Wow! Our one-day blitz!

[forgetyourtroubles!]

My husband and I ended up finishing our work in L.A. on Saturday at 11:00 am, so we decided to head over to DL and see what we could see. We are regulars in WDW, so we primarily wanted to check out the differences and have fun on our free time.
Our first stroke of luck happened when the lady in front of us at the ticket window was trying to get a refund on 2 2Fer tickets. DL couldn't issue a refund on them and we offered to buy them. This gave us One Day Park Hoppers for the price of a one park admission. COOL!
Secondly- it was CROWDED- a sea of people and posted wait times of 3 hrs for Splash and 3 hrs for Grizzly River. However, thanks to the secret underground fast pass tips, we were able to collect 8 Fast passes in the first hour that we were there and then we sat down for a lovely meal overlooking the river. If you don't know about the "secret fastpass tips" look them up! Some machines aren't networked and allow you to get a FP without waiting for your time window to come up. We picked up FP for Soarin', Indiana Jones, Roger Rabbit, HM, Pirates, Grizzly, Star Tours, Autopia before lunch. Then we rode Pooh and after that, it was time to start using our collection of FPs.
We stayed until midnight- 2am our time!
DL is not a "mini WDW" which I appreciated. I loved the elaborate theming everywhere, the space is fully maximized, Fantasy land is beautiful! LOVED your PoC- geez, what happened to make the FL version so much....less? Loved the Electric Light Parade, Soarin', I liked DL HM better, awesome boats in Fantasmic- all in all, we both gave it 2 thumbs way up! We did everything we had hoped to do except we never made it in to the Aladdin show. We missed the cutoff (barely) 2 times. THANK YOU to whoever it was that posted the FP info. That made a HUGE difference!

 

[Firefly777]

Sounds like you had fun. What did you like better about DL HM? Just curious.

 

[forgetyourtroubles!]

I liked the Haunted Mansion better because the entrance to the ride where you get on the doom buggy was nicer with all the candles. It seemed more a like a parlour than a theme park ride entrance. Also, in FL the pop-up spooks make a really loud screaming sound, which I don't care for. In CA, they just popped up. Some of them made a soft noise. With a less distracting sound track, the story line is more effective, IMO. All in all, its not that different but I give the edge to CA.

 

[BTMichael]

Originally posted by forgetyourtroubles!
Secondly- it was CROWDED- a sea of people and posted wait times of 3 hrs for Splash and 3 hrs for Grizzly River. However, thanks to the secret underground fast pass tips, we were able to collect 8 Fast passes in the first hour that we were there...

If the "secret" is using the FastPass tickets after their end times, I am surprised the CMs didn't enforce the end times given the long 3 hour waits. I wonder how long it will be before DL wakes up and stops this abuse of the FastPass system?

 

[KEH]

Can someone please explain about the "secret fastpass". Is it just that CMs allow their use outside of the time slot or is there more to it than that?

 

[MamaKate]

Originally posted by BTMichael
If the "secret" is using the FastPass tickets after their end times, I am surprised the CMs didn't enforce the end times given the long 3 hour waits. I wonder how long it will be before DL wakes up and stops this abuse of the FastPass system?

The "secret" is not that CM's allow people to use there fastpasses at anytime. There are certain machines that are not hooked up to the same network, so you can get a few fastpasses at the same time.

 

[forgetyourtroubles!]

FastPass tips:
I thought I read this on both the Unofficial Guide and on Mouseplanet and now I can't find it. Here's the summary:
If you went up to every single machine in DL and DCA and inserted your ticket for a fastpass, some rides would automatically dispense a FP to you and some rides are networked and would tell you if you already hold a FP for another ride. FP systems BETWEEN DL and DCA are not networked to each other so you can always hold a pass for DL and a pass for DCA. In addition, Roger Rabbit, Star Tours, Pirates, HM, Grizzly River, Autopia, and...??? I can't remember what else are stand alone networks and are not linked with the other systems in the park. So essentially, those computers at those rides do not care if you hold a FP for a networked ride in addition. If you can't find the description for this in the Unofficial Guide, you can always just get your most important fastpass first and then try the other machines and see what happens. I'm sorry I can't find it now. I originally did a search for "FastPass tips" or something like that because I was looking to see if you could buy an unlimited fastpass admission(which you can). Check the UG for that b/c I KNOW its in there.

 

[mommytotwo]

Thank you for the pastpass info. How was the weather like when you had gone there? We will be going on the 10th, and wanted to know how we should dress, especially for my toddler.

 

[BTMichael]

Originally posted by forgetyourtroubles!
I originally did a search for "FastPass tips" or something like that because I was looking to see if you could buy an unlimited fastpass admission(which you can). Check the UG for that b/c I KNOW its in there.

The only "unlimited" FastPass option I know of for 2004 is available if you book your DLR stay with AAA for at least the room and the tickets (airfare, car rental, etc., are optional). Your DLR stay must be at either the Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier, or the Grand Californian.

Last year (2003), you could buy the "unlimited" FastPass tickets as a package from either AAA or WDTC. If there is another way to it this year, I would love to find out.

 

[JennHales]

link to fastpass info

above is the link to the info I found regarding this thread.

forgetyourtroubles,
thanks for sharing your experience. Did you run in to any problems with come back times? Were they spread thoughout the day or all in one time period?
thanks
Jen

 

[Grog]

LOVED your PoC- geez, what happened to make the FL version so much....less?

I read somewhere that the WDW version was supposed to be something completely different, but at some point they realized they wouldn't make the opening and decided to go with a slightly watered down POTC instead, as the park needed another E-Ticket.

 

[forgetyourtroubles!]

To answer your questions- Weather was BEAUTIFUL! However, I was freezing by midnight in shorts and a tank sweater. I would have been cold during Fantasmic except that we were packed in like sardines so there is warmth in body heat. I would bring a jacket for a toddler.
As for FP return times, we didn't have any problems with overlap at all. At 11:00 in the morning, we got a FP for Indiana Jones which didn't take effect until 8:40 pm and our Soarin' FP that we got at 11:15 kicked in around 9:30 pm. Other than that, most of the waits were about 1.5-2 hrs after the issue. WE were a few minutes late for using one FP but the CM didn't seem to mind. We were just the 2 adults and we hopped between parks about 7 times to maximize FP. We had a lot of fun but I bet we walked 12 miles or so. We couldn't have done that if we'd had our kids with us. We missed them, but it was kind of fun and rare to be alone (with 50,000 other people!)
We are back at WDW in Oct.