Trip Report 6/9/12 AP Preview 6-11pm (MAJOR spoilers!)

[LadyNimrodelle]

It was a mis-adventurous day, but I'll bypass the long wait for the M&F Tram, and the LONG wait at the ticket booths and start after I entered the park. It was around 3PM when we entered DCA and our tickets weren't until 6PM but the CM's guarding the entrance to BVS saw our orange wristbands and said that we could preview BVS at any time. So in we went!

To the left as you enter is Oswald's, where I went inside to see if they had the Oswald Ears that I read about here.

P1000208 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

No ears, so I took some more pictures. Next to Oswald's is the Chamber of Commerce aka Guest Relations:

P1000209 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

^haha, you can see me in the reflection on the doors!
Moving on still on the left hand side of the street:


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To the right was the Red Car Trolly:

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And the bathrooms - themed from the outside


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Mortimer's:


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The lockers:


P1000218 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


And back to the left, the Five and Dime which is DCA's version of the Emporium:

P1000213 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

I went in to the Five and Dime, still in search of Oswald Ears, but was told (incorrectly as it turns out) by a CM that they were out at DCA but that the Mad Hatter had them in DL. I decided to postpone my trip across the esplanade and take more pictures of BVS.

---------- Post added 06-10-2012 at 01:03 PM ----------

Continuing down the left side of BVS, I caught sight of this second-story window and had to grab a pic. It says Dream Homes:


P1000220 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

Underneath that window resides Big Top Toys, which is connected to the Five & Dime:


P1000221 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

Down the street to the right is Trolly Treats:


P1000223 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


P1000222 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


And this is the view from the front of Trolly Treats:


P1000224 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

Past Trolly Treats is Pig Cafe aka Starbucks:


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And this is where BVS opens up to Hollywood Land and CCT:


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---------- Post added 06-10-2012 at 01:26 PM ----------

OK, so I'll fast forward past my sundae at Ghirardelli, my pointless trip across the esplanade to DL for Oswald Ears, and my detour to Trader Sam's for a Shipwreck on the Rocks. We had to book it from Trader Sam's back to DCA to get in line for the 6PM entrance to CarsLand - the line wrapped around Pacific Wharf and up to Ariel's Grotto in Paradise Pier, but they were letting people in a little early, so the line moved quickly.

My strategy for CarsLand was to hit Luigi's Flying Tires first to avoid what was reported to be the worst line in CL. This worked out well because it was almost a walk-on. What I saw of the queue was cute, but I didn't spend any time in it.


P1000235 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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Basically this was a pointless ride. Try as we might, we couldn't get any speed up on our tire. The beach balls really were the best part of this attraction - except there was only one other tire of people who were helping us toss them around, so the whole experience was a bit lackluster. We laughed because it was so bad.

The gods of MiceChat (Dusty, Fishbulb, et. al.) were watching everyone struggle with this attraction, so I stopped to say hello and give them my review (thumbs down) and continued on to Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.


P1000238 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

This was also a walk-on (so far yAy for this strategy). It was actually quite fun, but I wouldn't wait a long time for it.

Getting these two rides out of the way we headed over to Radiator Springs Racers, only to find it temporarily non-functional (this attraction will be the IJA of DCA), so we walked around taking pictures of everything we had been rushing by in our attempt to ride everything before the lines became too long.

[Julieandtheboys]

This is a wonderful review. Glad you made it to Trader Sam's. Can't pass that one up!

[LadyNimrodelle]

I wandered around taking pictures:


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The Curios shop had a lot of interesting details:


P1000253 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


P1000254 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

And I went back and took some pictures of Luigi's that I didn't get earlier:


P1000255 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

But I was interrupted by Mater, coming down the road!


P1000256 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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So since I had to wait for him to pass I took some pictures of the "billboards" on the way from Cars Land to Bug's Land.


P1000258 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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And at the end of the road to Bug's Land are the infamous character statues:


P1000262 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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P1000265 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

And the obligatory Trash Can picture:


P1000263 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

[Radiobarry]

Great job so far! Al Lutz's comments about LFT were similar, by the way.

[LadyNimrodelle]

On the way back into "town" from Bug's Land are the Radiator Springs billboards


P1000266 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


P1000267 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

And I ran into Lightning McQueen


P1000269 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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And then I got distracted by the little details on the Curios shop again:


P1000273 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

By this time we were hungry so we went to Flo's for dinner.
Gotta love the gas prices:


P1000274 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

The wallpaper in the entry way:


P1000275 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

The light fixture:


P1000276 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

The menu:


P1000277 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

There were a lot of fun details to look at here. There were stacks of oil cans, which on closer inspection were quite amusing:


P1000278 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

After you order at the register you step up to the counter. This is another great place for theming. The lane dividers are...well...


P1000279 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

And right before you get to the counter there is a curb to stop you:


P1000280 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

We went left to look for a table after we got our food and walked through one room:


P1000281 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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but ended up sitting outside. Can't top this view from our table though:


P1000283 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


P1000284 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

The food was really good. I got the NY Strip Loin which comes with two sides of your choice and Mater's Tulsa Tea:


P1000285 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


P1000286 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

---------- Post added 06-10-2012 at 03:01 PM ----------

Cars Land bathroom signs were cute:


P1000290 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


P1000291 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

We left Flo's wanting dessert so we went to Cozy Cone to get Churro bites. The lines there are a little crazy - we waited quite a long time in what looked like a short line. It gave me time to take some pictures:


P1000295 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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I gotta admit, I loved the souvenir cones (and the churros weren't bad either):


P1000300 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

We grabbed the first bench we saw and sat down to people watch. Our location couldn't have been more perfect for the street lighting - and it was completely an accident. We didn't realize what a prime location we had until people started standing in the street all around us, cameras in hand.


P1000301 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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---------- Post added 06-10-2012 at 03:16 PM ----------

At this point it is 8:23 and we'd been waiting all day to experience Radiator Springs Racers. Our timing didn't look too bad 30 min. wait for Stand-by and 25 for Single Rider:


P1000317 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

Got a picture of where the Fastpass Distribution will be when things calm down:


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And these are all taken in the queue:


P1000321 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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There was one awkward spot where the lighting was glaringly obvious from the queue:


P1000341 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

but other than that it was an entertaining wait.

---------- Post added 06-10-2012 at 03:38 PM ----------

This is when the night got interesting. We got through the queue in about 40 minutes (10 minutes longer than estimated) and got right up to the loading area, in lane 8 and...the ride broke down. OK, no worries, we decided to wait it out. The car that was causing the trouble was in sight from our lane. So we waited...and waited. It was interesting to note that when they fix one of these cars they pop the hood:


P1000347 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

Since I had some time on my hands I took some more pics:


P1000351 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

9:32PM - we've now been in line for an hour:


P1000359 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

And this is how close we were to getting on:


P1000360 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

More pics:


P1000361 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

9:46PM


P1000362 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

They turned the work lights on and I sat down - this was my view:


P1000363 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

10:02PM - and the cars are still in the position they were in when we got there:


P1000365 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

They did warn us that they had no idea when the ride would be back up and advised us to go to the 10:15 WOC showing, but at this point I still thought there was a private 11:15 showing like I was told when I checked in.

10:13PM - they had to electronically push the offending car into the maintenance area:


P1000367 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


P1000368 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

Still resolved that I did not spend $75 a person to NOT ride RSR, we stayed though many other people gave up and left. I took a few more pics:


P1000370 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


P1000371 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

10:45PM - they are re-setting all the cars, so they are piling up at the loading area:


P1000372 by KelilaJ, on Flickr

They ran them all through the ride and we were finally able to board at 10:50!
I have no pics from the ride itself, but I'll just say it was worth every minute we waited.

---------- Post added 06-10-2012 at 03:51 PM ----------

We got out of the ride at 11 - sad that we didn't have the opportunity to ride again, but we were able to snap some more pictures on the way out.


P1000373 by KelilaJ, on Flickr


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Obviously there was no WOC show waiting for us so I figured I misread the information and heard wrong at the Ticket Booth.


P1000379 by KelilaJ, on Flickr





So we made our way out through Grizzly Peak and via the GCH:


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That's all folks!

Overall I was very impressed with everything except LFT. Please forgive the poor quality photos - I am NOT a photographer, but I enjoyed taking these - there is just something about sharing a new experience with others that made taking these really fun!

[WorldDisney]

First off, I only peeked at 10 pics lol! But what I saw looked amazing!! God I want to look so bad! I compromised I will look at any exterior pics since I been looking at the exterior for years now, but NO interior pics until I see it in person next week! But yeah it just looks great, all of it so far! I cant believe how great BVS turned out! CL was a bit easier since they had the roadmap (pun intended lol) based on the movie, although recreating it is still hard work. But BVS was created out of individual ideas and it just works! On every level I seen so far.

I do have a question though and this is for anyone who did the night previews. But could you actually see the fireworks going off from CL? I been asking this several times and no answers yet lol. But hopefully someone can tell me.

[LadyNimrodelle]

Well we were stuck in the loading area for RSR and I saw most of the fireworks from there, but I don't know about the rest of the areas...

[WorldDisney]

OK cool thanks!!!

I assume if you can see it from RSR, then a lot of the land you can see them as well! So it looks like there will be another area to check them out in. Great news!

[NettyVal09]

Okay loving it their is just to much to see cannot wait!

[Barbaraann]

Well I am glad that I looked. I probably won't make it out to California until January, so there's no way I am going to deprive myself of all these amazing photographs.

Thanks for taking the time to post such a great trip report.

[Jerryp49]

The 11:15 WOC was a missprint. Should have said 10:15. There`s another post about this, they wound up giving refunds to some of those who got the earlier flier and missed the show. I was standing not too far from you, about 6 people back in line. I left around 10 when a passing CM said it would be at least a half hour. I think I have you in my video. Is that your husband with the beard?

[Gonzotigger]

I know I'm in the minority but I think LFT can be a really fun ride. The second or third time around. Yes, there is a very steep learning curve but after you get the hang of it those tires can pick up some speed. All it takes is some open space and the right angle. I really think that this attraction will come into its own a couple of years down the line. When everyone is frustrated with this attraction and line dips down to where people can ride it multiple times in a day to get the hang of it, I think people will realize that it can be a pretty fun little attraction. Essentially it is a bumper car attraction. The difference being people already know how to drive a car. People don't know how to fly a tire.

[socalkdg]

I feel bad for the people that can't get Luigi going. Our family did it first try and felt the ride was better than Maters.

[LadyNimrodelle]

Oh we got Luigi's going as fast as anyone else, at least all the times I looked no one was going any faster than we did. Still didn't like it, and I think any ride with that much of a learning curve is going to tank. I'm glad I rode it before they shut it down, but I won't be waiting in line for it. I won't be waiting in line for Mater's either though, and that one was fun - but they are both carnival rides regardless of their attempt to be themed and I personally just don't go to Disney for that experience.

---------- Post added 06-10-2012 at 07:44 PM ----------

I was standing not too far from you, about 6 people back in line. I left around 10 when a passing CM said it would be at least a half hour. I think I have you in my video. Is that your husband with the beard?

Nope, I'm the girl with the shaved head behind that couple.

[my7dwarves]

Wonderful pictures!!

Can't wait to see it myself.