Trip Report Tu in ‘25

Ever just the same
Ever a surprise
Ever as before
Ever just as sure
As the sun will rise
Tu in ‘25

These lyrics came to mind when I thought about my trip reporting. (I also thought, Here we go AGAIN but the above sounds much more poignant.) It’s now that time of year when my Disney trips are frequent. And this Disney Senior loves sharing her visits with y’all because your engagement makes it fun!

Yes, there will be stuff that’s the same. Yes, there will be surprises (too soon for the reveals). And yes, there will be sun rises!

Spring break countdown is at 4 days.

Since this intro needs a picture, here are Tu.

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Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Thursday, con’t

Disneyland had become incredibly crowded in the short time we were back in the park. As it turned out Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority (go green and pink!), an international service organization founded at Howard University in 1908, was having an evening break from their seminar at the Anaheim Convention Center. The seminar had over 9,600 attendees and while not all of them were in DL, it sure seemed like it. 🤣

Which made the additional perk from our tour today even more valuable. We had a private viewing area for watching Paint the Night, the light parade that had returned to DL for the 70th anniversary. We could enter the area an hour prior to parade start and needed our lanyards and name badges for admission.

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Em and I arrived early hoping to snag someplace to sit (other than the ground) in the private area. We found a square planter (with back support!) that served us well.

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Tour participants were given an exclusive sweet-and-salty popcorn mix to enjoy.

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The mix was quite tasty and could be addicting for popcorn aficionados. (Good thing we are not!)

As dusk fell we were treated to some pre-show character entertainment and vendors.

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We were at the end of the parade route and the parade did not pass by until 9:20 pm. Even seated, it was a long 80 minute wait. We stood to watch when the parade began and I went a little crazy with picture taking - after all it’s been 9 years since my last Disney light parade!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Thursday, con’t

The finale with the Fab 5. The swirling lights on the final float were mesmerizing. Em and I could have watched those colors swirl and change for a long time!

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The parade soundtrack was a catchy tune, “When Can We Do This Again?” Upbeat and fun - but also an ear worm stuck in my head as I type this. 🤣

We had such a wonderful view and it was great not to be cramped by others. And only a few moments later we got to experience another tour perk….
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Zipadeelady said:
Ok. I'm not a Disney complainer. I'm actually a little mad the more I think about it. Why hasn't MK had something like this or even half as spectacular as this since Spectromagic! These floats look amazing and I'm sure they were even better in person. Mack the Truck! WOW!
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Agreed!

And yeah, my pictures don’t do it justice. In person it was spectacular. I’m hoping MK’s Starlight parade captures some of the amazement from Spectromagic (which I miss terribly!) I have avoided all spoilers since I want my first viewing to be in person.
 
ajrwdwgirl

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Paint the Night coming back to Disneyland was probably 90% the reason why I decided to go to the 70th celebration this summer. It is my favorite night parade of all time. Yep, I think it’s better than the different version of Main Street Electrical Parade and Spectromagic. I was at Disneyland for four nights and I saw Paint the Night 5 times.
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Thursday, con’t

There was one more (unofficial) perk from the tour. When Paint The Night ended, Em and I moved about 25 feet forward for an uncrowded and almost perfect view of Wondrous Journeys fireworks and projection show.

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Baymax (rather than Tink) flew around the Castle which was very, very cool! And the projections on the Castle and Main Street facades were easy to see from our vantage point due to DL’s small footprint. MK still trumps DL for size, quantity and quality of fireworks, but Wondrous Journeys did impress us.

The park was still open for two more hours but we were done. Lines would likely be long due to the number of conference attendees and late-in-the-day arrival of locals (which we noticed was common.)

< Insert my usual glowing comment of the proximity to GC here> The hotel entrance is hidden in plain sight.

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We were back in our room before the majority of guests leaving after fireworks were through the exit gates. :happy:
 
D

Dave B

Well-Known Member
@Tuvala/// random question, but I know you will know :)
What time to reservations open for on the system, we are going to WDW in a couple weeks and the new Pirates lounge is opening while we are there, I want to get up on 8/14 and try and snag one, but I hear different times, thought I would see if you knew. Thx
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
I forgot to mention that Fantasmic! started at 9 pm, the same time as Paint The Night. Em and I decided the reason is for crowd control purposes. With fireworks at 9:35 pm, guests can see them while remaining in their F! location or remaining in their PTN location. It is then possible to watch all three shows in the same night by doing F! > fireworks > 11 pm PTN.

Due to our tour, we were locked into the 9 pm PTN. But we didn’t mind. In 2013 we paid for a F! dessert party with priority seating.

Here’s how that went….

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All the while Woody is texting us weather updates for SoCal from home, a three hour time distance away!

I’ve got news for anyone who claims 🎶It Never Rains in Southern California…”. IT DOES!!!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Friday, July 11

While every day of this trip had been great, today was my favorite day of all! One of the reasons was a reduction in temperature (and a lifting of the ozone warning.) The high was only around 80 degrees and there was always a cool breeze blowing, making time spent in the shade absolutely delightful.

We left the room at 7 am and waited for early entry at DCA. Em made our first LL selection as soon as we tapped into the park.

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When the rope dropped we headed to Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree.

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This attraction was new for me. Em had ridden it during our 2013 visit, but I declined out of fear it might make me dizzy.

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However when Alien Swirling Saucers (with similar ride mechanics) opened at DHS and I was able to enjoy that without motion sensitivity, I decided to accompany Em today.

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We spent the entire ride laughing at Mater’s singing and the whips around the turntable. So much fun!
 
Tuvalu

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Original Poster
Friday, con’t

It was a good thing that our meandering was only a few minutes because when we arrived at the entrance to Radiator Springs Racers, we discovered the attraction had opened early!!

I had already purchased SP for the attraction, due to the brutal 75 minute wait we had endured on Wednesday morning. But there before us was near-empty standby queue so we took hold of that pixie dust and raced to the load zone!

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We were on our way at 8:03 am! Em and I had the front row to ourselves and we left the middle seat open.

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Looking back down at the seat-belt check area.

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We did not get our ride photo. We looked for it at the exit (you need to quickly capture the number on the photo display and link it in the DL app) and waited a couple minutes for it to appear and it never did. Em and I had posed with one arm raised with our hands clasped together across the middle seat, and we wonder if our photo was censored because of it. We thought it would make for a cute picture and now we’ll never know. :cry:
 

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