"AVAST! Ye ole ride has broken down again!": TR (6/25-6/26) Final summary pg. 5

[DLR29]

Avast everyone! (I'll explain later) I returned home at approx. 1:30 this morning. It is currently 6:41 and I am about to head off to church sleep away summer camp for 5 days, so I will not have time to start the TR for another few days. So be patient, I have like 200 pictures, and tons of fun stories to tell.

Avast!

 

[DangerMouse]

Avast everyone! (I'll explain later) I returned home at approx. 1:30 this morning. It is currently 6:41 and I am about to head off to church sleep away summer camp for 5 days, so I will not have time to start the TR for another few days. So be patient, I have like 200 pictures, and tons of fun stories to tell.

Avast!

Have an awesome time at Camp! Looking forward to your report when you get back.

 

[disneydreamer74]

Yay!!! Cannot wait for pics and TR! You have a great sense of humor! Have fun at summer camp. I have fond memories of going every summer (with my creepy cousin!)

 

[bumbershoot]

LOL, actually I am currently a junior and will be a senior next year. I'm young for my grade (September b-day), so I'll turn 17 in a few months. I'm sooooo glad to be almost done with junior year. Junior year was so much work!

Oh I know how that goes. I have an October birthday so it was even worse.


We were in the parks at the same time! I don't think I saw you though.

 

[cannp123165]

It sounds like you had fun - I am looking forward to hearing more about your trip! I hope you are having a good time at camp.

 

[Daisybelle]

Woohoo!! Another trippie! I'm sure much hilarity will ensue!

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

I can't wait!!

 

[DLR29]

Hey everybody. I just got back and pictures are currently being uploaded. I'm thinking the first part of the TR will be up tonight. If not, definitely tomorrow.

 

[DLR29]

OK, who is ready for another soopah doopah trip report! I am!!

Ok, basic recap: 2 day trip, 6/25 and 6/26. My family of 4, our friends from OK, and my brother's friend. We stayed at the HoJos for the first time. And, I'll start from there.....

So, on Wednesday 6/24, I (and my mother) visited UCLA in the morning with a tour. Great campus, but I visited a bunch of other colleges, which will make the decision process difficult. Anyways, back to the more fun part of the trip. We headed straight to the HoJos after the tour and my mom's like "Maybe I can get a nap before our friends arrive." So we get there

and get into the lobby, and they are there waiting for us!! It was like early afternoon, so our rooms weren't ready, but they did give us pool keys. They also had these sweet pirate hats in the lobby, which were the cause of much pirate silliness during the trip

So we got changed and first headed to Pirate's Cove and the Sprayground (because of course us teenagers are actually little kids at heart ). But unfortunately there was a big sign on the structure that said something to the effect of "Avast! The slides are closed right now".....and thus a new inside joke was born. Since we were all thrilled with the word 'Avast', it soon became the single word that defined our trip.

So disappointed that the super cool slides were closed, we swam in the other pool, which was fun, but we soon got bored and we just lyed out in the sun reminiscing about our old inside jokes. Then we went back and checked out the sprayground again, but this time the slides were open. We ran around the sprayground, going down the slide, shooting little kids with the water cannon things, and just having kid fun.

Then our rooms were ready and we headed up there. We got NQQ1 rooms because I got a good rate with my AP. They were really nice rooms. Large and the beds were awesome.

The NQQ1 rooms also claimed a "Disney view". This was our view from our balcony:

But we could also see this:

We just chilled in our room for a while and then went to DTD for dinner (wearing our pirate hats of course!)! The Rainforest Cafe was really booked, but due to our handy dandy Rainforest Club member cards (we are so cool), the wait was cut down.

To pass the time, we explored the Lego store:

This was really cool

Then we went into the shop of the Rainforest Cafe. Here's a shot of Christy and Tracy Tree

Yeah.....we were bored

We even took these little animal toys and made up a song that followed the jungle drum beat of the surrounding music. It has three parts:
"Ah ha, Ah ha...etc."
"There are 8, 8, 8 of us"
"Collect all 8" (which we got from the sign by the toys)
and when we got back to the hotel, we actually recorded our song on Zach's computer. It was epic to the max.

So we finally got dinner, and it did come out really fast considering that the restaurant was pretty full. Then my mom left to go pick up my dad, brother, and brother's friend from the Long Beach Airport. Our friends and I played more in DTD.

We went through the Disney store (because you have to whenever you go to DLR) and we went back to the Lego Store before we headed back to the hotel. We crashed, but before I finish this part of the report, I must describe this incredible game that we created with our favorite word! So we're like, "wouldn't it be hilarious to just say 'Avast!' to random people?"....well duh. So we began getting "Avast points." To get an Avast point, you must:
a)Walk up to a random person wearing some kind of pirate attire (shirt, mickey ears, etc.)
b) Say "Avast!" in a loud pirate voice
c) Make eye contact with the other person (this part of the game prevented more points from being awarded)
Also, you can't Avast someone that somebody else already Avasted.

After day 1 (well like day 0.5), I do believe the score was:
Me-4
Zach-2
Christy-1 (I think, I can't really remember, but I did get 4 and I was definitely winning)

Ok, good start so far. Tomorrow I'll start our first park day!

 

[DLR29]

Morning of 6/25:
We woke up very early and got ready to go! Our friends were making sandwiches for lunch, so I made one too and one for my mom (My dad, brother, and brother’s friend all decided that they were going to buy lunch). So we set off around 7:15 and walked to the parks.

So it says in the HoJos binder thing that is in every room that the walk is 8 minutes. So we actually timed it, and it was totally correct! 8 minutes later we were sitting out by the DL gates eating muffins for breakfast. My brother’s friend took this shot:

Being the sneaky DIS member that I am, I tried a little experiment. Since we only had 2 day tickets (and I have an AP), none of us had MM. However, Thursday is a MM day…..soooo we sat by this tree right next to the designated “MM gates” and waited. We were taking a risk because the lines for the “normal entrance gates” were getting really long. We sat there for a while, but then around 7:50 or so they switched from 4 MM gates to only 2, and so 2 of those MM gates became normal entrance gates. Guess who was first in line for one of those gates???

Group shot of us at the front of the line

Floral Mickey

So at 8 they let everybody in and I grabbed everyone’s tickets (being the FP runner always) and rushed to Space Mountain to get a FP.

Everyone else went to go get 2 lockers

Problem was that Space was down, so therefore the FP machines were down. The rest of the party was heading towards Indy, but I rushed from Space all the way to Splash and grabbed FPs there (it is a very long walk btw but there’s nobody on that side of the park that early).

Ran back and joined them in line just before walking into the temple.

So for the first ride of the trip we rode my favorite ride EVER! Indy is the best! We took up a whole jeep, which was fun as usual. Then since it was a MM day we decided just to do the left side of the park instead of FL or TL. So Pirates was up next. This is like the second trip in a row that I’ve ridden Pirates in the morning. Crazy I know, but there was 0 wait.

Heading into the ride

The best part of PotC was when we were about to go down the waterfall, we had just said “Avast” because obviously we’re on Pirates! But the skull pirate right before the drop said “Avast”!!!!! We were laughing hysterically down the first drop. Exiting Pirates, we decided to ride HM next.

Our friends usually come during Christmas, so the regular version of the mansion was very different for them.

My friends and I were totally craving a ride on “The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness”, but THAT was closed too! So we went over to the Matterhorn, but the line was sooper long. I made the executive decision to leave that line and just do BLAB instead. I didn’t get my best score, but I think I did pretty good.

 

[DLR29]

Finally Space was open, so I ran and got Space FPs before we left DL and hopped to DCA for its opening. I quickly snatched Soarin FPs for later and headed over to the GRR rope drop. We were basically at the front of the rope drop. At 10 when they released the ropes there was a mad dash to TSMM.

But being the amazing people weaver that I am, I turned out at the very front of the crowd

However, due to construction walls and what not, the group on the other side of Grizzly Peak got to the Pier before us. Still we were probably within the first 100 people in the line for TSMM. Not bad at all. Unfortunately, when we got there it was broken down (as was Screamin right next door). Great…..more broken rides. But we decided to wait it out because we were so close to the front of the line and TSMM is a great ride. They held us in the overflow queue line by Screamin’s launch, but eventually they moved us over to the main queue. At that point the ride was supposed to be open, but it broke down AGAIN and we sat in the building for a very long time, while the line was halted just before the place where you get the 3D glasses. I think I captured the boredom pretty well in this shot.

Finally the ride completely opened and we boarded. Here are my parents in full TSMM excitedness

And me very excited with Zach

So we’re riding through the ride, right. We get to the “practice round” (with the pies and stuff) and nothing happens. We continue through the ride and, at each screen, none of the targets are appearing. We are hearing the effects coming from other screens, but our vehicle was NOT working. So we return to the platform and inform them that our ride didn’t work. So they sent us around through some the SR line with a special pass and we rode again. This time everything worked and I got the beaver. Not my best, but still hilariously fun.

So after our 1.5 rides on TSMM, Screamin had finally opened, so I grabbed FPs for that. We got one for my brother just in case he wanted to ride (he doesn’t really like big roller coasters). Then we walked back to Soarin to use our FPs from earlier. On our way we saw these kids dancing around by GRR. I thought it was funny, so I started to dance too.

We rode Soarin with a small wait (we waited one extra ride for the top center row). Such a great ride even if the movie is the same every time. Every time I love the scents and the smoothness of the ride.

I rushed to get ToT FPs for later and met everyone in the esplanade as we hopped back to DL for lunch. We grabbed our lunch from the lockers and went and found tables by the Coke Corner. My dad, brother and brother’s friend got hot dogs, while the rest of us munched on turkey sandwiches (with extra pickles for me because they are delicious). End of the morning!

 

[disney-inspired]

Sounds like your trip is going great so far!

Subbing!

 

[DLR29]

Sounds like your trip is going great so far!

Subbing!

Thanks for joining the party!

 

[cannp123165]

It sounds like you are all having so much fun together - great pictures! Thanks for posting!

 

[DLR29]

It sounds like you are all having so much fun together - great pictures! Thanks for posting!

And thank you for reading! Happy 4th of July everybody! Time for the afternoon section of day 1:

Afternoon 6/25:

After lunch, I ran and got BTMRR FPs for later and since it was getting pretty warm, we decided to ride Splash with our FPs from the early morning. But just like us, everybody seemed to be using FP and the FP line was really long. Fortunately, the FP line moved so much faster than the stand-by line. The adults took 1 boat and us kids took another. And we got wet!

The 3 of us in the back yelling Avast!

After Splash we just had to ride Pooh because we were over there. Only had to wait about 10 minutes, which was good.

It was already time for our BTMRR FPs, so before we rode that, we picked up another set for later. Using our FPs we skipped a decent sized line. THE WILDEST RIDE IN THE WILDERNESS!!! It's wild! And it's in the wilderness!

Oh, this is a great shot for 4th of July!

Next, we headed over to Space to ride with FP.

So we get up to the very front of the line, like we're about to board on the next rocket. And then....

the lights go on. Apparently some power problem and everything shut down. So they gave us these special passes good for any ride except TSMM and they let us out the exit. We decided to hop again, but after I grabbed Indy FPs for the evening.

Then we hopped and I ran and got GRR FPs. At this point I had FPs for: GRR, Indy, BTMRR, Screamin, ToT, and we had that special pass for any ride. Met everyone back at Screamin to use our FPs. Even though we got one for my brother, he didn't want to do it, so my dad sat out with him. Screamin ROCKS!

About to ride

 

[DLR29]

After screamin on Screamin, we headed back to Hollywood Pictures Backlot to ride ToT with FP. Usually this ride doesn't have that long of a line, but it had a very long line, so we were thankful (very much) for FP. This one my brother did ride. He had ridden the one at DHS when we went 2 summers ago, and he didn't care for it, so he was probably pretty nervous even though he could never let that show. Anyways, he really liked it afterwards. We were all like "If you liked that, then Screamin is nothing". I'm super glad that he tried the ride again and enjoyed it.

Next, we joined the line for Monster's Inc. I really like this ride. In line we were noticing how it was only 4PM. We had been in the parks for 8 hours, and there was still 8 hours left! We were only 1/2 way through our day!!! But everyone was starting to have the "late afternoon tired attitude" (yes, you know what I'm talking about). Monster's was fun as usual.

After Monsters, we headed into the (air-conditioned) Animation Building. It was a little while before the next Turtle Talk show, so I showed everyone the Toy Story zoetrope, which is so cool.

We all needed energy and food inside of us, so our next stop was dinner at Taste Pilots Grill. Decent food, but the best part....







wait for it....












STRAWS THAT CHANGE COLOR!!!!

Alright, I'll leave on that note. The evening of day 1 will be coming up in the near future (tonight or tomorrow).

 

[cannp123165]

Those straws are cool! Thanks for the update!

 

[DLR29]

Evening 6/25:

So we left off with the awesome straws at Taste Pilot's. After dinner we used our Grizzly River Run FPs. My brother rode for the first time. But some people didn't want to get wet, so I think 6 of us rode. It was super fun. This is the ride where you laugh the most because everybody doesn't want to get wet (even though you're on a water ride....).

Then we left DCA for the night and headed back to DL with our special passes from earlier. We chose to go back to Space because we hadn't done it yet (stupid breakdowns).

We did successfully ride this time. Great ride because we were screaming "SPACE!" during the whole ride and I like totally lost my voice. Our next ride was Jungle Cruise, which was funny. There were some jokes that I hadn't heard. But the line was kinda lengthy! When was the last time you actually had to walk through the upstairs part of the Jungle Cruise's line??? I vaguely remember waiting in a really long Jungle Cruise line when I was little and we went like during Christmas. Oh well, here are some pics to prove that I was actually up there.

Lots of JC pics

Then my friend's mom left because she was exhausted. The rest of us rode the WILDERNESS again with FPs. So much better at night!

 

[DLR29]

We headed over to the Matterhorn to check out the line, but it was at least 45 minutes. Then the adults left and it was just us kids. We rode Mad Tea Party at night, which was great. We squeezed all 5 of us into one teacup, which was quite an experience. We were spinning so fast it was ridiculous!! Here are some nighttime shots of the teacups:

Creepy picture of Christy while on the ride:

Up next we browsed the candy store on Main Street and got a bunch of yumminess. Weaving through the crowds lined up on Main Street for the fireworks, we wanted to get in one more ride before the 10:30 Fantasmic! (we had tried to get seats for the 9, but we were too late) So we tried the WILDERNESS! But (like EVERY ride today) it was closed. So we tried Indy with our FPs from earlier......it was closed also. Great. So we just sat around for a while, saw the fireworks from over by the Rivers of America, then snagged some really good seats for the show. I went and got a dole whip, Christy got a pickle, and the others just chowed down on the candy.

Then the show started at 10:30. Fantasmic is such a great show, and I really liked the new Flotsam and Jetsam eels. Too bad the dragon still isn't working. Oh well, still an amazing show! Then we fought the crowds through Adventureland and Main Street. We walked all 8 minutes (probably 9 or 10 since we were tired) back to HoJos and we crashed.

 

[Sherwin]

Fun stuff, man. Haha, I hate it when 1) the ride breaks down right before it's your turn or 2) the CM is letting droves of people in and stops the line right when you get there.

We actually had Autopia break down on us twice, once we were waiting to leave the boarding area, another we were in the middle of the course.