CaliforniaDreamer
<a href="http://www.wdwinfo.com/dis-sponsor/" targ
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2004
Thanks to the Stephens family here, we had a good plan. First question was would there be a Disneyland exit from the left hand carpool lane? Yes.
By the time we had gone through the bag check, bought our tickets, waited in line to enter the turnstiles and did a quick survey, we entered the park at 11 AM. I thought my friends might win something for the survey but all they got were stickers.
We got our FP for Buzz Lightyear and then walked on Pirates (a 5 min wait) and then literally walked on into Haunted Mansion. Love that spiderweb with "50" on it outside the house.
Did Buzz Lightyear which is so much fun. At the very end something malfunctioned and they had to stop the ride to repair it. They issued a written FP for anytime later. We went to autopia but it had been down fro an hour and a half they said. The day gets hazy after that because it was so hot but we had an early lunch at the place where you can see the boats on the river. Chicken sandwich wasn't bad, the salad wasn't thrilling. We regretted not walking back to the Mexican place, all in all but the girls liked seeing all the boats go by and they loved their plastic cartoon lunch pails that came with the meals - they carried their various souvenirs in them all day.
Autopea was now fixed as per the sign in the hub so we went on that - our longest wait of the day, about 15-20 min in the hot sun. I have never seen cast members arguing about how to run a ride until today. The boy didn't seem to know what he was doing, he was putting people in odd places and making them get out of cars and get in others. One female cast member told him off in front of us. They both disappeared and we sat there forever until another guy came over saying he thought she was going to return. It was awful to see this and makes you wonder about things you may have read that DL is being run in ways Walt never would have allowed.
But those driver's lic they give you? Look at yours because mine won a prize, a plastic model car with removable people.
We went to the hub and bought some large bottles of water and took seats in that elevated area of tables. We then noticed Mickey doing his Matterhorn climb, which was great fun. This was around 1PM-ish.
We did return to Buzz and our scores vastly improved. You might as well shoot all you want because misses aren't held against you. FP there is pretty much walk right in. Otherwise that wait is in the hot sun. We rushed to finish our water but then saw they allowed people to carry their water on the ride.
We saw a lot of characters throughout the day posing - Pluto, Chip and Dale, Aladdin, The ants, and saw some princesses rushing through the park.
We returned to that hub area, bought some lemonade and popcorn for the salt and watched the 3:15 parade. We weren't close but we were in the shade and seated. The parade is nice but very short. If you catch it at the early evening show, best spots were at the start, the beginning of Main St.
close to the entrance.
After the parade we did some light shopping on Main Street. There's a bingo game in turquoise for $5 on stiff cardboard. You move aside little squares when you see a certain ride. It's super-retro. If you have the Disney visa card, you get a 10% discount if your total is over $50. My friends went to the hatter on Main St and bought golden ears. The woman there did a lovely job of writing the names, we think the ladies there are the best. We also bought a hat there and took it to another shop around the corner where the woman can write things other than names (as long as it's acceptable).
We pressed pennies for the girls' birth years and got our fortunes told by Esmerelda (and as always, she's remarkably right). We rode the merry-go-round and went to our 5:20 res at Blue Bayou.
All in all, park attendence was light today. Local schools were in session and the heat kept a lot of tourists at their hotel pool. Still, when we went to BB, we were told that the wait for a waterside table for us (5) would be an additional 45 minutes. Additional meaning beyond the usual wait time. So we asked how long it would be to be close to the water and she went to check. Ten minutes for the second row from the water. So that was fine. We waited 10 minutes and got a nice table about mid-way in the next row from the water table row. It wasn't as fun as the time we sat by the water because you really can lose yourself in the bayou atmosphere if you're right there on the water. Especially if you are just two people, it would be worth it to plan on 11:30 PS I feel. But we were hot and tired and happy to be inside. Also with 5, someone had to sit with their back to the water.
Our waiter was very nice although he disappeared midway through and another waiter said he was covering for him. That messed our up birthday girl dessert surprise but when our original waiter reappeared, he fixed that pronto. They had another fellow who refilled our drink and they were great. They put three straws in a diet coke so they knew what to refill. Milk wasn't refilled but our waiter was kind enough to do it once.
My friends didn't rave about their salmon. I liked my prime rib but wished I had said no gravy. All in all, it was fun and we were grateful when we left and saw the huge crowd now waiting to get in around 7.
If you are going in the next couple of days, bring your sunscreen and reapply it mid-day. Wear hats and sunglasses although put them away before getting on a ride. Watch when the safety bars come down as they can knock your glasses if you've tucked them in your shirt. Bring large lightweight bags/purses that zip for all the stuff you'll get. If you have a passport type holder, that's good to hold the fast passes. Wear super comfortable sandals rather than sneakers and you'll thank me. Remember to drink enough water and have something salty. I didn't hear the report but our guess was the temp was about 100 today. One woman had one of these, and I thought that was really smart:
By the time we had gone through the bag check, bought our tickets, waited in line to enter the turnstiles and did a quick survey, we entered the park at 11 AM. I thought my friends might win something for the survey but all they got were stickers.
We got our FP for Buzz Lightyear and then walked on Pirates (a 5 min wait) and then literally walked on into Haunted Mansion. Love that spiderweb with "50" on it outside the house.
Did Buzz Lightyear which is so much fun. At the very end something malfunctioned and they had to stop the ride to repair it. They issued a written FP for anytime later. We went to autopia but it had been down fro an hour and a half they said. The day gets hazy after that because it was so hot but we had an early lunch at the place where you can see the boats on the river. Chicken sandwich wasn't bad, the salad wasn't thrilling. We regretted not walking back to the Mexican place, all in all but the girls liked seeing all the boats go by and they loved their plastic cartoon lunch pails that came with the meals - they carried their various souvenirs in them all day.
Autopea was now fixed as per the sign in the hub so we went on that - our longest wait of the day, about 15-20 min in the hot sun. I have never seen cast members arguing about how to run a ride until today. The boy didn't seem to know what he was doing, he was putting people in odd places and making them get out of cars and get in others. One female cast member told him off in front of us. They both disappeared and we sat there forever until another guy came over saying he thought she was going to return. It was awful to see this and makes you wonder about things you may have read that DL is being run in ways Walt never would have allowed.
But those driver's lic they give you? Look at yours because mine won a prize, a plastic model car with removable people.
We went to the hub and bought some large bottles of water and took seats in that elevated area of tables. We then noticed Mickey doing his Matterhorn climb, which was great fun. This was around 1PM-ish.
We did return to Buzz and our scores vastly improved. You might as well shoot all you want because misses aren't held against you. FP there is pretty much walk right in. Otherwise that wait is in the hot sun. We rushed to finish our water but then saw they allowed people to carry their water on the ride.
We saw a lot of characters throughout the day posing - Pluto, Chip and Dale, Aladdin, The ants, and saw some princesses rushing through the park.
We returned to that hub area, bought some lemonade and popcorn for the salt and watched the 3:15 parade. We weren't close but we were in the shade and seated. The parade is nice but very short. If you catch it at the early evening show, best spots were at the start, the beginning of Main St.
close to the entrance.
After the parade we did some light shopping on Main Street. There's a bingo game in turquoise for $5 on stiff cardboard. You move aside little squares when you see a certain ride. It's super-retro. If you have the Disney visa card, you get a 10% discount if your total is over $50. My friends went to the hatter on Main St and bought golden ears. The woman there did a lovely job of writing the names, we think the ladies there are the best. We also bought a hat there and took it to another shop around the corner where the woman can write things other than names (as long as it's acceptable).
We pressed pennies for the girls' birth years and got our fortunes told by Esmerelda (and as always, she's remarkably right). We rode the merry-go-round and went to our 5:20 res at Blue Bayou.
All in all, park attendence was light today. Local schools were in session and the heat kept a lot of tourists at their hotel pool. Still, when we went to BB, we were told that the wait for a waterside table for us (5) would be an additional 45 minutes. Additional meaning beyond the usual wait time. So we asked how long it would be to be close to the water and she went to check. Ten minutes for the second row from the water. So that was fine. We waited 10 minutes and got a nice table about mid-way in the next row from the water table row. It wasn't as fun as the time we sat by the water because you really can lose yourself in the bayou atmosphere if you're right there on the water. Especially if you are just two people, it would be worth it to plan on 11:30 PS I feel. But we were hot and tired and happy to be inside. Also with 5, someone had to sit with their back to the water.
Our waiter was very nice although he disappeared midway through and another waiter said he was covering for him. That messed our up birthday girl dessert surprise but when our original waiter reappeared, he fixed that pronto. They had another fellow who refilled our drink and they were great. They put three straws in a diet coke so they knew what to refill. Milk wasn't refilled but our waiter was kind enough to do it once.
My friends didn't rave about their salmon. I liked my prime rib but wished I had said no gravy. All in all, it was fun and we were grateful when we left and saw the huge crowd now waiting to get in around 7.
If you are going in the next couple of days, bring your sunscreen and reapply it mid-day. Wear hats and sunglasses although put them away before getting on a ride. Watch when the safety bars come down as they can knock your glasses if you've tucked them in your shirt. Bring large lightweight bags/purses that zip for all the stuff you'll get. If you have a passport type holder, that's good to hold the fast passes. Wear super comfortable sandals rather than sneakers and you'll thank me. Remember to drink enough water and have something salty. I didn't hear the report but our guess was the temp was about 100 today. One woman had one of these, and I thought that was really smart:
