Jetlag & Sleep deprivation will not stop me: a WDW vet does DLR for the first time.
The scenario: I’ve got a free flight voucher on Jetblue, leftover WDW tickets, and a generous wife who will let me go off on an impromptu three day weekend. A lifelong WDW fan, I’m going to check out DLR using left over days on a WDW ticket. Amazingly, my two Disney fan daughters are still speaking to me (after I promised to get some special request souvenirs for them).
I booked this trip last minute, a week or so ahead of time. I found a reasonably priced hotel with a free breakfast not far from DLR’s gate, the Days Inn Maingate on South Harbor Blvd.
Friday afternoon I took the T (that’s the subway in Boston) to the airport. At Logan I got on my first queue of the trip: yay, TSA security! It’s so realistic. It’s "off with his shoes" and I’m through with time for dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s before the flight.
This little fellow stowed away in my luggage.
The flight itself was somewhat pixie dusted. I had a very energetic & happy flight crew. They offered a free drink to whoever could remember the names of each of the flight attendants. I got it correct & won the beverage. For whatever reason, I wasn’t in the mood for a drink, so I gave it to the couple sitting next to me. ;-) It was a smooth flight. Winds were light, so we arrived in Long Beach 30 minutes early. Amazingly, the flight attendant offered me a lift to my hotel! Since I had already pre-paid the Supershuttle and since I did not want to explain to my wife how I got a lift from the flight attendant, I declined her very generous offer. BTW, I’m 100% sure she was just being really nice and NOT trying to pick me up. She said so herself.
The shuttle bus dropped me off in short order at the Days Inn. Check in was quick. The room was clean. I unpacked, set my clothes out for the next day, and tried to get some sleep. It was around midnight or so and I slept fitfully. Finally, I woke up at 4 AM local time. I tried to get back to sleep to no avail. I read e-mail a bit, watched local news, and then went to get some breakfast at 6 AM.
It was an early entry morning for guests staying at DLR. For the hoi polloi Disneyland’s gates opened at 9 AM. There were a few things I was nervous about: finding the bus stop, getting the right bus, would my WDW tickets work, and did I really have at least three days left on the pass? Well I got my answers: the bus stop was half a block from the hotel, the 43 goes right past the gate and has a “Disneyland” stop. Spoiler alert on the tickets: yes, I had three days left over, and yes, they worked just fine.
Anyway, I got the bus, stepped out of Anaheim, under the sign, past the monorail beam & I was inside the Disneyland Resort. There’s a large plaza with gates for both parks facing each other. They are just that close. Since I was so early, I got a locker, stowed my backpack, and wandered into Downtown Disney to go window shopping in the big Disney Store. I wanted to scout out the right gifts for my daughters, wife, niece, and mom. No waiting until the last minute for me (this time). Also, I like taking photos of items that catch my eye. It’s like my version of a souvenir.
As the time got closer to 9, I headed over to gates. A largish crowd was patiently waiting. Finally, the gates were opened and people started flooding in. Me? I had to nervously wait for a few minutes while a team lead checked my WDW park hopper, deducted a day, and gave me a one day DLR park hopper in exchange. Finally, I got it with no small measure of relief, in I went. As I had read, everything about DLR was more compact. The entryway, Main Street, USA, and, of course, Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was like stepping into a parallel universe, except Mickey didn’t have a goatee and he wasn’t evil (please see another of my nerdy interests, Star Trek: Mirror, Mirror if you don’t know the reference).
I walked right down the middle of Main Street, USA until I got to the hub by the statue for rope drop. There was an excellent castmember, Ryan, giving advice to people (what’s your favorite ride?), managing the crowd so a woman in a scooter could back up and get back to the area for people eligible for early entry. I thought he did a superb job being the face of Disney at the start of the day for a big crowd. Because, honestly, I was thinking: “RTFM, kids”. ;-) But that’s why I’m not a cast member; pixie dust is their department, not mine. I’m kidding of course. Pixie dust is my policy too. I made sure to hit City Hall later to fill out a compliment card for Ryan. I took a photo of him so I could be sure to get all the details of his name tag so the comment would get to his manager.
To get ahead of myself a bit, I found that the CMs at DLR were – on average – more enthusiastic than WDW. It was just a bit more of the norm. Sure, I saw quite a few CMs just phoning it in, but on average the DLR cast members were just a bit more involved & gave a little more in their spiels.
Remain calm. Ryan Will Answer All.
Finally, it was time for rope drop, and off I went. I did the Matterhorn first. My priority being rides DL has which WDW does not. Then I did Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride where I discovered you cannot go back to your childhood. My recollection of the ride from when I was a little kid at WDW is that it was FAST and bounced you around. Instead, it was the first of many utterly charming dark rides I took. If there’s one thing I kept thinking throughout my visit was, “gosh, that’s just utterly charming”.
I was also quizzed by another guest why I was there solo. “Taking photos for your blog?” I just should have gone full nerd and said yes. After all, that is more or less the case. For me, this was one of the difficulties of a solo trip. I often felt like I was taking a spot away from a little kid, and this feeling kept me from doing a few of the things I had planned on doing. :-/ Given that vibe, I thought I would skip Fantasyland and go on to something else. If I hadn’t been under the misapprehension that Space Mountain had a single rider line, I would have gone to do that. Instead, I went to Pirates of the Caribbean. My first impression was “where’s the queue?”. I missed WDW’s atmosphere-establishing Colonial Spanish Fort with its moist cool air. Of course I was leaving through the bayou in New Orleans. Yes, Pirates is longer in DLR. It has the two big drops. It’s fun. I loved it, of course. Then I did the Haunted Mansion -- in WDW does the guy in the coffin scream “Let me out!”? I couldn’t recall that and it was wonderfully creepy.
By the time 11 AM rolled around, I was starving. Bear in mind that 11 AM felt like 2 PM to my east coast body clock. I had read the excellent blog article “5 Must Try Counter Service Food Entrees at Disneyland Resort” http://blog.touringplans.com/2013/04/17/5-must-try-counter-service-food-entrees-at-disneyland-resort/ Based on those recommendations off I went to The Hungry Bear to try the Fried Green Tomato sandwich with sweet potato fries. It was indeed excellent. Oh, the cast member at the register asked if my Disney Hawaiian shirt was from WDW. Good eye!
I got a nice quiet place to sit out back overlooking the river. I saw the Columbia, the Mark Twain, and the canoes go by several times and listened to the bits of the spiels. It was very relaxing. The weather was just perfect; warm and dry. I also looked around for an outlet to charge my Galaxy S2 phone to no avail.
I use a Canon T1i SLR. I chewed into enough of the battery in the first day that I saw the battery go down a bar. In WDW I usually go back to my room for the afternoon to recharge me & my batteries. Since I wasn’t going to do that at DLR, I got a bit concerned. I turned off the display so the camera LCD wouldn’t light up unless I wanted it to. Again, this dramatically stretched out battery life.
After lunch I went down to the Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes. I had a very funny and energetic CM as my river guide, Duke, from Mansfield, Texas. Then I made my way to the Golden Horseshoe to see Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. I had no idea it was a counter service restaurant! Since I was quite full from my lunch, I went upstairs to shoot some photos. After taking a couple, I went downstairs to sit on the stairs by the side of the stage and try to get some close ups. The performers were hysterical. I really enjoyed the show.
Afterwards, I hit the Tiki room where the intro spiel was given by an outstanding CM who did the spiel in the voice and patois of a tiki. He was hysterical. In fact, I didn’t know it was a live CM until the woman behind me said, “I love this guy, he’s the best”. Sadly, I did not get his name or I would have made a point of complimenting him at City Hall. I took advantage of the single rider line to skip the big queue and do the Indiana Jones ride.
At this point I was very hot and quite tired. I went back to Main Street, watched the piano player, and had a root beer float. Oh, pretty much any time I got some food from a counter I also got a cup of ice water. At this point I rented the charging locker for the hour and walked around Main Street for a while, taking photos of a band, characters (the Queen of Hearts!), the windows, and the outstanding Dapper Dans.
Not the Dapper Dans
Since I was still feeling quite tired, I decided to walk over to Tomorrowland and catch the monorail. On the way I watched the Jedi training academy wherein Darth Maul scared the heck out of a little kid watching the show. I was also creeped out by younglings taking on Darth Vader. Um, hello, does anyone remember Anakin killing all the younglings in Episode 3? I got on the sleek monorail mark VII, left the station and saw HARBOR BOULEVARD? Yuck! What was that doing there? Seeing the outside world like that was unexpected and jarring.
If I had been smart, given how tired I felt, I would have disembarked at the Downtown Disney stop and spent some quality time having a coffee and lots of ice water either in a cafe or in the Grand Californian. Unfortunately, I wasn’t being very smart, so I completed the loop and went back into the park. Disembarking the monorail, I caught some of the parade. Then I want to It’s a Small World. Yes, the exterior queue area is … simply charming. Looking at my photos, the next thing I did was watch the parade from where it started on Main Street. I’m not sure how the timing worked on all that, but there it is. It was a great parade.
I went to Captain EO which really was far better than I remembered. I didn’t go to see it when I was last in EPCOT, so this was the first time watching it perhaps since I was a teenager. Coming back to it as an adult, I liked the story better: music and art changing the world and was willing to overlook the too cute by half muppetty creatures that grated me so as a kid.
I was getting hungry so I went to New Orleans Square to try the vegetarian gumbo. It was delicious. Seating was very limited on the veranda, but a couple young women were kind enough to allow me to split a table with them. If I had realized the French Market was counter service & known it had an amazing jazz band playing, I would have carried my meal over there. In fact, later I saw that band playing and it was so good that I bought a cup of coffee and a piece of overly sweet cake so I could sit and really enjoy the Royal Street Bachelors play. Too bad it was Disney coffee. It’s a pity to serve that in New Orleans Square. I rode the Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Indian Jones, and Star Tours to close out the evening. Good seats for Fantasmic were not in the offing and I stupidly thought I would have the energy for the late show. The fireworks were canceled for the evening due to high winds. At this point I got smart & realized how tired I was. I left the park, caught the 43 back to my hotel, and went to sleep, exhausted with major Disney feet.
The scenario: I’ve got a free flight voucher on Jetblue, leftover WDW tickets, and a generous wife who will let me go off on an impromptu three day weekend. A lifelong WDW fan, I’m going to check out DLR using left over days on a WDW ticket. Amazingly, my two Disney fan daughters are still speaking to me (after I promised to get some special request souvenirs for them).
I booked this trip last minute, a week or so ahead of time. I found a reasonably priced hotel with a free breakfast not far from DLR’s gate, the Days Inn Maingate on South Harbor Blvd.
Friday afternoon I took the T (that’s the subway in Boston) to the airport. At Logan I got on my first queue of the trip: yay, TSA security! It’s so realistic. It’s "off with his shoes" and I’m through with time for dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s before the flight.
This little fellow stowed away in my luggage.
The flight itself was somewhat pixie dusted. I had a very energetic & happy flight crew. They offered a free drink to whoever could remember the names of each of the flight attendants. I got it correct & won the beverage. For whatever reason, I wasn’t in the mood for a drink, so I gave it to the couple sitting next to me. ;-) It was a smooth flight. Winds were light, so we arrived in Long Beach 30 minutes early. Amazingly, the flight attendant offered me a lift to my hotel! Since I had already pre-paid the Supershuttle and since I did not want to explain to my wife how I got a lift from the flight attendant, I declined her very generous offer. BTW, I’m 100% sure she was just being really nice and NOT trying to pick me up. She said so herself.
The shuttle bus dropped me off in short order at the Days Inn. Check in was quick. The room was clean. I unpacked, set my clothes out for the next day, and tried to get some sleep. It was around midnight or so and I slept fitfully. Finally, I woke up at 4 AM local time. I tried to get back to sleep to no avail. I read e-mail a bit, watched local news, and then went to get some breakfast at 6 AM.
It was an early entry morning for guests staying at DLR. For the hoi polloi Disneyland’s gates opened at 9 AM. There were a few things I was nervous about: finding the bus stop, getting the right bus, would my WDW tickets work, and did I really have at least three days left on the pass? Well I got my answers: the bus stop was half a block from the hotel, the 43 goes right past the gate and has a “Disneyland” stop. Spoiler alert on the tickets: yes, I had three days left over, and yes, they worked just fine.
Anyway, I got the bus, stepped out of Anaheim, under the sign, past the monorail beam & I was inside the Disneyland Resort. There’s a large plaza with gates for both parks facing each other. They are just that close. Since I was so early, I got a locker, stowed my backpack, and wandered into Downtown Disney to go window shopping in the big Disney Store. I wanted to scout out the right gifts for my daughters, wife, niece, and mom. No waiting until the last minute for me (this time). Also, I like taking photos of items that catch my eye. It’s like my version of a souvenir.
As the time got closer to 9, I headed over to gates. A largish crowd was patiently waiting. Finally, the gates were opened and people started flooding in. Me? I had to nervously wait for a few minutes while a team lead checked my WDW park hopper, deducted a day, and gave me a one day DLR park hopper in exchange. Finally, I got it with no small measure of relief, in I went. As I had read, everything about DLR was more compact. The entryway, Main Street, USA, and, of course, Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was like stepping into a parallel universe, except Mickey didn’t have a goatee and he wasn’t evil (please see another of my nerdy interests, Star Trek: Mirror, Mirror if you don’t know the reference).
I walked right down the middle of Main Street, USA until I got to the hub by the statue for rope drop. There was an excellent castmember, Ryan, giving advice to people (what’s your favorite ride?), managing the crowd so a woman in a scooter could back up and get back to the area for people eligible for early entry. I thought he did a superb job being the face of Disney at the start of the day for a big crowd. Because, honestly, I was thinking: “RTFM, kids”. ;-) But that’s why I’m not a cast member; pixie dust is their department, not mine. I’m kidding of course. Pixie dust is my policy too. I made sure to hit City Hall later to fill out a compliment card for Ryan. I took a photo of him so I could be sure to get all the details of his name tag so the comment would get to his manager.
To get ahead of myself a bit, I found that the CMs at DLR were – on average – more enthusiastic than WDW. It was just a bit more of the norm. Sure, I saw quite a few CMs just phoning it in, but on average the DLR cast members were just a bit more involved & gave a little more in their spiels.
Remain calm. Ryan Will Answer All.
Finally, it was time for rope drop, and off I went. I did the Matterhorn first. My priority being rides DL has which WDW does not. Then I did Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride where I discovered you cannot go back to your childhood. My recollection of the ride from when I was a little kid at WDW is that it was FAST and bounced you around. Instead, it was the first of many utterly charming dark rides I took. If there’s one thing I kept thinking throughout my visit was, “gosh, that’s just utterly charming”.
I was also quizzed by another guest why I was there solo. “Taking photos for your blog?” I just should have gone full nerd and said yes. After all, that is more or less the case. For me, this was one of the difficulties of a solo trip. I often felt like I was taking a spot away from a little kid, and this feeling kept me from doing a few of the things I had planned on doing. :-/ Given that vibe, I thought I would skip Fantasyland and go on to something else. If I hadn’t been under the misapprehension that Space Mountain had a single rider line, I would have gone to do that. Instead, I went to Pirates of the Caribbean. My first impression was “where’s the queue?”. I missed WDW’s atmosphere-establishing Colonial Spanish Fort with its moist cool air. Of course I was leaving through the bayou in New Orleans. Yes, Pirates is longer in DLR. It has the two big drops. It’s fun. I loved it, of course. Then I did the Haunted Mansion -- in WDW does the guy in the coffin scream “Let me out!”? I couldn’t recall that and it was wonderfully creepy.
By the time 11 AM rolled around, I was starving. Bear in mind that 11 AM felt like 2 PM to my east coast body clock. I had read the excellent blog article “5 Must Try Counter Service Food Entrees at Disneyland Resort” http://blog.touringplans.com/2013/04/17/5-must-try-counter-service-food-entrees-at-disneyland-resort/ Based on those recommendations off I went to The Hungry Bear to try the Fried Green Tomato sandwich with sweet potato fries. It was indeed excellent. Oh, the cast member at the register asked if my Disney Hawaiian shirt was from WDW. Good eye!
I got a nice quiet place to sit out back overlooking the river. I saw the Columbia, the Mark Twain, and the canoes go by several times and listened to the bits of the spiels. It was very relaxing. The weather was just perfect; warm and dry. I also looked around for an outlet to charge my Galaxy S2 phone to no avail.
Sidebar: phone charging, phone apps, camera battery life
Keeping my phone charged & available to me during this trip was critical. My phone let me see queue lengths via TouringPlans app, allowed me to communicate with my family, let me take 100 selfies & post to twitter, and was my guide to Anaheim’s bus service so I could get back to my hotel. I tried using the official Disney Parks app during the first day, but I found its interface cumbersome, the information less than useful, and most critically, it was a battery hog. I drained my first battery by 2 PM. I ended up renting a charging locker for $2 for an hour. I had a second battery I wanted to keep in reserve to make sure I could get home. The rest of the weekend I ditched the Disney Parks app, keep a sharp eye to make sure my WiFi, GPS, and 4G radios were off & stayed off. My battery life improved measurably as a result. I was also more successful in finding sockets for impromptu charging. I will create a separate post so you can enjoy 100 selfies of yours truly at DLR.
I use a Canon T1i SLR. I chewed into enough of the battery in the first day that I saw the battery go down a bar. In WDW I usually go back to my room for the afternoon to recharge me & my batteries. Since I wasn’t going to do that at DLR, I got a bit concerned. I turned off the display so the camera LCD wouldn’t light up unless I wanted it to. Again, this dramatically stretched out battery life.
After lunch I went down to the Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes. I had a very funny and energetic CM as my river guide, Duke, from Mansfield, Texas. Then I made my way to the Golden Horseshoe to see Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. I had no idea it was a counter service restaurant! Since I was quite full from my lunch, I went upstairs to shoot some photos. After taking a couple, I went downstairs to sit on the stairs by the side of the stage and try to get some close ups. The performers were hysterical. I really enjoyed the show.
Sidebar: entertainment at DLR
Overall, I was really impressed with the number of bands performing on the street in DLR and most particularly, the fact that there were a number of counter service restaurants with live entertainment. I thought this was a dramatic plus to the DLR experience. There were also a large number of characters roaming the streets. While they had minders, they often drifted into the background, so you had the treat of seeing someone like Tiana roaming the streets of New Orleans Square.
Afterwards, I hit the Tiki room where the intro spiel was given by an outstanding CM who did the spiel in the voice and patois of a tiki. He was hysterical. In fact, I didn’t know it was a live CM until the woman behind me said, “I love this guy, he’s the best”. Sadly, I did not get his name or I would have made a point of complimenting him at City Hall. I took advantage of the single rider line to skip the big queue and do the Indiana Jones ride.
At this point I was very hot and quite tired. I went back to Main Street, watched the piano player, and had a root beer float. Oh, pretty much any time I got some food from a counter I also got a cup of ice water. At this point I rented the charging locker for the hour and walked around Main Street for a while, taking photos of a band, characters (the Queen of Hearts!), the windows, and the outstanding Dapper Dans.
Not the Dapper Dans
Since I was still feeling quite tired, I decided to walk over to Tomorrowland and catch the monorail. On the way I watched the Jedi training academy wherein Darth Maul scared the heck out of a little kid watching the show. I was also creeped out by younglings taking on Darth Vader. Um, hello, does anyone remember Anakin killing all the younglings in Episode 3? I got on the sleek monorail mark VII, left the station and saw HARBOR BOULEVARD? Yuck! What was that doing there? Seeing the outside world like that was unexpected and jarring.
If I had been smart, given how tired I felt, I would have disembarked at the Downtown Disney stop and spent some quality time having a coffee and lots of ice water either in a cafe or in the Grand Californian. Unfortunately, I wasn’t being very smart, so I completed the loop and went back into the park. Disembarking the monorail, I caught some of the parade. Then I want to It’s a Small World. Yes, the exterior queue area is … simply charming. Looking at my photos, the next thing I did was watch the parade from where it started on Main Street. I’m not sure how the timing worked on all that, but there it is. It was a great parade.
I went to Captain EO which really was far better than I remembered. I didn’t go to see it when I was last in EPCOT, so this was the first time watching it perhaps since I was a teenager. Coming back to it as an adult, I liked the story better: music and art changing the world and was willing to overlook the too cute by half muppetty creatures that grated me so as a kid.
I was getting hungry so I went to New Orleans Square to try the vegetarian gumbo. It was delicious. Seating was very limited on the veranda, but a couple young women were kind enough to allow me to split a table with them. If I had realized the French Market was counter service & known it had an amazing jazz band playing, I would have carried my meal over there. In fact, later I saw that band playing and it was so good that I bought a cup of coffee and a piece of overly sweet cake so I could sit and really enjoy the Royal Street Bachelors play. Too bad it was Disney coffee. It’s a pity to serve that in New Orleans Square. I rode the Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Indian Jones, and Star Tours to close out the evening. Good seats for Fantasmic were not in the offing and I stupidly thought I would have the energy for the late show. The fireworks were canceled for the evening due to high winds. At this point I got smart & realized how tired I was. I left the park, caught the 43 back to my hotel, and went to sleep, exhausted with major Disney feet.
I am strange, I know 
, I'll share my experience at Disney Junior: Live on Stage. The CM's that load you into the theater will try to work the crowd a little bit. At WDW, it's "Raise your hand if you're from Florida! Raise your hand if you're from the US!" At DCA, it's "Raise your hand if you're from Orange County! Raise your hand if you're from Southern California!" A little different perspective. 
