Some park updates, maps and pics!

WonkaKid

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
My morning got off to a bumpy start, which carried over to my park experience, unfortunately. To begin with, I left a little later than usual for some reason. Even though I was there, even I'm not sure why ;-). But just as I settled into my car, the cup of hot chocolate I'd made essentially erupted all over the front seat when I grabbed it and the cup collapsed. So I had to run back upstairs to get cleaned up. Back in the car, I finally set out for the park. Only to realize that after I merged onto the freeway I'd forgotten my phone. Once more, I had to return home. Once on the road again, after ten miles the I5 narrowed from five lanes to one. In short I missed rope drop today, which kicked off the day in a very unusual way for me. Beginning with several Fantasyland rides is my DL routine, to which I've grown accustomed. Next Sunday will be better.

The park was packed. Indeed, the parking structure was closed around noon. Hyperspace Mountain is now back in operation (as many of you know) and the landing of the ship with a phalanx of stormtroopers led by Captain Phasma (i.e., the silver stormtrooper) is also back. [Side note: I believe a number of APs will be blocked next weekend so hopefully crowds will be lighter].

Unlike when I visited the park on Wednesday, I smelled no smoke at any point of my park visit (yea!) -- that includes the esplanade. I did, however, see a few double-wide strollers. Someone mentioned in a previous thread that exceptions are made, apparently, for families that deem them medical necessities. Perhaps that's why I saw the few that I did.

Today was Bats Day in the park. i didn't realize it until noon when two bat-attired young ladies enlightened me (to the extent that's possible). Unlike Dapper Day, there weren't that many people dressed up today. Some, yes. But not as many as I've seen in previous years :-(.

I ran into a couple with whom I'm acquainted. They told me that last Sunday they rode every single ride in both parks (other than the California Zephyr because it was closed and they missed the Monorail by a mere five minutes). They were in the park from 8:00 - midnight. I didn't think it was possible to complete all the rides in one park in a day let alone both.

I meant to mention this several weeks ago: the organ (harpsichord?) on Pirates has been missing for nearly a month now. Oddly, a spotlight still shines on where it should be and it can still be heard. A friend and I have made jokes about both of those things over the past few weeks.

The second FP return scanner at Buzz was out of service, which slowed that line slightly. But at least most of my scores came through today. There were some minor inconveniences but we've all come to expect such things from Buzz. In short, that's no update or news ;-).

A nice couple from the board (@R2-JD) approached me around 8:45 as I entered Buzz. They recognized me from my posts. It's always nice when a fellow Disboard-er takes the time to say hello :-).

I picked up three set of park maps. If anyone would like one (domestic only, please), message me your mailing address and they'll be in the mail post haste :-).

A few park pix:

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A nice young lady I met in the early afternoon.
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The park offered free "May the 4th be with you" photos in what used to be the arcade. That carried over until Sunday and the lines were short.
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This was a nice, perfectly round score. I don't think I've ever scored a perfect 1,500,000 before.
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Thanks for the update. When SWGE opens I may ask for one of those maps.

There is a "challenge" called the Disneyland 55 where people try to ride all of the rides (moving attractions) in both parks. There is also a WDW 48 (I believe). DLR really does have more "rides" than WDW when you cut out shows and other attractions. You can see some videos of people completing the Disneyland 55 on YouTube.
 
I did, however, see a few double-wide strollers. Someone mentioned in a previous thread that exceptions are made, apparently, for families that deem them medical necessities. Perhaps that's why I saw the few that I did.
There are some popular double wide strollers that are still within the size limit. Although, I did see a few strollers that I thought looked longer than the limit, but it’s hard to say just eyeballing.

I honestly don’t think I saw any wagons, though, on Saturday. So they seem to be enforcing it. But I’m not sure there’s really any way to know for certain whether that is having any kind of impact on congestion or not.
 
A nice couple from the board approached me around 8:45 as I entered Buzz. They recognized me from my posts. It's always nice when a fellow Disboard-er takes the time to say hello :-).

That was myself and my wife (LuvGoldens) and we apologize for not fully introducing ourselves but it was our first day in the park and were really excited to be back for our first time since 1995.

It was nice meeting you.

JD
 


We'll have our first day in the parks on Sunday May 19th. I'd like to try and make rope drop, but we will be a party of 8 (with twin boys who just turned 5) and checking into the GCH first so it will be iffy. I'll definitely watch for you so I can personally thank you for the maps!
 
did, however, see a few double-wide strollers. Someone mentioned in a previous thread that exceptions are made, apparently, for families that deem them medical necessities. Perhaps that's why I saw the few that I did.
Double wide strollers are ok if they are under 31" wide. There are many double strollers that meet this width. In fact, double strollers that are single wide but one behind the other can have a harder time making the 51" length. So we may see more double wides.
 
We went on Saturday and saw zero wagons which was very nice. Saw some double long strollers that looked a little long, but most double wide still fit. That box is pretty large when you look at it.

We saw one person who was trying to discreetly put out a cigarette as we were leaving the area. And we could smell that he had been smoking. He was to the side where there is the small path with the fence and was trying to hide that he was putting one out. There were cast members around, but I don't think any saw him and we literally saw him as he was finishing bending down to put out on the ground and then hide the butt. But that was the only time we saw or smelled anything.
 


Nice update! Nice to hear that the "no smoking" is going fairly well

This was a nice, perfectly round score. I don't think I've ever scored a perfect 1,500,000 before.
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Very round score!


Do you know many of the others on the board?
 
Always love your mini TRs. :)

We were there (me, DH, and our two younger kids) yesterday too. We couldn't be there for May the 4th, but we were happy to be there for Revenge of the 5th and go on Hyperspace Mt! It's our favorite version of Space Mt for sure. Some of our experiences yesterday:

We were blocked off from entering the M&F parking garage at 10:10am. We just missed getting in there by seconds - we were diverted at the very last area just before you actually enter the parking structure. It was a big bummer as then we had to fight city traffic to get over to the Toy Story lot. We ended up walking to the park from there; the line for the shuttles was long and the weather was perfect yesterday. We got into the park about 11:05am.

Although it wasn't technically Bats Day (or Bats Weekend) as they said May 2018 would be the last official year they would do it (which was the 20th anniversary of the first Bats Day), we did see several people dressed up for it - I guess to do it on the first weekend of May even if it wasn't official anymore. And some went all out. But there definitely weren't as many people dressed up for it as I've seen in prior years.

In the late afternoon we saw Captain Phasma as well as several storm troopers in Tomorrowland. It was so cool. Some were "patrolling" the elevated walkways around Innoventions and some were walking amongst the crowd asking for their identification (LOL!) and praising the kids who were wearing any dark side shirts/masks/costumes (of which there were several!). It was awesome.

We went on Buzz around 5:30pm. The ride slowed/stopped several times and there were many buggies that were non-operational. There was also a curtain around the Buzz in the queue. Although my gun was registering points, it didn't produce a red light on my targets (?). My DH said his gun didn't seem to be working that well either. That attraction needs some work.

IJ shut down during our FP window (this was later afternoon) so Replacement FPs showed up in the app. Guess what we did with those - went on Hyperspace again! Love love love it.

We left around 6:45pm. The lines for the Toy Story shuttles looked CRAZY. So again, we walked.
 
Always love your mini TRs. :)

We were blocked off from entering the M&F parking garage at 10:10am. We just missed getting in there by seconds - we were diverted at the very last area just before you actually enter the parking structure. It was a big bummer as then we had to fight city traffic to get over to the Toy Story lot. We ended up walking to the park from there; the line for the shuttles was long and the weather was perfect yesterday. We got into the park about 11:05am.

Same thing happened to me about a month ago. Major bummer. I usually always beat the crowd and get a great spot in M&F. That weekend, however, some friends were in Anaheim with their daughter for a volleyball tournament and I wanted to see them all. I love when friends' kids -- or any kids, really -- are happy to see me. She was warming up on the court when she saw me. She did that little jump in the air that people do when they're happy and ran over to me. Love when things like that happen. Incidentally, I volunteer once a week -- today, in fact -- to tutor kids in LA. They're wonderful, wonderful kids and they crack me up.
 
Nice update! Nice to hear that the "no smoking" is going fairly well.
Thank you!


Very round score!
Thank you -- again :-).


Do you know many of the others on the board?
I've met a few here and there. However, "JIM" is a friend of mine. There's also a very nice couple I know that often does well on Buzz -- initials MAC. Other than those, there are few that I really recognize, per se.
 
Ah bummer about the late start! I’ve been on dis for only a couple months and even I know that’s not how you like to begin your day!

I do have a question about the maps. I’m still eons (or it feels like it anyway) from our trip next spring, but do they show stroller parking areas? I tried looking on Disney’s website, but everything is so teeny on the online maps, I couldn’t tell.
 
I picked up three set of park maps. If anyone would like one (domestic only, please), message me your mailing address and they'll be in the mail post haste :-).

I messaged you, hoping you haven't sent out all your map sets yet. We'll be leaving before dawn on May 18th and I'm thinking real maps would just add to the grandkids' excitement on the way!
 
There are some popular double wide strollers that are still within the size limit. Although, I did see a few strollers that I thought looked longer than the limit, but it’s hard to say just eyeballing.

I honestly don’t think I saw any wagons, though, on Saturday. So they seem to be enforcing it. But I’m not sure there’s really any way to know for certain whether that is having any kind of impact on congestion or not.
We have a city select tandem double. I was worried it would be close to the max limits when bringing it but really is necessary for our two toddlers around nap time (since they can both lay down and sleep in it). For the most part we are only pushing it to each land and then park it while we explore. We were stopped at least once each day at either toy story lot or outside security to “test” our stroller. It fit easily in the rectangle they’ve painted on the floors. We were more worried about length than width. We saw a lot of double wide strollers that looked like they wouldn’t fit in those boxes. I’m surprised some of them got through!

Thanks again to Rob for the park maps! We had a great trip, but it was ridiculously packed! We found out real quick that our 40” toddler did not like rides, but instead preferred the shows and characters. So that changed our plans drastically but we figured it out in the end even though it made the maxpass we purchased kinda useless.
 
Ah bummer about the late start! I’ve been on dis for only a couple months and even I know that’s not how you like to begin your day!

I do have a question about the maps. I’m still eons (or it feels like it anyway) from our trip next spring, but do they show stroller parking areas? I tried looking on Disney’s website, but everything is so teeny on the online maps, I couldn’t tell.
I’ve never seen a map with stroller parking on it. However, there is parking all over. And even if you can’t find the designated parking, a CM will most likely spot your stroller and move it for you. We had a lot of fun looking for a stroller after parking it even in the designated spots because they routinely move them around to make more room.
 

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