Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl This year, because of family concerns, I chose to make my spring vacation a "staycation," visiting places no further away than Hollywood, Sepulveda Pass, Chino, or San Diego. I went to the San Diego Zoo, and attended "Whiz Kids' Sunday" (as I call it) at the nearby Spreckels Organ Pavilion. I took the Paramount (yes, Paramount, not Universal, not even Warners; the Paramount tour is an actual tour of an actual working studio) Studio Tour. I made my first visit to the Getty Museum. I visited the one aviation museum at LAX, and both of the aviation museums at the Chino Airport. I visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park. And I made two trips to DL, on non-consecutive days, just getting in under the wire on the local resident 2-day park-hopper deal. I've already mentioned elsewhere that the dragon was down in Fantasmic, and that I didn't see much of the work being done on Alice. The first of the two visits, I saw Fantasmic, then saw the fireworks from the HM end of the riverfront. The fireworks were cut short that evening, though, because of high-altitude winds. I did amuse an ODV CM with my ability to lip-sync the opening narration of Fantasmic. The second of the two visits, I saw the fireworks in their entirety, from Town Square, then rushed over to DCA, to see World of Color (only my second or third time seeing it). At some point, I got into the standby queue for Roger Rabbit, just before the ride went down. Lots of people left. I stayed. Once they turned the queue audio back on, it was a perfect opportunity to enjoy what is arguably the best queue in any Disney park (almost better than the ride itself). I also rode Ariel, for about the second or third time since the ride opened. Enjoyable, but I got a few reminders of why I didn't particularly like the movie (some of the comic relief was downright lame), and only saw it once. It still amazes me that Midway Mania doesn't have FP or SR. Didn't they expect it to be as big a hit as it's been? Is it my imagination, or have they updated the pre-show on MuppetVision?
Originally Posted By familyguy The pre-show for Muppet Vision now includes references to the new Muppet Movie.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>...it was a perfect opportunity to enjoy what is arguably the best queue in any Disney park<< I tend to forget just how great that queue is. I often end up grabbing a FP for Roger Rabbit, since it's not linked into the system, and bypass it entirely. I semi-recently went through the entire queue was really enjoyed it. If only they would eliminate FP so that the standby queue moves faster! : ) >>Enjoyable, but I got a few reminders of why I didn't particularly like the movie...<< I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who wasn't blown away by the movie. Especially for being in my generation, I felt obligated to like it, but it's never really done much for me. It's not a terrible movie, but it's hardly one of Disney's best, IMO >>It still amazes me that Midway Mania doesn't have FP or SR.<< It had a Single Rider option for about a year after it opened. It was quietly discontinued after parents began feeling uneasy about their kids sitting with a stranger while out of eyeshot since the seats face away from other people in the car. I don't believe any incidents occurred, but that was the reason I heard for discontinuing it. The DCA version never had FP because the designers realized that it was a relatively low-capacity attraction and FP would make the standby waits miserably slow. The TSMM standby queue in WDW is one of the most notoriously bad experiences there, which makes me think that they got it right at DCA. It's often about a 45 minute wait in DCA (compared to 90+ in WDW), but it's constantly moving so it doesn't seem half bad
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "It was quietly discontinued after parents began feeling uneasy about their kids sitting with a stranger while out of eyeshot since the seats face away from other people in the car." Why would parents use the single rider line if they had kids that they didn't want to sit with strangers? Oh, I get it, if a kid was by themselves, they could sit a stranger with them? That makes sense.
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl "It was quietly discontinued after parents began feeling uneasy about their kids sitting with a stranger while out of eyeshot since the seats face away from other people in the car." There is that. Of course, there is such a thing as loading attendant discretion, and I can't imagine a sane CM putting an adult single rider together with a kid who was a stranger. Or an under-age single rider with an adult who was a stranger, for that matter. Didn't make it to the Bayou for dinner, either evening. First visit, I think I ate a sandwich (made from leftovers) in the car, on the way there (much as I did going down to the Wild Animal Park), then had the turkey dinner at the River Belle; second visit, I tried the chicken at Cocina Cucamonga for lunch, then the chicken Alfredo at the Plaza Inn. Probably the first visit since Cars Land opened that I didn't have lunch at Flo's. Speaking of the River Belle: "Huck's Slow-Roasted Beef - with horseradish gravy"?!? I know some people like horseradish on their roast beef (my best friend, for one, as I recall), and I know that San Francisco's House of Prime Rib offers "regular" and "hot" horseradish (and as I recall, has a third kind available on request, that's so hot it has to be kept in a lead-lined vault), but WHO PUTS HORSERADISH IN THE GRAVY?!??!! Incidentally, the day I went to the Zoo, I rode down on the Surfliner, then took the trolley and the bus to Balboa Park. And making the trolley-to-bus connection was a pain in the butt, because somebody had routed a marathon through the area around the transfer point, when that area was ALREADY disrupted by construction! Given that I was on a tight schedule if I wanted to spend any time at all at the zoo before the concert, I just had a microwaved burger on the train. And given that I wanted to get to bed at a reasonable hour, my train home was well before my dinner time.
Originally Posted By tashajilek Trust me, if there was a FP for TSMM there is no way you would get on. At Hollywood studios the FP was gone by early morning and stand by was up to two hours. I will gladly wait the 40-60 mins for the DCA version even though it has a horrible queue. "Speaking of the River Belle: "Huck's Slow-Roasted Beef - with horseradish gravy"?!? I know some people like horseradish on their roast beef (my best friend, for one, as I recall), and I know that San Francisco's House of Prime Rib offers "regular" and "hot" horseradish (and as I recall, has a third kind available on request, that's so hot it has to be kept in a lead-lined vault), but WHO PUTS HORSERADISH IN THE GRAVY?!??!! I cant stand horseradish, so I feel your pain.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Should I feel lucky that the Midway Mania wait was only 30 minutes this Saturday?
Originally Posted By tashajilek ^^^ That is pretty lucky! I usually like to go during WOC, you can sometimes get lucky with waits under ten minutes.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt When we first arrived at DLR we were perplexed by how empty the garage was and then even more confused when we didn't see droves of people lined up at the gates. Turns out the Saturday blackouts have begun for all season passes except premium and we missed the mobs. Both parks were busy, but quite manageable. We only used single rider an FP once each the entire day!
Originally Posted By doombuggy I've only been on mania twice it's not worth an hr wait, It's the Peter Pan of DCA. Just like RSR is not worth a 90min wait in that annoying line with the horrid music.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Took me 5 mins to board RSR on my last trip using single rider. Gotta love it!
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl Hmm. One of the two visits, I rode RSR, single-rider, and didn't have to wait all that long. The wait wasn't all that bad, and while the queue music ain't exactly the Emerson String Quartet, much of it has lyrics that are just ludicrous enough to be riotously funny. Now that I think of it, I don't think my wait for RSR was much longer than my wait for Luigi's Flying Tires (which, given the nature of the attraction, is not exactly something that would benefit from a single rider queue). And I'd hardly call Mania "the Peter Pan of DCA" (even though I do find Peter Pan to be one of the better dark rides). But they definitely should have come up with a way to increase the capacity. (And yes, I know, increasing the capacity hauled off and bit WDI when they built the DL version of Pooh.)
Originally Posted By tashajilek "I've only been on mania twice it's not worth an hr wait, It's the Peter Pan of DCA. Just like RSR is not worth a 90min wait in that annoying line with the horrid music" Nothing is really worth over an hour, but you have to wait sometimes. With all the fastpasses I use an hour here or there isn't too bad. I probably hate the TSMM queue the most considering how slowly you move and lack of anything interesting to look at.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Not to mention how hot it is in the room right before you pick up your glasses. Everyone looked sweaty and miserable in there.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance That line always seems to move fast though. You're constantly moving so it goes by quick. I have two memories of that line. Last time we waited in that line, my son had to pee super bad, we were already waiting for like 20 minutes and didn't want to leave the line. I was starting to panic. Luckily he made it without any incidents.
Originally Posted By doombuggy "single rider. Gotta love it!" Thought the same thing when we saw Matterhorn finally has it. RSR was our first time on so we wanted to do it together. Didn't find it all that WOWing to do again even using SR which was still 45min. "And I'd hardly call Mania "the Peter Pan of DCA"" slow moving hot line for a pretty short ride. "lyrics that are just ludicrous enough to be riotously funny." no...no it wasn't
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>I probably hate the TSMM queue the most considering how slowly you move and lack of anything interesting to look at.<< Now just think about how much more slowly the queue would be moving if half (or more) of the seats on the ride were given away to guests with FPs, and that's what you have in WDW. Of course, their queue is more interesting but it's still not great (at least it doesn't have that annoying room where the lights shine through the ceiling fans to make a strobe light effect!)
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "Now just think about how much more slowly the queue would be moving if half (or more) of the seats on the ride were given away to guests with FPs," But in that case, I wouldn't be in the queue. I'd have a FP.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros ^^Only if you were in the park first thing in the morning. Prior to the FP+ conversion, the FPs for TSMM routinely sold out before 11am. Now that people can book in advance or when they first arrive in the park, they're filling up about 5 minutes after the park's official opening time (though day guests have access to FP+ kiosks before that time). I'm not sure that's an improvement
