Originally Posted By Dabob2 Tuesday, December 18. Being at the DLH, we had early entry again, and this time we did it properly. Since it was morning we had plenty of energy so we walked through DTD to the front gate rather than wait for the monorail like yesterday. It was a Tuesday, which have seemed less crowded on recent trips than Mondays. Plus, they were forecasting some rain and it was already overcast, so I thought that might keep the crowds down too, and we’d be able to get a lot done today. I had no idea. We had a leisurely stroll down Main Street, noticing all the people seemingly headed for the subs, as we had done yesterday. Instead, we walked through the castle and walked right on to Peter Pan. Magical as always. Then we walked next door to Toad Hall. I love MTWR, beyond all reason. Then over to Alice, where we got to see some of the new projection effects (the hedgehog, the Chesire cat at one point...) I love little unheralded plusses like this. I probably hadn’t been on Dumbo in 35 years. Jerry never had. But there was no one there! Mostly just because I hadn’t done it in 35 years... Yes, we did it. We each had our own elephant, and STILL they sent the thing up not full. I had never ridden it with the new design with the gears and the water and everything (when I last rode it, it was still over where the Village Haus is now on a very plain concrete “padâ€), and I spent most of my time checking out what the design looks like when you’re actually riding. Then it was over to Pinnochio. This ride has kind of grown on me over the years, and I like that they don’t have that too-loud clang at the “test your strength†thing at Pleasure Island any more (or if they do, it wasn’t working). From there, over to Snow White, my least fave of the dark rides, but hey, ya’ gotta do it once. We then went to the Matterhorn, and braved the icy slopes from the left side this time. Then over to Buzz, where I scored level 4 for the first time. I know I hit at least one of the elusive triangles, so that probably accounted for it. It still seems semi-weird to me that they have that nice AA of Buzz in the queue, but nothing as complex in the actual ride. But you probably get a better view of him there anyway. It still wasn’t QUITE 9:00 so much of TL wasn’t open, so we did Buzz again. I wanted to see if I could better my score, but alas - not even close. Curse you, Zurg! It was a little after 9:00 at that point, so we right right across the street to Star Tours. Still enjoyable, and still great when you go in the Death Star trench, but I’d LOVE to see a 2.0. Space had a minimal wait, so that was next. Great as always. It was now only about 9:30, and we’d already done 11 rides (!). No skipping breakfast today. I thought about Carnation (River Belle was still closed), but Jerry also had some “orders†from home for shopping and figured he could find them all in the WoD store, so we went to DTD and picked up some pastry, yogurt, juice, etc. I was more interested in eating, Jerry in shopping, so that’s how it went. Jerry had the stuff sent to DLH rather than lug it around (hey, if you’re paying for onsite, you might as well use the perks). Still only mid-morning. Back into DL and on to Indy. I have to say that, for whatever reason, the rat effect worked better this trip than I’ve EVER seen it before. Then we tried Jungle Cruise, hoping for a good skipper. Didn’t get such a good one. Part of the trouble was his insisting on holding the mic so close his voice got distorted. Don’t they teach how to avoid this in “skipper class?†A lot of them have this problem. He might have actually had a couple of decent jokes - the front of the boat where they could hear his “live†voice had a couple of chuckles coming from it. Then it was time for the Tiki Room, which is one of the few attractions Jerry looks forward to more than I do. I like it though, and was very pleased to see that the recent rehab is still “holding†- the sounds and movements on things like the tikis are still in synch. And for some reason, as simple as the thunderstorm effect is, I still love it. Very “old school Disney†somehow. I grew up in SoCal, but Jerry is from NY originally, and actually saw the original-original iasw, at the NY world’s fair. So he has a nostalgia for it that predates even my own, and so we went there next. It was the holiday version, of course, which I enjoy. There seemed to be some figures missing in the Taj Mahal area, but other than that it looked fine. I don’t obsess about things like seeing ceiling ducts if you have to be looking for them anyway; still, while they’re refurbing it, they might as well hide as much as they can. Jerry hadn’t had much breakfast and was hungry, and he LOVES the Wetzels pretzel dogs. A train happened to be pulling into TT station as we exited iasw, so he hopped it to TL, then hopped on the monorail to DTD. I’d had a pretty big breakfast, so I had just one dog. Jerry had, um, more. After lunch it was back into DCA for ITTBAB. We’d unintentionally skipped this one last time, and it’s the best show of its type, I think. The hopper AA is really amazing, maybe the most impressive AA at the resort. And I do like the “bugs leaving the theatre†effect at the end. Screamin’ was up, so I went over there and did single-rider while Jerry chilled (he hates the horsecollars). The soundtrack was much clearer than I remembered from last time, when I could hardly hear it during certain sections. Screamin’ was about the only thing with a line on this still-overcast day (probably because it was down much of the day before). But the single rider line went really fast and I had a bit of time before we were to meet again, so I did Mullholland since it had nearly no wait (fun, but the most expendable thing in DCA), then wandered around the RRCT. The “paw prints†cave was new since I’d been there, but unfortunately it wasn’t working. But I had fun watching the kids crawling around on the rope walks and all that (and doing a bit of it myself). This place does have a very nice National Park vibe and is, I think, underappreciated. Met back up with Jerry and we did TOT again - had a great group of seemingly mostly newcomers in our elevator. Then it was just about naptime, but we opted to do GRR on the way out - if we got soaked, hey, we were about to head back to the room. As it turned out we hardly got wet at all. I like this ride, which has a great atmosphere, but unfortunately the spin at the end wasn’t working. I really dig the spin, which was working on the last trip, but not this time. We cut through the GCH/DCA entrance, checked out the beautiful tree and the gorgeous GCH lobby, and ran into the Dickens carolers on the way out to DTD. Very nice. Back to the DLH for a nice nap, and then to our “big†dinner for this trip, at Steakhouse 55. I really, really like the Napa Rose, but we decided to go for something different. And though over the years I’d eaten at Hook’s Pointe, the monorail bar, and other long-gone places at the DLH, I’d never eaten at Granville’s/55. And I was quite pleased. The chilled Ahi appetizer was terrific. For the entree, the waiter recommended the ribeye, so I went with that. It was very, very good. All in all, it wasn’t as interesting a meal (or as “foodieâ€) as you’ll get at Napa Rose, but very tasty and solid. We sat near the wine area, right under the big picture of Walt and Will (Rogers). Had a nice, unhurried, “grown-up†dinner. We had coffee/tea and an after-dinner drink, but I couldn’t stuff in any dessert. Besides, the dessert I really wanted was one of those “apple pie apples†I’d heard about right here on LP. So back to the park we went, again via the monorail (I really started getting used to this convenience). We discovered that though it had only drizzled a couple of times while we were in the parks, there must have been more of a proper rain while we were napping and/or having dinner, due to the puddles around. But it had stopped by the time we went back. How cool was that? Very cool indeed, as the park was nearly empty. I wanted to do Splash since we’d only done it once, and I was sure there’d be no line. And there wasn’t. Literally. We walked through the whole queue from the “barn†entrance to the end behind this party of 3, and the 5 of us walked right on to a waiting log. That had never happened to us before. Neither had what happened next. As our log pulled up after the ride, there was literally no one waiting in line for our log, so the cm asked us if we wanted to go again. The whole log said “Yes!†and off we went. After the second trip, we did Pooh, mostly because it was there. This one is slowly starting to grow on me, at least the entrance and the Heffalump room. And now for another highlight of the trip, one of the coolest DL things in a while. We’d seen the fireworks the first night from the 10th floor of the DLH. We saw them the second night from the park, standing still. On this night, we’d see them the best way yet: WHILE riding Big Thunder. They started while we were making our way over, and I just hoped the line would be short enough that we’d get on while they were still going. It was. It was maybe a 3-4 minute line, which allowed us to see the sort of “glowing†effect behind the Big Thunder scenery when you’re down in the low-lying part of the queue looking up, which was neat in itself. And then riding BT while the fireworks were going was fantastic. Probably second only in my memory to being on the old (high) Rocket Jets while fireworks were going off, probably 35 years ago. You’d go into a tunnel, and of course couldn’t see anything. Then you’d come out and crest a hill, and BOOM!, it was like they were right in your face. Then you’d do one of the fast outside parts and they’d be going off in rapid succession, and keeping your eye on them was like the goat trick on steroids. Then you’d repeat that all over again. The big red-and-green finale happened right during the last fast part (just before the splashdown), and it was though it was custom choreographed for us. The whole train applauded as we pulled into the station. It was one of those of those things where if the train had left 20 seconds later, the timing might have been off for the whole ride, but as it was, it seemed like the timing was just perfect all the way down the line. A real rush, and a trip highlight for sure. When we got off, there was no line at all, so we got right back on the wildest ride in the wilderness. I can kind of take or leave BTMRR during the day, but I love it at night. Stopping by the candy palace I discovered that the apple pie apples had sold out. “Yes, HOURS ago†said the cm with a tone like I should have known that would be the case (to be fair, this was the only iffy cm we encountered the whole trip). Oh well, I’d try again tomorrow. I wanted to do SLCB since we hadn’t yet, and I do love that charming little low-tech Walt original. Just before getting in line (again, very short! Gotta love the rain that didn’t even fall on us!) we noticed that iasw was having its light show, so we walked a little closer to iasw to watch. Really cool! I had almost forgotten this was going to happen, and this was the last night we’d be in the park, so it worked out just great. Whoever designed this show did a wonderful job - we really enjoyed it. Then back to SLCB and a cm who happily didn’t sound like she was sick of doing the spiel for the umpteenth time, like you sometimes get. She was great. This is one I actually enjoy more during the day (you can see the miniatures better), but it’s nice after dark as well. There were indeed some Christmas decorations in it, but not too many. We both wanted to do the subs at this empty-park time, but before doing so, had to take one more spin on the Matterhorn, right side being the only choice this time (left side closed). Permanen ser sentados, ya’ll. Then over to the subs, which was about 20 minutes, and seemed to have the only line of any size we’d seen in the park after dinner. We sat on the outside (wall side) this time, and near the front. The outside doesn’t afford the “vast ocean†vibe of the inside, but it’s still fine. What was interesting was noticing on this second trip how the soundtrack is always the same, but depending on where you sit, you only SEE animations for some of it, and don’t see some other parts. Certainly, the animations we saw on this trip were different than the first time. I imagine if you sit in the middle, you see yet different things. That’s probably actually a good thing with repeatability, and I didn’t feel like I was “missing†anything due to not seeing every part of the soundtrack visually. It was getting close to 11 now, but we figured we could do one more trip on Space and still catch the last monorail back to the hotel, and sure enough, it worked out that way. Space was a walk-on, and I’m not even sure we caught the very last monorail. And so, to bed. After the super-packed Sunday and fairly busy Monday, this drizzly, then rainy Tuesday was a huge contrast. I counted it up, and we got in an pretty astounding 34 attractions if you count the monorail (which, hey, used to be an E ticket), and the day included a nice nap and a leisurely dinner. And we never actually got rained on, since the only real rain came during our nap/dinner. So that worked out, riding BTMRR during the fireworks worked as though to the second, seeing the small world light show when I’d forgotten about wanting to catch it worked out, going on the subs near closing worked out... it seemed like the DLR gods were smiling on us. What a great day. Next up: a final half day at DLR and summation.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >> I wanted to do SLCB since we hadn’t yet, and I do love that charming little low-tech Walt original. << It's still great, isn't it? Except for that darn Duckzilla, ruining the scale of everything. I'd electrify the ground there if I ran the place. But still, it's a wonderful ride, perhaps my all-time favorite as it really brings out the kid in you. The only thing that could make that ride better is if they served warm cookies and a cup of milk to enjoy as you floated through Storybook Land. : )
Originally Posted By gaydsnywitch >>And then riding BT while the fireworks were going was fantastic.<< I got to experience this for the first time last month. Absolutely amazing. Great reports. Can't wait for the final half day.
Originally Posted By ecdc Excellent report, I'm getting downright giddy for my trip in a couple of months. >>Then we walked next door to Toad Hall. I love MTWR, beyond all reason.<< I'm glad I'm not the only one. Growing up I just loved the movie; it probably got more play than anything else.
