“This place better not burn down before I get my entrée!" – A DLR Feb16 TR (8/25 Wrap-up & new TR)

[TheMaxRebo]

I actually really liked the monorail there and loved how it wound around Tomorrowland - reminded me a bit of what happens at EPCOT. Be cool if they did that at MK (though, I guess there were plans for the spur that would have gone to the never-built Persian Resort) to do that

I can see the meet with Kylo being a bit awkward .. guess he really is a bit Emo in that he wants to talk tough but then still wants to be part of the family picture

Bummer about Buzz

That monte cristo does look really good!

 

[skier_pete]

Great update! It must've been a huge plus to just walk right into DCA from the Grand.

Thanks again for your posts in the news thread.

I have met Chewie and I really enjoyed that meet. He doesn't smell bad in Florida either. Kyle Ren wasn't there yet when I went to launch bay in January at DHS. Glad they were good meets though.

Cafe Orleans looks good despite the slow service. I've heard so much about the beignets at Disneyland.

The beignets were good. I remember having pretty good ones over at Port Orleans FQ as well. Don't know how they compare to the "real" thing.

Chewie was cool. I definitely liked the meet. Getting a big bear hug from Chewbacca should be on every SW fans bucket list!

Staying at the Grand is a treat. Without DVC though I would never pay the price. The Tropicana is so close! But needing two rooms there it would've cost almost as much as it cost us to stay at the Grand - at least for this "low" season. Walking right into the park is pretty cool.

Just found your report. Loving it all and esp the Club 33. How cool to get to go twice in one day!! Look forward to the next update!

I didn't even think of that but true - we got not one but TWO visits in the same day! It's certainly not "Ho Hum, Club 33 again!" though.

Staying in the Grand sounds so nice. We stayed at the Tropicana last time since I know the value of staying close to the park when you value your break time but the Grand is too pricey for our budget.

We never made it to the launch bay on our last trip since my son was mad that they changed it from innoventions which he loved. Fun un to see the stuff but I agree that it needs to be more than just a meet and great spot with memorabilia here and there.

Im loving the food shots. I was trying to figure out if there was something That all my munchkins will eat on our next trip at cafe Orleans and seeing the plates helps. Looks yummy.

I'm with you - we couldn't even LOOK at paying the cash price for the Grand Cali. And the Tropicana really gives you all you need in a hotel for a visit there. I would really recommend it highly to anyone visiting DLR!

This is our second time eating a Cafe Orleans and enjoyed the meal both times. IF it hadn't gotten so cool there's some nice outdoor seating as well.

I actually really liked the monorail there and loved how it wound around Tomorrowland - reminded me a bit of what happens at EPCOT. Be cool if they did that at MK (though, I guess there were plans for the spur that would have gone to the never-built Persian Resort) to do that

I can see the meet with Kylo being a bit awkward .. guess he really is a bit Emo in that he wants to talk tough but then still wants to be part of the family picture

Bummer about Buzz

That monte cristo does look really good!

I do like the monorail as well. The loops around Tomorrowland are pretty cool. I miss the days when you had a ride like the skyway that just let you see the park from up high at WDW. It's one thing that feels missing from the newer parks that Walt was very into - different forms of transport as attraction.

Unless you are staying at a monorail resort or visiting one, when you stay on site its pretty rare that you ride it. As an adult, you are right the monorail is kind of "meh". I think little kids still think it's pretty cool though. Staying at the Poly DVC last year it was a pretty awesome way to get to the two parks though.

Having Kylo as a M&G character is tricky. He's so psychotic in the movie, how do you play that in a M&G?

 

[NJlauren]

All caught up! So behind on all my TR's! But since we pushed out DL trip to Aug/Sept (oh the heat!) i am really excited i am getting to finishing reading your TR before then!

i love DW shirt on the DCA day! And love all the pics of Club 33! Interesting that you mention that all lines are out side... i didn't realize that and am not looking forward to that at all...

 

[PrincessInOz]

Catching up. Looks like you had a good day. I don't do ToT; so I was pleased to see your pics.
Love the food porn at Cafe Orleans.

 

[skier_pete]

All caught up! So behind on all my TR's! But since we pushed out DL trip to Aug/Sept (oh the heat!) i am really excited i am getting to finishing reading your TR before then!

i love DW shirt on the DCA day! And love all the pics of Club 33! Interesting that you mention that all lines are out side... i didn't realize that and am not looking forward to that at all...

No worries - I fall behind as well. SoCal heat is very iffy...it can be scorching or cool the same week in the summer. I would definitely advise hats, sunscreen and water bottles. The humidity in SoCal doesn't match Florida, but you definitely will be outside standing in lines a lot more than in Florida! I certainly will have the Disneyland portion of the TR wrapped up before we go.

Catching up. Looks like you had a good day. I don't do ToT; so I was pleased to see your pics.
Love the food porn at Cafe Orleans.

We did have a good day. Overall it was a nice trip. Not perfect, but pretty great.

 

[skier_pete]

Both DM and DD were feeling really worn out from the 3 days. We were debating about bringing DD back to the room, but DM decided she didn’t want to stay up to see the fireworks, and she would take her back to the room. DW and I walked them to the front of the park looking for the place to pick up the free photo from the VISA M&G. (More drama from this – apparently DD wouldn’t talk to her the whole walk back – and then wouldn’t go to bed when my mom told her. I know it’s not a nice thing to say about my own daughter – but she really acts like a jerk sometimes.)

Anyways, we decided to try and find a decent spot to view the parade, even though it was less than half an hour until it started. After wandering around the hub, we end up on trail where the parade path branches between the Matterhorn and Alice and Wonderland. We were on the opposite side near the “Pixie Hollow” M&G. The spot had a pretty good view, but there were some low hanging branches that meant some of the views of the characters up high on the floats were cut off. Overall though for a “10 mintes before the parade” spot it was pretty good.

This is obviously our first time seeing Paint The Night. I am not a huge fan of Disney parades but I generally love the night parades. Huge fan of Spectromagic. Less so the current MSEP, but still like it. This parade quite honestly blows both those parades out of the water. The LED lights on the various floats and the way the costumes are configured are just amazing. It makes me really, really hope we get a new parade at MK sooner than later. (OK, let’s face it, we’ll be lucky to get one before 2021.)
Anyways, the parade starts off with Tinkerbell “Flying” around the first float on some kind of boom arm. This was VERY impressive in person – I think somewhat less impressive in photos.




Tink’s Fairy Friends



Tinkerbell herself





The lights on the floats were spectacular;





Here’s the problem with the low hanging trees!







Monster’s Inc float was very cool



The doors seemed to be video projections, so scene’s would appear in them. Here they are just doors.





Now the Cars – again, VERY cool looking floats/Vehicles here:







Can you tell we are heading Under the Sea?



Are all shows and parades now mandated to include Ariel?





He’s not just a slinky, he’s a float.








Belle with a REALLY massive dress. Another mandatory Princess float.


Get that stupid lantern out of the way!





And of course it wouldn’t be a post-2013 Disney show without these two!





We finish with the Fab 4 running around on some rather Spectromagic-like balls:



I kind of really LOVE this shot, in that it’s mostly in focus, and gets all four characters in a single shot;





I hope you are strapped in there Donald!







This perpetual motion float was constantly turning in on itself. A photo doesn’t really do it justice.



Next up – Disneyland forever fireworks.

 

[rteetz]

As a now young adult I can say that kids all act like jerks sometimes. While sometimes we may be mad or upset we still love our parents and grandparents even though for a moment it might not seem like it.

Paint the night just looks awesome and it looks hard to photograph. I really want to see that parade in person.

 

[skier_pete]

As a now young adult I can say that kids all act like jerks sometimes. While sometimes we may be mad or upset we still love our parents and grandparents even though for a moment it might not seem like it.

Paint the night just looks awesome and it looks hard to photograph. I really want to see that parade in person.

Oh, and as a parent I can tell you that we always love our kids no matter if they are acting like jerks - but sometimes we don't like them too much. Especially when they treat they're grandparents badly.

Actually I think the floats were so bright that they weren't so hard to photograph as say MSEP.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Kids can be jerks. But we don't love them any less for it.

Thanks for sharing PtN. I really want to see this parade...it's just about when.

 

[franandaj]

I feel like I want to go back outand see the parade again after your pictures. I think the last time I saw it was December, evidently the 6th ends in September. I need to get my act together so we can have some free time!

 

[skier_pete]

Kids can be jerks. But we don't love them any less for it.

Thanks for sharing PtN. I really want to see this parade...it's just about when.

Hope you get to see it sooner than later. It really is a wonderful upgrade over the other night parades. Did you see it when you were in Hong Kong? I don't remember when you went relative to when it opened there.

I feel like I want to go back outand see the parade again after your pictures. I think the last time I saw it was December, evidently the 6th ends in September. I need to get my act together so we can have some free time!

I hope the rumors aren't true that after the 60th they'll swap it out with MSEP. They really should just bite the bullet and dump MSEP in a hole and put PTN in both parks.

 

[skier_pete]

60th anniversary fireworks were next on the agenda, we made our way to the hub, and jammed ourselves in front of the castle. Was real happy with how the camera worked here too. Makes me realize I wish I tried getting a few world of color shots. Not all of them came out, but here are the best of the bunch.







You can just make out tinkerbell flying around the castle in this one.









They use the Matterhorn as part of the show, and I also saw somewhere they project on the buildings on Main Street, but we were way too close to the castle to notice that.















A quick selfie after the show was over.




I don’t have pictures from what is left – but I’ll step through it. It was around 9:00 PM now – the fireworks were at 8:40 PM, but we were not ready to leave Disneyland – the park didn’t close until 10 PM. We headed into Frontierland and intended to ride BTMRR – we still had a bunch of FP in our pocket – but it turned out that it was closed, so we weren’t able to ride it. We debated what to do next – the line for Pirates was pretty long, so we decided to go on Haunted Mansion first. Even though we went in through the FP+ line, they didn’t even take our passes because the wait was pretty much at zero.

After a ride with the ghost host, we headed over to Pirates. The line was pretty short by this point, maybe 5-10 minutes, so we were able to get on pretty quick. By the time we were done, it was after 10 PM, and there were no other rides to get in line for. We were debating going to Trader Sam’s, but were pretty tired at this point, so decided to head back to the hotel. On the way out walking down main street we found the fortune teller machine – Esmerelda. Pretty cool.







Unfortunately, that pretty much wraps the Disneyland portion of the trip report. I will post short overviews of Legoland and Sea World in the next few weeks – if anyone feels like continuing to follow along. (If you would prefer I go into gruesome details about those day – feel free to post that. If there seems to be enough interest I will write more details.
We also have a trip to WDW planned for October, which is now less than 4 months away. I haven’t bothered with a PTR for that one – because I feel like there really isn’t that much to talk about. The big news here is we were telling our daughter that she has to maintain a 85 average in 7th grade if she wants us to pull her out of school for a week. (The trip is a “reunion” style trip, so we were going during her school year.) What I will likely do is once this report is complete, I will start my actual Trip Report and provide the link, with an overview of the plans for the trip.

Until next update...

 

[rteetz]

From everything I've seen the Disneyland forever fireworks look awesome. I can't believe they are getting rid of them come September according to strong rumors. I would've thought this show would last a few years at least.

I have really loved following along with your Disneyland portion of the trip. I really need to get out these one of these days.

I am looking forward to hearing about your seaworld and Legoland days as well.

 

[franandaj]

From everything I've seen the Disneyland forever fireworks look awesome. I can't believe they are getting rid of them come September according to strong rumors. I would've thought this show would last a few years at least.

Chalk it up to #ThanksShanghai They just ran it on the local news that they are cutting them as soon as the official 60th ends because they are too expensive. I don't doubt it. That's ALOT of fireworks!

I will be looking forward to your October trip and hopefully we can tour around the kiosks on Wednesday!

 

[rteetz]

Chalk it up to #ThanksShanghai They just ran it on the local news that they are cutting them as soon as the official 60th ends because they are too expensive. I don't doubt it. That's ALOT of fireworks!

I will be looking forward to your October trip and hopefully we can tour around the kiosks on Wednesday!

From what I've heard this cut isn't due to Shanghai but just because Disneyland doesn't want to spend the money.

 

[khertz]

*SIGH* All of the DL reports I'm reading of the nighttime stuff have me SO disappointed that we are missing all of the 60th stuff!! We are hoping to get back in May next year, but the fireworks will surely be long gone. I'm just at least hoping to see Paint the Night. Both shows look really amazing!!

 

[ALEXandFAB]

You can just make out tinkerbell flying around the castle in this one.

Tink! Makes me wish I was at Disneyland today, and not at work

A quick selfie after the show was over.

Great photo, beautiful smiles


I'd love to hear about your Legoland and Sea World trips!

 

[blana]

I'd love to hear about Legoland and Sea world. We're considering those same SoCal passes for next June!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Did you see it when you were in Hong Kong? I don't remember when you went relative to when it opened there.

Sadly, it started about 6 months after we went to HK.



Catching up on your TR. Lovely nighttime pics!

 

[skier_pete]

From everything I've seen the Disneyland forever fireworks look awesome. I can't believe they are getting rid of them come September according to strong rumors. I would've thought this show would last a few years at least..

Chalk it up to #ThanksShanghai They just ran it on the local news that they are cutting them as soon as the official 60th ends because they are too expensive. I don't doubt it. That's ALOT of fireworks!

I know that Disneyland has more issues with the neighbors as well - I wonder if the larger fireworks show is getting more complaints. I also have seen a rumor that they are planning on moving the launch site so they don't have to close Toontown and particularly Star Wars land.

*SIGH* All of the DL reports I'm reading of the nighttime stuff have me SO disappointed that we are missing all of the 60th stuff!! We are hoping to get back in May next year, but the fireworks will surely be long gone. I'm just at least hoping to see Paint the Night. Both shows look really amazing!!

Honestly, while the fireworks are better than the regular ones, I don't think it would be downgraded too much. As long as PTN doesn't leave. If I was out there, I'd throw myself in front of those floats.

I'd love to hear about your Legoland and Sea World trips!

I'd love to hear about Legoland and Sea world. We're considering those same SoCal passes for next June!

Your wish is my command! Warts and all coming up.

Sadly, it started about 6 months after we went to HK.

Catching up on your TR. Lovely nighttime pics!

Oh - that's too bad. Seems like a lot of new stuff to HK Disneyland. Still nice that you got to see it. I'm sure I never will.