So I finally went to DCA recently after almost 5 months. The time had come to the see the infamous GOTG:MB in person. I was expecting the trip to be the run of the mill day when my wife and I take our 1.5 year old. Take him on the carousel a couple times, Dumbo, IASW and maybe POTC or Jungle cruise if we re lucky. Eat a meal, buy a souvenir or two and go home. Lucky for me, it wasn't. The first bit of good news I received was that my sister and her fiancee were going to meet us at the park. Meaning not only would we have a baby sitter (wife and I aren't really into single rider) when we want to go on grown up rides but we could utilize the child switch which allows you to bring 2 guests for a second ride. Don't get me wrong, spending the day with my son having fun in Fantasyland is great but after a long week of suffering in cubicle nation, its nice to get on a couple rides that go faster than 2 mph.
We arrived at the park at the AP friendly time of 2pm. The main goal was to see Remember Dreams Come True with our son for the first time. We've seen it 1.5 times but have never really tried to get a good spot. I wanted to see it from one of the prime time spots in front of the castle. There was a nice little breeze so we decided to go get World of Color FP's just in case RDCT was cancelled. Of course, I wasn't thinking that WOC starts at 9pm and RDTC at 9:25pm. So a lot of good the FP's would have done
. We walked over to the WOC Fast past kiosks, which are now by Mermaid btw and not Grizzly River Run. (Walked right by them all the way to GRR and a CM kindly directed me to walk all the way back). From the time we entered DCA I was doing one thing and one thing only. You guessed it! Analyzing GOTG:MB from every vantage point possible. This exercise made me realize how terrible I am with vantage points in my head. First off, I don't think the tower looks any better or worse than it does in the pictures. Aside from the view from the esplanade, Grizzly Peak Air field (facing Carthay), and to a lesser degree the Bug's Land entrance I did not find it too troubling. On second thought, the view when facing the Cozy Cone Motel from Cars Land wasn't great either. It's amazing how many trees there are along that main pathway through the park that seem like they were put there with the main purpose of blocking the old TOT from view. You cannot see GOTG:MB from anywhere on Buena Vista St, the hub, Hollywood Blvd, Grizzly Peak proper or most of Paradise Pier (not 100% sure on PP as I did not go to the Screamin /TSMM side of the pier) From most other areas of the park where the tower can be seen its too far for most guests to notice or care. Not sure how this will change with GOTG:MB's lighting package.
What surprised me most is that the view of the tower from the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Blvd. did not bother me as I thought it would. That area with the side of the Animation building and un-themed outdoor queue of the Hyperion was always one of the weaker themed areas of Hollywoodland. Visually, it's never been much to look at. As far as theme, it's still a shame that we lost the solid themeing of TOT with the Red Car trolley going by but the area btwn Sunset/ Hollywood and TOT was always weak. Still cant understand why they went with an eclectic alien oil refinery though. Wish they would of just finished Hollywoodland 2.0 and strengthened some of the weaker areas but alas. Anyway up close and personal, i dont find the new tower terrible. It hasn't grown on me but I think I've just gotten used to it.
What I would like to see is Hollywood Blvd remain as part of Hollywoodland and the backlot Hollywood themeing plussed with a Mickey Ride. Also, a reroute of the Red Car to go through the backlot. As I walked up Hollywood Blvd from the hub, I realized that it kind of gets a bad wrap that is a little undeserving. The real issues with Hollywoodland are the backlot and the fake sky backdrop. Everything from the right side of the Hyperion through GOTG:MB, the expansion pad and maybe the rumored bus area can go to Marvel Land. I still feel like they really put themselves in a box with the GOTG tower and its hard for me to imagine how it could fit into any sort of actual themed Marvel land. As Ive said before, it's really hard for me to believe that they could not have designed something that works better with rest of the park and whatever Marvel land ends up being.
We arrived at the park at the AP friendly time of 2pm. The main goal was to see Remember Dreams Come True with our son for the first time. We've seen it 1.5 times but have never really tried to get a good spot. I wanted to see it from one of the prime time spots in front of the castle. There was a nice little breeze so we decided to go get World of Color FP's just in case RDCT was cancelled. Of course, I wasn't thinking that WOC starts at 9pm and RDTC at 9:25pm. So a lot of good the FP's would have done
. We walked over to the WOC Fast past kiosks, which are now by Mermaid btw and not Grizzly River Run. (Walked right by them all the way to GRR and a CM kindly directed me to walk all the way back). From the time we entered DCA I was doing one thing and one thing only. You guessed it! Analyzing GOTG:MB from every vantage point possible. This exercise made me realize how terrible I am with vantage points in my head. First off, I don't think the tower looks any better or worse than it does in the pictures. Aside from the view from the esplanade, Grizzly Peak Air field (facing Carthay), and to a lesser degree the Bug's Land entrance I did not find it too troubling. On second thought, the view when facing the Cozy Cone Motel from Cars Land wasn't great either. It's amazing how many trees there are along that main pathway through the park that seem like they were put there with the main purpose of blocking the old TOT from view. You cannot see GOTG:MB from anywhere on Buena Vista St, the hub, Hollywood Blvd, Grizzly Peak proper or most of Paradise Pier (not 100% sure on PP as I did not go to the Screamin /TSMM side of the pier) From most other areas of the park where the tower can be seen its too far for most guests to notice or care. Not sure how this will change with GOTG:MB's lighting package.What surprised me most is that the view of the tower from the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Blvd. did not bother me as I thought it would. That area with the side of the Animation building and un-themed outdoor queue of the Hyperion was always one of the weaker themed areas of Hollywoodland. Visually, it's never been much to look at. As far as theme, it's still a shame that we lost the solid themeing of TOT with the Red Car trolley going by but the area btwn Sunset/ Hollywood and TOT was always weak. Still cant understand why they went with an eclectic alien oil refinery though. Wish they would of just finished Hollywoodland 2.0 and strengthened some of the weaker areas but alas. Anyway up close and personal, i dont find the new tower terrible. It hasn't grown on me but I think I've just gotten used to it.
What I would like to see is Hollywood Blvd remain as part of Hollywoodland and the backlot Hollywood themeing plussed with a Mickey Ride. Also, a reroute of the Red Car to go through the backlot. As I walked up Hollywood Blvd from the hub, I realized that it kind of gets a bad wrap that is a little undeserving. The real issues with Hollywoodland are the backlot and the fake sky backdrop. Everything from the right side of the Hyperion through GOTG:MB, the expansion pad and maybe the rumored bus area can go to Marvel Land. I still feel like they really put themselves in a box with the GOTG tower and its hard for me to imagine how it could fit into any sort of actual themed Marvel land. As Ive said before, it's really hard for me to believe that they could not have designed something that works better with rest of the park and whatever Marvel land ends up being.
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. 9:31 - They announce the fireworks are cancelled due to "winds at a high altitude." It must of been at a high altitude because at ground level it wasn't very strong at all. So basically we missed out on using one of those VIP passes on TSMM because we wanted to make the fireworks. But nothing was going to bring us down. Not with the luck we were having.
