Sunday 031509

[Alpoe001]

As a former CM I had one more set of Comp passes to use... since they were going to expire soon and Opera House was closing (my old location) I thought 031509 would be the best day to go.

I wanted to get to the park right at opening... but since Phillip takes more time getting ready then my sister on her wedding day... we ended up at the park at 9am.

I was very surprised when we got to the park structure and had to park on Daisy level... but when I realized they were only doing single lines and not doubling up I took that as the reason. Also when we got to trams it was even more surprising that they had both sides of the tram station loading! I mean I think they had at least 5 or 6 trams running.

At the turnstiles there was no wait at all which was another surprise. So far I thought "Wow, the park may not be too crazy" Once inside I got my first look at the WWYC Floral Mickey


Its very symmetrical and colorful...but I feel that its very lacking... Mickey and balloons... the huge plots of grass between them made me yawn.

Once inside Town Square... my eyes were drawn to the WWYC envelope. WOW talk about an eyesore! It stuck out like a sore thumb. I mean I barely noticed the party planter hats on the streetlight. IMO I think they should have just did the envelope and forgot about the Balloons. decided not to take any pics as IMHO they were both completly forgetable.

The first stop of the day we planned for FNSV... but when we got there - 70 minute wait and only 4 subs were running in 2 sub sailing configuration. Definatly was too early to be waiting that long... but noticed that the seagulls were completely working and had the sound on. I finally heard the "MINE, MINE" for the first time.


We decided to walk a few more feet and check out the line for Matterhorn...it stretched almost all the way around the mountain! The farthest I have ever seen the line go in 20 years of going to the park!
So on to IASW in hope of a smaller line!

The line was long and they had the extended queue open, but they were about to open the second loading station... it ended up only being about a 10 min wait. The building looked great! but I noticed that when the parade went off the clown on the left door of the time section was missing and all that was left was (what I felt looked like) a body chalk outline. Inside the attraction everything looked great! A few things caught my eye and ear tho...

Alot of regular dolls werent working - either moving super slow or not singing...Timon was not moving in Africa... I did not see Marlin or Dory at all... Ariel was singing(all accounts I have heard was they none of the new characters did)while the 2 other mermaids didnt...People said Aladdin was static, but the carpet bobbed up and down...the America scene was more epty than I thought! and I saw that the mid-west figures actually sing (all i heard was the scene had no singing) and I never heard anyone ever mention that Woody and Jesse move.

In all I thought the ride was great... but the America scene needs more stuff!

Next we went on Mr. Toad... line wasnt bad at all, but inside I felt like i was back in FL...very hot and muggy.

Then onto the Castle Walk-through... for once I had breathing room and didnt have kids squeezing between my legs to get past me! Not to mention I was actually able to get some extremely low light pictures...most of them came out really good


afterwards I decided to check out the theater room for the castle... it was cute, but small... I really liked all the things in the curio case!


Next it was off to Adventureland...
On the way thru the Hub I bumped into the Evil Queen - I have rarely seen her out and about but she looked great!


We decided to take a quick ride on the Jungle cruise... it was busy- both lower 2 and upper 3 were open of the queue. I didnt recognise any skips (but JC has a very high turn around)... not to mention I think our skip needed some coffee... he must have been new too as his spiel was very cookie cutter... not to mention his driving could have easily derailed the boat - stopped too soon in the nile river and in the hippo pool too close to "C" curve .

By this time it was 11:30 and I decided to check out the Hub for any Micechatters... I waited for 35 minutes next to the Partners Statue but nobody showed so much for my first meet... oh well

We were hungry and so off to DCA for Lunch...
... on the way I snapped these pics


China Shop Construction is still moving along!


and the Fortuosity Shop got a temperary wall... I can tell its temporary because the door plate on the bottom is still there and the knotchs for the hinges are still present on the door frame.


Next Up DCA

[Kritter]

Great TR!

Very crowded, but I'm glad you had fun!

Also sorry no one showed up for the meet. Are you sure you were on Walt's side?

[WheresMickey]

Nice report so far.

[WDITrent]

Awesome! I wish I always went on these lucky, low-crowd days.

[WeWantsTheRedhead]

great pictures. cant wait to see more!

[Rex Dopey24]

nice trip report. thank for sharing. we are looking foward to more.

[Alex E]

Excellent TR so far.

The crowds were crazy Sunday...

I was at the noon meet briefly; there was one. But it was pretty small.

[Alpoe001]

DCA

I really love the look of the entrance... its going to be sad to see it go - especially the murals.


I was very surprised to see that there was more of a line to get into DCA than there was at DL... and boy was Sunshine Plaza packed - but that was mostly because of HM3.

Phillip wanted to try Cochina for lunch but when we got there the menu was too expensive for what we saw being served from the windows - $9.99 for a burrito!!!!
Hopefully when Cochina moves it wll have better portions.

MMMMM....sardines!

So onto Trattoria! It didnt look packed but there was a line of people waiting. I found out that seating was limited to only outside as the inside was infested with BEES! but right after we put our name down Horticulture(who take care of bee problems) was leaving...so our wait went from 25 min to 5 min. Lunch was great! We got a meatball sandwhich, huge entre salad, and ice teas for only $32. My meat balls were huge I had to cut them half.

Each time we go to the park we try to do something new... while we tried to finish our lunches we decided to finally see the Aladdin Musical. We got a quick smoke in Condor Flats and then off the the Hyperion. WOW it was busy! We ended up geting seats in the Balcony level. and that was alot of stairs...why couldnt they put and escelator on the 2nd level as well as the 3rd! This was the first time I had actually been in the seats of the Hyperion... my only experience with the theater was when I did Flashback in 2006. I was very suprised for how high up we were that we had a very good veiw of the stage. The show, although short, was actually very entertaining... and it also very interesting to see that the production included a woman in an electric wheelchair...and besides the main characters she was the best actor in the show! The genie was excellent! He had some of the best one-liners and he even made alot of references to today's news stories...like the Octuplets. And although Phillip didnt like it, I thought the flying carpet scense were fantastic!

After the show we decided to try TSMM... we took the long way thru Condor Flats and WOW! Soarin' had every extension of the queue open, which made the walkway very crowded. Passing thru Grizzly Peak wasnt too bad except for the bottleneck of people watching Jo-something and the 49-ers playing.

...and now your DCA construction report

San Fran bathrooms are moving along, while the current ones...

...are having the outside fixtures removed.


the viewing area is moving along nicely

and it looks like new footings are being made for the extension that will be by the bridge.

the front of the FunWheel looks great!

and alot of platforms or forming in the lagoon

I can't wait till the show comes next year!

and although its old news I though I'd add in the Boardwalk billboard... I really like the look and feel of it... my only gripe is that the other billboards are more 50's feel...hopefully that will change soon.


The new sign on screamin looks fantastic! and the removal of the ears really make Screamin' look more believable as an older wooden coaster.


As we got closer to TSMM I noticed that every extension of the queue was open - 90 minutes! Since I hate waiting in super long lines we passed on by.

Mr. P has his ear back -YAY!

up next - boardwalk games construction!

[MonstersGoBoo!]

Great pictures!

There were people at the meet yesterday, but very few. You have to wait there for a little more than 5 minutes just because not everyone gets there exactly at 12p. Hopefully when it's less crowded you'll see more of us!

[Noctourne]

I hope they do change the other billboards, mainly because they show the Mickey head on Screamin' and the Sun Wheel. :P

[Alpoe001]

Cont.

The Boardwalk games look amazing! So much detail! I can't wait till I can play the games!





And the back of the FunWheel looks almost done!


As we continued on it seems all the rides had super huge lines... Stinger, MM, and even Jumpin' Jellyfish all were over 30 min waits!



looks like the footings for the new platform are being sprayed out



I love this mural.... I really am going to be sad when they start to remove in next month

Does anyone know when I can get a good image of the entire mural?


update - created with Windows Live Photo Gallery


Phillip was already getting tired of DCA so we were gonna head back to DL... for some reason I thought the parade was about to start (3:30) and we needed to kill time before the walkways in DL got crazy (DUH! no prarade)... so we checked out A Bugs Land... and guess what? all the lines were over 30 minutes! luckily tho ITTBAB was about to start and they had seats left. I never actually looked around the lobby...

A Chorus Line


Annie


West Side Story


A Streetcar Named Desire

Its always so dark in there I never really noticed them. Not to mention I love the glowing blue mushroom lights they have all over the place!

next up - Back to DL

[Rocker]

Great TR!

I love the pic of the Paradise Pier logo finally on California Screamin. Very cool!

Oh, and I am sorry no one was at the hub. Maybe next time!

[Krillinish]

You should've ridden Golden Zephyr. I was trying out some new jokes on the mic.

[denice25]

great share!!

[Alpoe001]

Disneyland - again

Back over at Disneyland we hopped on the Train and took the Grand Circle Tour. I hadn't done that in awhile and it was nice to sit. We stayed on for NOS Station. For somereason we were hungry again so I suggested some Fritters and Mint Julip. I so love the Mint Julip Bar! and i dont know who made the fritters that day but they were the size of baseballs (mostly hallow) and fellapart easily... Phillip got sugar and dip all over his shirt.

Since this was going to be our last trip till my Birthday in July we decided to finally check out Pirates Lair... wow what a joke that was! the bilge pumps and the hoist didnt work in the Pirates Den and everything seemed so thrown in! MK TSI is so much better. I soo miss it!

stuck in the up position

After the big disappointment we headed over to HM but the line was stretched out past French Market... so then off to Golden Horseshoe and caught Billy Hill... we got about half way thru it before or legs go tired. There were no seats anywhere and barely any wall space to lean on.



Phillip of course needed another smoke so we headed to the Trail smoking area. On the way I saw BTMs line so long that it actually blocked the exit!

Trail repaving


old MS Surrey back on display at the Ranch


Celebration BBQ

Since we were already in Fantasyland we decided to checkout Peter Pan... but the line was sooooo long, we decided to go on Snow White... which was only about 10 minutes long.

We headed back towards Matterhorn but the line was still wrapped all the way around it... and FNSV was still at an hour wait. I wanted to check out Pixie Hallow and was hoping it would still be open as the ODV carts were still open but to my dismay it was already closed for the day... i mean heck even Ariels Grotto was open for people to run around in after the characters left.


by this time we were ready for dinner and decided to check out DD. It seemed so empty with so many shops closed. Since we had eaten at every DD restaurant so many times we decided to try the hotel... BTW Phillip is Vegetarian... and we walked to every hotel restaurant to check the menu...


scary Mickey mask at DLH

Disneyland Hotel
Goofy's Kitchen - $31.99...all he could get was Mac N Cheese
Steakhouse 55 - avg $18... no vegetarian choices
Hook's Point - Closed
Bits n Bites - Closed
Lost Bar - we wanted more than just nachoes

Paradise Pier Hotel
PCH Grill - $15 for cheese ravioli... long wait and short staffed
Yamabuki - $6 for edemame and $19 for Tofu entree!!!

Grand Californian
Storytellers - only side salads!
Napa Rose - $16 for a salad!

so after all that we decided to go back to Trattoria!
2 lasagnas and ice teas... about $40, but boy were they good and large...we both barely finished them.

since we still had time to go on a few things befor DCA closed we finally got to ride TSMM... which now was only a 20 min wait.

I got the higher score of course


New Sign at night

Instead of taking the maze of walls out we went thru Route 66 and was able to catch MM before they closed.


Zephyr at night

We headed back over to DL to give FNSV another try... The line now was only about 20 min long YAY! It was definatly more interesting to see the lagoon at night. Then we finally got in line for Matterhorn... but then right when we did they closed down one of the sides .... so out of the line we went and we headed over to HM. Fantasmic had just ended and believe it or not the crowd wasnt that bad.
There was no line for HM.

The Paintings in the Streching rooms were in bad shape! The frame strips were loose and flopping around and the main paintings were rippled.... but the hanging corpse looked like it was upgraded. Leota's wires were really visible. And the Attic seemed like some of the scenes were moved around even Constance.

We had just enough time to jump on Splash... and once again no line. ARE THEY EVER GOING TO FIX THE BEES ON BRER BEAR'S NOSE IN THE LAUGHING PLACE?!?!!?!?!

We were so surprised of no lines that we had time to jump on POTC... also no line.
The cannonball wind effect wasnt working... but Old Bill seemed to be working properly and facing the correct places.

We had just enough time to make it to the Opera House before it closed. I took a bunch of photos of the lobby. I really am going to miss it on the big screen but at least I will be able to see it on one of the smaller ones when Lincoln returns.

BTW earlier in the day an old CM friend of mine said that when Lincoln returns he will be more electric that hydrolic so his facial expressions will look better. I'm very excited to see the new figure!

It definatly was a long day of walking around but I really had a good time... I can't wait till my birthday for my next trip!