We Defected to the West! DLR 2013

[missangelalexis]

3 rides on TOT isn't bad at all!

What a great photo in front of Santa's Sleigh!

 

[TexasErin]

Thanks! So spill it..... what did you think of DLR overall? You must have liked it if you're going back!

I struggle with considering the WOC package as well. That one's easier to decide against though since Katie loves dessert but is a really picker dinner eater! She's closing in on 14 and we're still getting hosed on adult dining at Disney!

And hot chocolate in summer? You sure couldn't do that at WDW in the summer?

Sorry I'm just now responding---work has been a real bear lately...

Like Katie, my son Nicholas is also picky with dinner, so doesn't do well with adult dining either. He wants the kids' meals, but he's 5 ft 7 already (at the age of 11) and needs a lot more food than a kid's meal.

We loved DLR!! DH, DD (17), and I all instantly decided that we wanted to go back to DLR instead of WDW next year....DS (11) was a much harder sale on the idea. He finally decided that Space Mountain being open next year would be worth going back to DLR.

Being able to walk from the hotel, less rain, and cooler weather were all huge bonuses. On our last day at DLR, I started thinking about how I really didn't want to go back to WDW next year and kinda started to dread the thought of WDW transportation, daily rain showers, and being covered in sweat with Rosanna Rosanna Danna hair before 10 a.m. It was just too convenient to not have the long waits for busses, dirty fairies, or packed monorails. The only thing we missed was Epcot and we prefer the food at WDW.

One of my earliest memories is going to see Snow White when it was rereleased to theaters when I was three years old- I have always loved Disney- especially Walt! So the nostalgia factor was huge for me. And we all loved RSR, Indiana Jones, and the Aladdin Show. I also loved just hanging out inside the Art of Animation building and watching the clips and Disney art.

And riding on BTMRR in the cool evening air with it being in pristine condition after the long refurb is one of my favorite memories from the trip.

That being said, 2016 we will more than likely go back to WDW. DS really would like to go back and I really want to ride the new Seven Dwarfs Mine train. But yeah, I think we'll pass on the hot chocolate.

 

[mom2rtk]

I was planning on doing it at 8.30 if the park is open at 10 or whatever the earliesyt is if the park is open earlier because we only have one magic morning.

Ahhh..... I think that would be a great way to start the day. We were staying onsite so had early entry every day and wanted to make the most of those opportunities.

Love the Fantasmic shots. I still have not seen it at either park. I wish I could've at DL...but that darn rain....and from what I have heard it hasn't rained since....go figure.
Breakfast looks fun. Nice to see some not so normal characters. Though I have never even seen that movie.
I think I am just going to have you edit all my pictures from now on. You do such a fabulous job. And I know it's not one bit time consuming.

LOL, they must have ordered the rain especially for you. Gives you something to look forward to when you go back, right?

Thanks for the vote of confidence in my photo editing. But when I'm done here, I'm going to retire. OK, so you know me better than to believe that. But I'm definitely taking a nice LONG break.

I'm going to work on an update in a minute, but this is going to be fun. I just noticed my numbers on my images went all cuckoo in this batch. What the HECK is up with that? The numbers jump all over the place. So when my photo storage system stores them numerically, they jump all over the place. As a result, they're all out of order on Flickr too. Yuck.

We've done the breakfast at Storytellers before and while the food is good (standard buffet but you can order off the menu if you want) I found the price to be way too much. We didn't go for character interaction but even if we did the characters are pretty limited like you had stated. My favorite breakfast is inside Disneyland at the Riverbelle Terrace. Watching the Mark Twain steam by and having my breakfast is wonderful. It reminds me of the breakfast at Port Orleans Riverside at WDW.

I want to try some new things when we go back this year. So I'm probably going to try breakfast one day exactly as you describe. Sounds like a great way to start a day! Any idea how late they serve breakfast? I imagine we'd try play a bit first.

 

[mom2rtk]

Just discovered this report and am loving it! Your photos are amazing!! Haven't got far yet but was hugely impressed by your POTC photos. My husband and I have just bought a new proper DSLR with an expensive lens for our trip in Feb and it's supposed to be quiet good at capturing images in the dark so I hope we can get some dark ride shots and quality night shots this time round Thanks for sharing - Btw if you have any photography tips to share my husband would be hugely grateful (he is reading and learning all he can to get the most use out of our new camera for the next trip) Additionally those carolers were the exact same group we saw the day after Thanksgiving when we left Disneyland last year! We were waiting for our transfer to the airport and sat and watched them for about 30 minutes! They were awesome Ahh the memories

So glad you found us!

Congrats on the new camera! My number one suggestion would be to get out and practice with it! My number two suggestion would be to read Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. My number 3 suggestion would be to pop into the DISboards Photography Board and ask any questions you have.

The carolers really were quite awesome. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again this year!

Glad ToT started running before y'all got too far away!

Those are great Photopass pics of y'all! I love those Christmas ears....so cute!

Thanks! We really love those Christmas ears too. They are laying in the dining room right now waiting to pack up and go back to DL again in a few months!

And it was really a nice surprise to have ToT open up just for us! OK, maybe not just for us. But it was a great start to the morning!

3 rides on TOT isn't bad at all!

What a great photo in front of Santa's Sleigh!

Thanks! I thought that photo op in front of Santa's sleigh was just adorable. We stopped there a couple times.

Sorry I'm just now responding---work has been a real bear lately...

Like Katie, my son Nicholas is also picky with dinner, so doesn't do well with adult dining either. He wants the kids' meals, but he's 5 ft 7 already (at the age of 11) and needs a lot more food than a kid's meal.

We loved DLR!! DH, DD (17), and I all instantly decided that we wanted to go back to DLR instead of WDW next year....DS (11) was a much harder sale on the idea. He finally decided that Space Mountain being open next year would be worth going back to DLR.

Being able to walk from the hotel, less rain, and cooler weather were all huge bonuses. On our last day at DLR, I started thinking about how I really didn't want to go back to WDW next year and kinda started to dread the thought of WDW transportation, daily rain showers, and being covered in sweat with Rosanna Rosanna Danna hair before 10 a.m. It was just too convenient to not have the long waits for busses, dirty fairies, or packed monorails. The only thing we missed was Epcot and we prefer the food at WDW.

One of my earliest memories is going to see Snow White when it was rereleased to theaters when I was three years old- I have always loved Disney- especially Walt! So the nostalgia factor was huge for me. And we all loved RSR, Indiana Jones, and the Aladdin Show. I also loved just hanging out inside the Art of Animation building and watching the clips and Disney art.

And riding on BTMRR in the cool evening air with it being in pristine condition after the long refurb is one of my favorite memories from the trip.

That being said, 2016 we will more than likely go back to WDW. DS really would like to go back and I really want to ride the new Seven Dwarfs Mine train. But yeah, I think we'll pass on the hot chocolate.

Sounds like great reasons to return to DLR. Katie actually requested DLR before we even had much of a discussion on the matter. But now you have me getting really excited about riding their BTMRR again! It was still closed when we were there. So we haven't been on it since 2010. We're also looking forward to the Storybook Canal again. Not exciting, but definitely nostalgic.

One of my earliest Disney memories was seeing Sleeping Beauty on one of its theatrical releases. I sigh every time I drive by that theater these days (now a Goodwill Store! )

 

[mom2rtk]

Monday June 9th, 2013 Continued:


The rest of our stay was to be all about Disneyland. We still had a lot of ground to cover. So we headed there quickly. They told us the night before that the Lilly Belle might be on the track Monday after taking down the CP stage. So on our way in, we checked in at the train station just to see. Not surprisingly, it was already fully booked for the day. But we had checked. That would have to wait for the following day. I snapped a few photos from the train station and we hurried on our way.



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Our first stop was Space Mountain. I was so disappointed when I originally heard it would be closed during our visit. I love that ride, and remember the DL version being much smoother (and easier on the neck) than the WDW version. We grabbed fastpasses and got in line to go standby. The wait time was posted at less than 30 minutes. I really don't remember the outside part of the queue at DL. Maybe we've only even done it with FP there or something? But it seemed we were up there in that line outside forever. And it was shaping up to be a very windy day. It felt like we just might blow away. I think the line was longer than promised, but we finally got to ride it. It didn't feel as smooth as I remember, but that could just be my aging neck.

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We still had some time to kill before our fastpasses were valid, so we headed up toward the castle. Since we had seen the Evil Queen out by the wishing well during our tour, we made a priority of trying to find her back again. She wasn't there but we had time to try a couple more dark rides. We rode both Mr. Toad and Pinocchio with pretty minimal waits. I love that DL has such a wide variety of dark rides in Fantasyland.

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Next we headed back to Tomorrowland for our second trip on Space Mountain, this time with a fastpass.

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We headed back toward the castle again, thinking we'd find the Evil Queen. No go on that front, but Fairy Godmother was out and her line was short. It wouldn't be the same as meeting our favorite Fairy Godmother at WDW, but we got in line anyway. I didn't expect it to be magical, but I also didn't expect it to be so odd. First, I asked Katie to have her sign my trip book, but she passed saying we had to do photos first. I usually do the signature first just so I can have Katie put the book down before we do the photos. And sure enough, Katie is holding the book in the photos. Fairy Godmother refused to sign until after the photos. I have to say I've never had a character tell us that before. We had a nice chat, but walked away thinking she was just a little too persnickety for our taste.

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[DisneyFreak06]

I love DL's FL's dark rides too! They are just so, well, Disney to me! Too bad no Evil Queen, I'd love to see Regina! And that is totally odd about the FG.

I love all your character meets. I might have to make that a goal on another trip.

 

[mom2rtk]

Monday December 9th, 2013 Continued:


As we walked down the sidewalk we noticed Mary and Bert headed for the area in front of the castle. I had seen photos of the little show they do, and thought it was cute, so we stopped to watch. It's just the sort of thing DLR has that I wish WDW had more of.


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Once the show was over we headed for Adventureland. Katie wanted to find more chicken gumbo. So we headed over to Blue Bayou to see if there was any chance of getting in as a walk-up. While waiting in line to ask, someone called my name, and there was Sherry from the Disboards Christmas thread. She was waiting with her group to go for their special meal at Club 33. (And yes.... I was WAY jealous!) Katie waited in line for me while I chatted for a few minutes. It was really nice to put some more faces together with the names on the DIS. Blue Bayou couldn't seat us but suggested that we try Cafe Orleans. They couldn't seat us either but could make us an early dinner reservation.

I still wanted to find Jack and Sally and we were in New Orleans Square. I knew they hung out near the Haunted Mansion, but wasn't sure exactly where. I checked at the cart selling NBC merchandise and they sent us up near the train station. The line for HMH was long but there was Jack, up near the train station by the back of the ride. Sally wasn't with him, but there was only 1 or 2 people ahead of us in line.

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We still wanted to ride HMH again, and while the line was long, it always seemed to be long. So we joined it. Katie was hungry so I sent her off to get churros while I wound my way through. She was able to duck under the rope when we got back up near Jack's spot. It took right at 50 minutes to get through that line. On a Monday afternoon in mid-December. I'm glad we did it again, but was ready to move on when we were finally done.


Yes, I took a bazillion more photos. It's just such a visually interesting ride, I couldn't resist. I won't bore you with a full slate here...... but I'll post a few I was happy with.


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[DisneyFreak06]

All I can say is WOW! Is your camera fast at focusing? I find mine struggles to focus often times. Especially on the dark rides. WOW!

And I don't know why I had never selected to follow you on Flickr. That has been remedied!

 

[mom2rtk]

Monday December 9th, 2013 Continued:


I still wanted to see Mickey and the Magical Map and there was a show starting in 10 minutes. We were near the train station, so we hopped on and got a quick ride right over next to the Fantasyland Theater. It was amazing how easy that was! We got there shortly after it started but could still see just fine. And I really enjoyed watching and photographing it. Nobody was even sitting in front of us to complain. I would absolutely go back and see it again. I loved the music and the wide variety of characters in the show.



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[mom2rtk]

Monday December 9th, 2013 Continued:


The theater is very close to the entrance to Toontown so we headed that direction next. It was very crowded. No 2 ways about it. But I didn't want to miss it, so we gave it a go. First we grabbed FPs for Roger Rabbit, then headed out to investigate. There were people everywhere, very hard to take photos. So much for thinking Monday would be a low crowd day. But we made the best of it and headed for Mickey's house. I explained to Katie that we could see Mickey in 1 of 3 different costumes. We were both crossing our fingers we would luck into seeing him as Steamboat Willy. But that wasn't to be. At least we got bandleader Mickey, which was my second choice. It took about 30 minutes from entering the house to meeting Mickey. We took a few photos around Toontown and headed for Roger Rabbit. I can't believe that in 4 trips to DL before, we had never done this ride. It was cute and very fun.



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[mom2rtk]

Monday December 9th, 2013 Continued:


It was about 4:10 and our dinner reservation was at 4:45 so we headed back across the park. We checked for the Evil Queen, who wasn't there. The late afternoon light was looking lovely to this photographer's eye, so we stopped for some Photopass shots in front of the castle.

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One more shot.... just for fun:


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Then off to dinner. We got there a few minutes early and they seated us. Katie decided she wanted to try the monte cristo again, so we ordered that plus a bowl of gumbo to share. We both clearly loved the gumbo a lot more than the monte cristo, but it was still a good dinner. A very cold dinner though. The seating was indoors but with the strong winds and open doors we might as well have been sitting outside. But a bowl of chicken gumbo at Cafe Orleans will be high on our "must do" list next trip.

A few shots around New Orleans Square before we left:


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Once again, we needed to get back to the opposite side of the park. We were both freezing but I still wanted to do Small World one more time. And it was closing in fast on time for the parade to start. Then it dawned on me that the train would drop us off right over by Small World and wouldn't get hung up by the parade. So we jumped on at New Orleans Square again. We hopped off near the Fantasyland Theater and were in line at Small World a few minutes later. It was 5:35 and the parade was due any time, so most people were lining the street instead of being in line. We had just missed the massive influx of people that would hit that line when the parade was over. It was awesome to work our way through that line near the parade route as we moved along. What a great show to watch as we moved along in line.


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We stopped into the gift shop as we exited the ride but got drawn back outside again when we noticed the projection show under way on the face of the ride. It looked pretty cool, but we had missed most of it so we vowed to come back the same time the next night and try again.


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We were both freezing and tired so headed back to the locker to gather our things and head out. Katie had been lobbying for another visit to Earl of Sandwich, so we decided to get a sandwich to bring back to the room to share later. Somewhere along the line it dawned on me that the monorail would deliver us to that end of Downtown Disney. And we hadn't been on the monorail yet, so we headed for the Tomorrowland Monorail Station and enjoyed watching the Nemo subs from the platform.

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We asked if we could wait to ride in the front car and were so glad we did. It had been such a long time since we had gotten to experience that. It was a fun ride through California Adventure into Downtown Disney. There was almost nobody in line at EoS and we were quickly on our way back to our room. We watched the Grinch on ABC Family as we enjoyed our sandwich. I loved those quiet evenings in the hotel, warming up, getting off our feet, reflecting on the fun day we had just enjoyed.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I loved walking through Toontown! It looks so adorable all decorated for Christmas. For all the crowds, you can't tell in the pictures!

 

[mom2rtk]

I love DL's FL's dark rides too! They are just so, well, Disney to me! Too bad no Evil Queen, I'd love to see Regina! And that is totally odd about the FG.

I love all your character meets. I might have to make that a goal on another trip.

Thanks Tina! I hope you get to do some character meets next time. It's one of our favorite things to do at Disney. And when we come home, I love scrapbooking the photos.

And yeah, I really didn't expect this FG to be like ours at WDW. So my expectations were low going in..... but it was just really odd.

All I can say is WOW! Is your camera fast at focusing? I find mine struggles to focus often times. Especially on the dark rides. WOW!

And I don't know why I had never selected to follow you on Flickr. That has been remedied!

I just followed you too!

On the dark rides, I try to focus on something with a bright spot, then recompose. I know that's not the best way to do it with a wide aperture, and often recomposing will throw off the focus, but it's been "good enough" so far. The next step is to actually throw all caution to the wind and go with manual focus. I'm just not ready for that yet!

I loved walking through Toontown! It looks so adorable all decorated for Christmas. For all the crowds, you can't tell in the pictures!

Yeah, after I typed about it being so crowded I said to myself "Nobody is going to believe me from these photos. But I tend to just not photograph the big crowd areas. And even if I do, I tend not to edit and post the photos. Here's one I tried to take of Goofy's house before giving up.

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[PrincessInOz]

Fun update. Shame about the FGM. That was odd of her not wanting to sign anything.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Thanks for the tips! I will need to keep that in mind next time.

And wow, quite a difference with the crowd in that shot!

 

[mom2rtk]

Fun update. Shame about the FGM. That was odd of her not wanting to sign anything.

She was fine with signing. It just had to be in her order. "Photos first, then sign" she said. I thought she was nuts. I've always had them sign first so I can take the book from Katie and get a photo where she isn't holding the book. No biggie. And the funny part is that there was maybe one person in line behind us. So it's not like she needed some super special system for efficiency.

Thanks for the tips! I will need to keep that in mind next time.

And wow, quite a difference with the crowd in that shot!

My first instinct is to put the camera down when we're in a crowded area. I need to take more photos of the crowds to document how busy things were.

I'm hoping next time to get nice photos of Goofy and Donald's houses. But it was just too crowded.

 

[mvf-m11c]

You done quite a lot that day at DL from going on the rides, shows and character M&G.

I am always impressed with your dark ride photos especially with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens that you use for the dark rides. I will have to think about renting this lens or try something better when I take pictures of the dark rides.

Awesome updates.

 

[tdashgirl]

Great updates, I had so much fun reading them.

I love love love HMH. I agree with you, so visually interesting. And I do kinda like that it's something that DL has and MK doesn't

I'm also a fan of Mickey and the Magical Map. I was thrilled when they announced they were moving the Princess Meet n Greet out of there and putting a stage show back in, since I had such fond memories of the Snow White performances during the 50th anniversary.

What a great idea to grab EOS and go back to the hotel. I also love those nights back in the hotel with my family, resting our weary bones and discussing the day and tomorrow's plans

 

[mom2rtk]

You done quite a lot that day at DL from going on the rides, shows and character M&G.

I am always impressed with your dark ride photos especially with the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens that you use for the dark rides. I will have to think about renting this lens or try something better when I take pictures of the dark rides.

Awesome updates.

Thanks Bret! I do use the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens for my dark ride shots. If you like shooting dark rides, you really need to find a way to try this lens.

I am growing a little weary of the 30mm length though so have added the new Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 for our upcoming trip. I'm going to give up that little extra bit of aperture in favor of a wider field of view. We'll see how that goes. If I like it, I might ditch the 30 mm lens when we get home.

Great updates, I had so much fun reading them.

I love love love HMH. I agree with you, so visually interesting. And I do kinda like that it's something that DL has and MK doesn't

I'm also a fan of Mickey and the Magical Map. I was thrilled when they announced they were moving the Princess Meet n Greet out of there and putting a stage show back in, since I had such fond memories of the Snow White performances during the 50th anniversary.

What a great idea to grab EOS and go back to the hotel. I also love those nights back in the hotel with my family, resting our weary bones and discussing the day and tomorrow's plans

Thanks Tdashgirl! I also love taking in the things that DL has that the MK does not. We purposely set out to make sure we did as much of those things as we could.

The EoS grab was a great way to end the night. And SO convenient. I'm sure we'll try that again. It was like riding an attraction that, instead of dumping you into a Disney gift shop, dropped you into EoS!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks Bret! I do use the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens for my dark ride shots. If you like shooting dark rides, you really need to find a way to try this lens.

I am growing a little weary of the 30mm length though so have added the new Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 for our upcoming trip. I'm going to give up that little extra bit of aperture in favor of a wider field of view. We'll see how that goes. If I like it, I might ditch the 30 mm lens when we get home.

Has your new lens arrived yet? It's going to be interesting to see how you like the new Sigma compared to the 30 mm.