"Why is EVERYTHING better here?" First trip to DL, May '14

[luulu1999]

O M G the guy in the back row of your RSR pic is even more funny than yours!!!

 

[Rubygoose]

O M G the guy in the back row of your RSR pic is even more funny than yours!!!

Ha! I was going to say the same thing! I like your little chipmunk hands, though!

I'm really surprised there are 2 empty seats in your car. Every time I've ridden, it's been a full car, even during EMH.

 

[bellebookworm9]

O M G the guy in the back row of your RSR pic is even more funny than yours!!!

Ha! I was going to say the same thing! I like your little chipmunk hands, though!

I'm really surprised there are 2 empty seats in your car. Every time I've ridden, it's been a full car, even during EMH.

Yeah, his face is pretty priceless. My little chipmunk hands were holding on to my phone! And I was surprised our car wasn't full too. Maybe there just weren't any single riders there that super duper early?

 

[bellebookworm9]

On to the rest of Cars Land!

People aren’t kidding when they say these are hard to operate! It took us a bit to get the hang of it. The key was to lean very, very slightly, more shifting your weight than actual leaning. Once we figured it out though, we did have fun.

Then we walked down to Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree.

It was kind of like a Scrambler at the fair but way more fun! The tractors run on interlocking turntables, so you get passed from one to the next. We did quite a lot of swinging on this ride. Then we said good-bye to Cars Land for now and moved onto Paradise Pier!

 

[luulu1999]

I thought Maters was SO fun....I was laughing so hard and trying not to squish my kids lol

 

[bellebookworm9]

I thought Maters was SO fun....I was laughing so hard and trying not to squish my kids lol

We had a lot of fun too! PB and I have figured out that by now, it doesn't matter who gets in first on rides like this, I am ALWAYS going to get squished. We loved Mater's songs, ours was the one about the Big Red Combine.

 

[bellebookworm9]

As we headed toward Paradise Pier, it was just shortly after 8:30, so we still had plenty of time during EE. Of course, we had to take some pictures of the area since it was so darn empty.

Our first stop was Toy Story Midway Mania, where we were shocked by the 10-minute wait time. At WDW, it would easily be almost an hour in a similar time frame.

On a semi-related note, I recently read a study where they compared the language skills of children who underwent a cochlear implant at various ages against their normal hearing peers, using Mr. Potato Head. The kids were given instructions like, “give him some green shoes”, and they were scored based on the number of correct directions they followed. Yay for integrating Disney and real life.

I was yellow, PB was green.

Not my best score ever, but certainly not my worst. I even did better than PB in one particular game, might have been the ring toss.

Next up was Goofy’s Sky School, which was not open for EE, so we had to wait a couple of minutes, but we were among the first people on the ride for the day.

A shot of the Jumpin’ Jellyfish across the way while we waited.

We survived!

PB really wanted to ride the Golden Zephyr, and since it was operating (winds must have been very low that morning) and there was no wait, that was our next ride.

The view:

A pretty relaxing ride, actually. Then it was time to try the Jellyfish.

We were the only people on the ride!

View from up high:

Next stop was the Silly Symphony Swings. Again, we were almost the only people on it, and in fact, we were able to ride twice without getting off!

 

[bellebookworm9]

After the swings, we gave the Fun Wheel a spin. I said no way were we doing one of the swinging cars. PB wanted to and I told him he could do that by himself later!
Here’s our stationary Mickey gondola:

And the swinging ones on either side:

Going up!

See that white life preserver on the curved section in the center? That’s where we were planning to watch World of Color.

The WOC fountain grid:

Then we walked over to the Carousel.

It was so pretty!

I picked this sea horse to ride.

And PB chose an otter. He’s making that face because he almost slid right off!

I tried to get a shot of us in the mirror:

Our last Paradise Pier attraction for the time being was California Screamin’, which we were both very excited for!

Our predicted wait was 8 minutes, and despite the fact that we were exactly on schedule, it was a bit longer than that, I think closer to 20 minutes. This sign made me smile.

The ride was pretty smooth and we both loved it! My head did get bounced around a bit in the restraint though, and my first visit button fell off. That’s what PB was looking at in the picture, he had heard something fall and didn’t know what it was!

On our way out of PP, we stopped to meet Donald.

He was mad that I had Mickey on my shirt, but excited that it was my first visit!
I suggested we stop at the World of Color FP kiosk to see if they were distributing yellow section yet. As it turned out, when we walked up, they had literally just switched over-the family ahead of us got split blue and yellow sections! The CMs were quick to get them all into the same section though. Great luck on our part!

 

[Daisybelle]

Ok, you have knowledge on how to work the WOC fast passes! So the machines dispense that better section later in the day?? When you have time can you fill me in?

 

[bellebookworm9]

Ok, you have knowledge on how to work the WOC fast passes! So the machines dispense that better section later in the day?? When you have time can you fill me in?

Sure, no problem. The machines dispense the blue section first (left side of the viewing area and the bridge when facing the lagoon), then the yellow section (the "better" area, in my opinion). They will do this for the first show, then if there's a second, it will go back to blue after all the first show ones are distributed.

It's kind of a waiting game. That morning, the FP machines had been open since 8am for hotel guests, since it was an EE day. There was also only one show. The next day, as you will see, the machines opened at 9, regular park opening. We checked probably three or four times before they were into yellow section, so our timing wasn't as perfect. We kept alternating who would go and check, which is helpful especially if you have a larger group! If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask! Also, the WoC FPs are not attached to the others, so you can hold a FP for that and something else at the same time; there is no waiting period.

 

[bellebookworm9]

After we picked up the Fastpasses, the schedule said it was time to hit up a bug’s land. On the way, we cut through Condor Flats, and got a picture with the plane.

Flying like airplanes:

As we wound down Buena Vista Street towards bug’s land, we passed the RSR FP distribution. Much to my surprise, there were FPs left at 10:40am. Even better, they were for 5:25pm! I was beyond shocked, and of course we stopped to get some!

We were planning on skipping It’s Tough to be a Bug, because we’ve both seen (and hated) it at WDW, but the theater was being used for Maleficent previews anyway. As we turned the corner from the RSR FP exit, we were there!

We never did find the four-leaf clover.

PB had been begging to ride Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train, so that was where we went first. The wait was about 15 minutes.

One of our favorite quotes came from this ride. As you pass the carrot, Heimlich says something like, “My mom tells me that carrots are very good for my eyes. But you cannot put carrots in your eyes!” For some reason that just cracked us right up.

Heimlich loves candy corn, and so do I!

It was around 11am and I was getting hungry for lunch, so we said good-bye to the bugs for a bit and exited towards the back of Cars Land.

 

[DisneytheKid]

Wow! Really awesome trip report so far! Really looking forward to hearing more

 

[bellebookworm9]

Wow! Really awesome trip report so far! Really looking forward to hearing more

Thanks for reading!

 

[bellebookworm9]

Our lunch destination was Flo’s V8 Café. Since it was so early, there was absolutely no line to order. I loved this cute little jukebox at the counter.

I ordered the Pork Loin with cola BBQ sauce, mashed potatoes with beef gravy, cole slaw, and the garlic chive roll.

The pork and sauce were very good, as were the potatoes. Cole slaw was a bit too vinegar based for my liking, and the roll was disappointing. Garlic chive sounds like it should be flavorful, right? Well, it just tasted like a standard dinner roll.

PB had the citrus turkey meal also with mashed potatoes and the roll, but he opted for the roasted corn medley as his other side.

And for dessert, I ordered the Chocolate Mud Pie-o-rama, which we ended up splitting.

Doesn’t look like anything special…but then we cut it in half.

I know it’s a little blurry, but oh my word, it was delicious! Chewy and filled with soft chocolate, plus the pie crust tasted like a cookie. Get this if you have the chance!

We had decided to sit in the very back room, to enjoy the air conditioning for a while. The day had started out overcast and perfectly cool, but it warmed up pretty quickly! The decorations were adorable.

Plus we had a great view of the Racers as they went speeding by!

After lunch, we stopped in one of the stores so PB could get some postcards for his family. I saw this keychain, which I had to take a photo of, since I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be a crazy cat lady when I get older.

On our way out of Cars Land, there was a Photopass person, so we got a few more pictures taken.

We backtracked to bug’s land to do a few more things over there. First, we encountered another PP photographer, and she was great!

I think this was us laughing at each other.

We ate all the watermelon!

“Feeding” each other animal crackers.

Taking a giant bite of the apple!

She also gave us the head’s up that Flik would be out to meet in a few minutes. In the meantime, we got in line for Tuck and Roll’s Drive Em Buggies.

Q-tip trapeze:

The line did take a few minutes, but not too long. This is just a slow bumper car ride. PB didn’t realize there were signs that told you it was a one way driving area, so he was trying to go in the opposite direction until I yelled at him from my car!

A shot of Heimlich’s sign before we went to meet Flik.

Flik had a very short line. PB had never met him before, but I had, back when he still met at Animal Kingdom.

When we had met Flik, we checked out the other two attractions, Francis’ Ladybug Boogie and Flik’s Flyers. Both had crazy long lines, upwards of 30 minutes, if I recall correctly, so we passed on them. It was about 12:15 and I was ready for a break. We’d been in the park for just over four hours and had completed 13 rides, met two characters, took plenty of Photopass pictures, and had lunch. Satisfied that we’d had a productive morning, we headed out of the park and back to the hotel.

 

[Markie Mouse]

Awesome TR so far. Love the pics.

 

[sophies*mom]

Enjoying your trip report so far! You guys sure got a lot done that morning!

 

[Rubygoose]

When we had met Flik, we checked out the other two attractions, Francis’ Ladybug Boogie and Flik’s Flyers. Both had crazy long lines, upwards of 30 minutes, if I recall correctly, so we passed on them. It was about 12:15 and I was ready for a break. We’d been in the park for just over four hours and had completed 13 rides, met two characters, took plenty of Photopass pictures, and had lunch. Satisfied that we’d had a productive morning, we headed out of the park and back to the hotel.

Should I say "I told you so?" Safe to say that ridemax was wrong and I was right about how much you can get done in DCA with EE. It really makes it worth staying onsite to get to walk right on to TSMM instead of waiting 30-45 minutes.

I love the photo with the watermellon! So cool that the PP photographer spent so much time with you!

 

[bellebookworm9]

Awesome TR so far. Love the pics.

Thanks!

Enjoying your trip report so far! You guys sure got a lot done that morning!

Thanks for reading! Before the trip, PB was like, "I'm fine with getting up early but we're not going to run around the park like crazy people!" Well, it doesn't really make sense to do one without the other, and I'm glad he came to his senses when he saw how efficient the touring plans were.

Should I say "I told you so?" Safe to say that ridemax was wrong and I was right about how much you can get done in DCA with EE. It really makes it worth staying onsite to get to walk right on to TSMM instead of waiting 30-45 minutes.

I love the photo with the watermellon! So cool that the PP photographer spent so much time with you!

My dilemma beforehand was that RideMax doesn't include EE as part of their touring plans, but they do give you a suggested touring order, which is the three Cars Land attractions and Toy Story. Those four things were exactly what we were able to accomplish during the early time, but having those out of the way allowed us to fly through the rest of Paradise Pier in about an hour. It was Touring Plans that predicted a 47 minute wait for RSR, and if we hadn't gotten to the gate so early and been right at the front of the crowd, I could easily see that being a possibility. I'm glad we were prepared for the worst, but with a little but of planning and hustle, the best outcome was achieved!

That was another thing we found about DL that we liked: the photopass people were much more creative, and we had at least one other guy who spent quite a lot of time with us. This girl was kind of hidden in the shade so nobody was really paying attention to her; their loss, our gain!

 

[petals]

Great updates. Esp the WOC fastpass info.

 

[sophies*mom]

Thanks for reading! Before the trip, PB was like, "I'm fine with getting up early but we're not going to run around the park like crazy people!" Well, it doesn't really make sense to do one without the other, and I'm glad he came to his senses when he saw how efficient the touring plans were.

Smart guy!