WonkaKid
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2009
Recently someone asked me to check if printed daily schedules were still available at the park gates. Many of you may recall that adjacent to the maps, schedules with the day’s events used to be available to guests. I don’t recall seeing them lately but I asked a friend who was as the park on Wednesday to look. He didn’t see any and I also checked this morning but I found the same. I asked the CM at the gate if they were still offered but she said that they were phased out long ago. She also believed that they plan to do the same with printed park maps, the idea being that DL would prefer that guests rely entirely on the app for any park-related questions. As many of you know, I offer to send park maps regularly. I know that a lot of people like to have them for a variety of reasons: they make for a great welcome package or an exciting preview for kids or they simply would like some as a souvenir and forgot to grab any on a recent visit. I’d really hate to see them eliminated. Hopefully that doesn’t happen. But in case they are, I’ve begun to stockpile them ;-).
I had a great time at the park today! Due to the half-marathon, it didn’t open until 9:00… and lines at the gate were all the way to the Monorail tracks by 7:50. I was pleasantly surprised when a friend texted at 6:45 to tell me that he was already there – first in line. I didn’t know that he’d planned to come today. His daughter ran in the race so he arrived with her there just before 5:00.
We rope-dropped Indiana Jones, which is always a gamble. We were second on the ride (first in our car) and would have been first but I passed the entrance because they moved it all the way to the left. That’s not the first time that’s happened to me. In the past I’ve headed for the usual line entrance only to find that they’ve moved it… just for the morning. That’s always aggravating because as a result I lose my potential first-place spot.
Following IJ, we moved on to Haunted Mansion. Although there was a short line, it was still a walk-on. As can be seen in the pic below, the queue has been shortened significantly. Guests can no longer enter that sort-of side yard because it’s been walled off, presumably in preparation for the coming queue reconfiguration.
We only got to ride Buzz a few times before the line got too long. It didn’t help that the attraction stopped several times, which made wait times nearly double. On my first round I got a bum cruiser. The gun on the right didn’t work at all and the one of the left barely worked. In short, I got two good scores (1.9M and 2,082,200) that came through and two respectable ones that didn’t, one of which was a score of around 1.6M (my final of the day). I’d planned to give that score to one of the kids from the Buzz family. Often when I don’t see them I’ll put their initials on the board and then send a pic of it to their mom. They always seem to enjoy that. As I’ve said countless times in the past, I often get more aggravation from that attraction than pleasure. But I’ve also said nearly as many times that any complaints that I have at or about DL are First-World, one-percenter problems and are probably not worthy of mention. There are millions in the world who wished that they had room in their lives to have such things qualify as "problems."
One thing that was special: I’ve become friendly with a Buzz CM. She’s always very kind and we’ll often stop and chat for ten-twenty minutes. Towards the end of our day – just past 1:00 – she offered to walk us onto Buzz through the exit, an offer we accepted gratefully. That was super cool of her and made for a nice end to our (abbreviated) day.
In large part due to the half-marathon (I presume), the park was crowded and wait times for everything were high. It didn’t help matters that there were big problems with the app and no one’s Genie+ worked. We saw long lines at two of the Guest Services umbrellas to address those issues.
I look forward to next Sunday when there will no longer be an early entry. We’ll have a fair shot at Peter Pan once again. It was always fun to rope-drop it and to be first. As some of you may recall, often when I was fortunate enough to be first, if there were kids/a family behind me that seemed nice, I’d always offer them my spot. Perhaps I’ll get that chance again soon.
Side weather-related note: It was 50° when I arrived at the park gates this morning. Ultimately it warmed up to 64°. By way of contrast, it was a mere -4° in Chicago at park-open. I texted a friend some park pics and she replied that she had no plans to leave her house today. I don't blame her. My mom didn't leave her house either.
I’ve got park maps for anyone who like some. Send me a DM with your address and I’ll get a set in the mail for you.
Park pics:
I had a great time at the park today! Due to the half-marathon, it didn’t open until 9:00… and lines at the gate were all the way to the Monorail tracks by 7:50. I was pleasantly surprised when a friend texted at 6:45 to tell me that he was already there – first in line. I didn’t know that he’d planned to come today. His daughter ran in the race so he arrived with her there just before 5:00.
We rope-dropped Indiana Jones, which is always a gamble. We were second on the ride (first in our car) and would have been first but I passed the entrance because they moved it all the way to the left. That’s not the first time that’s happened to me. In the past I’ve headed for the usual line entrance only to find that they’ve moved it… just for the morning. That’s always aggravating because as a result I lose my potential first-place spot.
Following IJ, we moved on to Haunted Mansion. Although there was a short line, it was still a walk-on. As can be seen in the pic below, the queue has been shortened significantly. Guests can no longer enter that sort-of side yard because it’s been walled off, presumably in preparation for the coming queue reconfiguration.
We only got to ride Buzz a few times before the line got too long. It didn’t help that the attraction stopped several times, which made wait times nearly double. On my first round I got a bum cruiser. The gun on the right didn’t work at all and the one of the left barely worked. In short, I got two good scores (1.9M and 2,082,200) that came through and two respectable ones that didn’t, one of which was a score of around 1.6M (my final of the day). I’d planned to give that score to one of the kids from the Buzz family. Often when I don’t see them I’ll put their initials on the board and then send a pic of it to their mom. They always seem to enjoy that. As I’ve said countless times in the past, I often get more aggravation from that attraction than pleasure. But I’ve also said nearly as many times that any complaints that I have at or about DL are First-World, one-percenter problems and are probably not worthy of mention. There are millions in the world who wished that they had room in their lives to have such things qualify as "problems."
One thing that was special: I’ve become friendly with a Buzz CM. She’s always very kind and we’ll often stop and chat for ten-twenty minutes. Towards the end of our day – just past 1:00 – she offered to walk us onto Buzz through the exit, an offer we accepted gratefully. That was super cool of her and made for a nice end to our (abbreviated) day.
In large part due to the half-marathon (I presume), the park was crowded and wait times for everything were high. It didn’t help matters that there were big problems with the app and no one’s Genie+ worked. We saw long lines at two of the Guest Services umbrellas to address those issues.
I look forward to next Sunday when there will no longer be an early entry. We’ll have a fair shot at Peter Pan once again. It was always fun to rope-drop it and to be first. As some of you may recall, often when I was fortunate enough to be first, if there were kids/a family behind me that seemed nice, I’d always offer them my spot. Perhaps I’ll get that chance again soon.
Side weather-related note: It was 50° when I arrived at the park gates this morning. Ultimately it warmed up to 64°. By way of contrast, it was a mere -4° in Chicago at park-open. I texted a friend some park pics and she replied that she had no plans to leave her house today. I don't blame her. My mom didn't leave her house either.
I’ve got park maps for anyone who like some. Send me a DM with your address and I’ll get a set in the mail for you.
Park pics:
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