tues though.