Originally Posted By Dabob2 <It's not much more interesting than the omnibus or horse drawn carriages of MSUSA - nice to look at (I `spose) but something most people will never set foot on. > I'm sure all the fanboy/girls/AP's will have to ride it at least once when it's new just to do it. Just like they caused lines out to the Plaza Gardens area for the re-opened castle walkthrough. After the newness wears off, and it finds its "natural" ridership numbers (as all attractions do), I think it might have better numbers than the Main Street Vehicles, if only because it has a longer route. Unless you time it JUST right, it's always faster to walk than to take a Main Street vehicle. And you don't save much shoe leather either - that's a short route. It's sometimes fun to take one anyway - the horse drawn streetcars are especially nostalgic and put you in the "Main Street" mood, and the Omnibus is fun in its way - but you don't do it to save your feet or to save time. Taking the Red Car from just inside the entry all the way to TOT just might do that, though. Probably wouldn't save a whole lot of time (again, unless the timing was right), but that's actually a bit of a hike so it WOULD be a nice ride. More scenery in two different environments too, as opposed to just the very brief MS store facades. In other words, I could see taking the red cars from the entrance to TOT (or vice versa) as an actual transportation device. On early artwork, it looked like they would have 4 stations: the entrance, Carthay Circle, on HPB's main street, and then at TOT. But it looked like maybe you could only get OFF at the middle two, but not on. This would make sense: it would make it much faster, and they wouldn't have to worry about queue areas at the middle two (the third being in a pretty tight area). So if you wanted to ride from the entrance to, say, the Animation Building, you could get off there, without riding all the way to TOT. Or if you wanted to ride from TOT to Carthay (to get close to Soarin', say), you could do that. But you could only get ON at either terminus. Can anyone confirm this? (Or confirm that you can get off OR on at any of the stops?)
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA When I think of the new red cars, I can't help but think of the now defunct 'Jolly Trolleys' in Disneyland's Toon Town. They were cute, but didn't really travel much of anywhere -- maybe 100 yards? And running through the already congested walkways in Toon Town, they just seemed to cause issues when they did run.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 The Jolly Trolley was a prime example of "fun but kinda useless." The route was far shorter even than Main Street. And they were whimsically designed but part of that whimsy meant they seated very few people. The Red Cars will seat many more and run a route that has decent length. They make sense to me.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo See, now I love the main street vehicles and the Jolly Trolley, they are a big part of the Disney difference, or at least they used to be. They make the environments come alive (in Paris, often you will be lucky to see one vehicle on Main street and the horse drawn streetcar is rarely out). I think the red car is going to add a huge amount of atmosphere to the park and is my preferred enhancement, more than anything that has been done to Paradise Pier.
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>(in Paris, often you will be lucky to see one vehicle on Main street and the horse drawn streetcar is rarely out). <<< It seems we have always been lucky. During each of our four trips we have seen the Horse Drawn Street Car and we have always taken a ride with the Police Car and the Double Decker Bus.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Usually they are only out first thing in the morning and then disappear when the horrid toon train comes out, never to be seen again :-(
Originally Posted By dagobert >>>Usually they are only out first thing in the morning and then disappear when the horrid toon train comes out, never to be seen again :-(<<< I think you are right, but the Main Street Vehicles returned around noon. At least last year we used them in the early afternoon. The horse didn't return, but most of the days it was very cold and maybe they wanted to protect them.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Well, over the last 5 years, we have been to DLP about 8 times, for between 3 and 7 days each time. The trips have been Easter, June, Aug and Oct. The horsedrawn streetcar has only been out 50% of the time if we were lucky and stopped running by 11 am.
Originally Posted By dagobert I've just looked through my DLRP pictures and it seems you are right. In the morning both the horse drawn street car and the Main Street vehicles were in operation, but the horses didn't return in the afternoon, except once in 2008 and once in 2007. It's also interesting that I've only pictures of the Double Decker Bus and the Jail Car. Doesn't DLRP have other cars?
Originally Posted By Westsider >>"They story then was that they had to fill in the sub-basement from the country bears to create a platform for the new attraction. That sounded suspicious to me at the time, but either way, the conversion of the country bears showbuilding was too pricey at the time."<< I remember going down into the basement of Country Bears; it was fun to watch what were called the "battle wagons" moving up and down and forward and backward for both theaters. The basement area from the original Country Bears attraction still exists. It's been turned in to storage area mostly, although Facilities does have a workshop down there for Pooh and Splash and other attraction equipment. We also keep extra lifejackets and stuff down there for the River attractions. It doesn't appear to have been changed too much from it's Country Bears days, although the pits where the battle wagons used to settle in to have been cleared out of their hydraulic lifts and things are are just smooth cement pits now.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo >>>It's also interesting that I've only pictures of the Double Decker Bus and the Jail Car<<< DLP has: 1 Paddy Wagon 1 Limosine 1 Fire engine 1 Omnibus 2 Horse Drawn Street Car As well as 1 convertable used for characters. On an average day, you are lucky to see 2 vehicles. Add that to the cut backs of no piano players or Dapper Dans or Keystone cops, and only in the summer will you find a very small (7 musician) band, it makes DLP a much lesser experience than Disneyland (or even the MK).
Originally Posted By dagobert Thanks for the list. I forgot to mention the Fire Engine. Is the limosine the yellow car?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Nope, the limo looks like the Paddy Wagon but a little longer, with windows instead of the mesh. The yellow/cream (dependent on the year) is the character convertable I was thinking of.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Can I say that to me, the vehicles on Main Street (and live entertainment) are as important as any of the e tickets.
