MizMissy
06-01-2010, 05:05 PM
Who:
Me - Planner - 40
DH - 43
DD -9
DS - 7
Staying at The Contemporary – check-in Sunday, May 23rd, check-out Friday, May 28th.
Monday, May 24th
The plan today: Lunch Reservations at LeCellier at 12:50; DHS at park opening to ride TSM, RnRC and TOT.
Our entire family loves the thrill rides, RnRC being one of our favorites. However, the last family trip, RnRC was down. DS and I on our last trip were able to ride it a lot, so DD and DH were really looking forward to riding it. Also, this would be the first opportunity for DH and DD to try out TSM. So, hoping the crowds would not be as crazy, I thought we could hit the main attractions at DHS, planning to leave the park by 11:30 in time for our EPCOT lunch reservations … things didn’t go exactly as planned.
We wake up and make it to DHS before park opening. As we are walking out of The Contemporary, a DHS bus was pulling up … lucky! Only two other families loaded the bus and after a stop at the Poly (with no one boarding), we were on our way. We made it through the gates, stood in the crowd with lots and lots and lots (maybe I need to add another “lots”) of people. Even though my kids aren’t little bitty, I still was making sure they were holding tightly onto my and their daddy’s hands and the caution to try to stay together. After the little opening, we joined the masses heading to TSM. Some turned towards RnRC and TOT, but most were going to TSM. Of course, the FP line was longer than the entrance line, but it was also outside the building. Funny comments: The green army man directing people to the FP “line” and acknowledging “Yes, I know that’s an oxymoron.” And, in standing in line for TSM, the rope ended, but they had 5 or 6 CMs continue the line and we had to loop around them. I made a “run out of rope?” comment and one of the CMs said that they cost less than the rope. ;) We enjoyed the queue and the game. Maybe the line was about 20 minutes start to finish.
So, it’s now about 9:30. We head towards TOT and RnRC … this is where I completely screwed up and quickly realized that I am a complete Disney novice when it is crowded. :( DH and kids stopped to buy drinks on Sunset Blvd and I went ahead with the tickets to grab FPs. Well, TOT was posting a 60 minute wait, I turned the corner, RnRC was posting a 70 minute wait. RnRC FP return time was 12:10. I knew my kids would be so upset if they couldn’t catch a limo ride to the concert, so even though I KNEW I had to leave the park before then to make it LeCellier, I grabbed the FPs anyway. At that point, I knew my kids cared more about RnRC than eating lunch, so if we missed our reservations, we just missed them. THEN, I turned around to meet the kids and see that TOT had a FP return time of about one hour later (1 ½ hours prior to RnRC return time) … kicking myself for the mistake of not checking the TOT return time first. Yep, mommy messed up. So frustrated with myself. Oh well. So, we decided to stand in line for TOT … 60 minute posted time, it ended up being about 70 minutes start to finish. They were circling everyone around the terrace area. Seriously, what a very hot line to stand in. Some parts were in the sun, but it was very humid being in the overgrown area next to the hotel. After being in line for a while, the gentleman in front of us explained that RnRC was delayed in opening that morning, so everyone must have grabbed a FP, then stood in TOT line. Also, only one side of elevators for TOT was working. After our hour plus wait to take a trip to another dimension (or the “spooky elevator ride” as my DS called it three years ago), we still had some time before our limo ride. One note, as we are walking down Sunset Blvd., there was a huge crowd in the street and strollers parked everywhere. DH was wondering what was going on. I commented that I thought Beauty and the Beast show was about to begin … no thanks, he said. This would be a recurring theme. Any long shows with outdoor theaters, we skipped this trip. Way too hot to wait outside in line then sit outside during the show. I’m glad we’ve seen most of these things before, that way I did not have to force DH into doing something he really did not want to do, or split up the family too often. I really enjoyed us spending most of the trip together.
During the wait, we take in the GMR. Love this ride, mostly because Wizard of Oz is one of my most favorite movies and DS loves Indiana Jones. GMR was basically walk-on which is sad because I enjoy standing in the cool theater watching the movie clips. We had the COWBOY!!! Yay! The only problem with this ride was we were seated towards the rear of the second car. I do not know if it was just this driver because he did not pull the car up enough or if this is always a problem (I do not think I’ve ever sat in the second car before), but it was difficult to hear the driver and we could still hear the first movie scene while the driver and front riders had moved onto the second scene. It was a little distracting and I felt like we missed a good portion of the ride. No big problem since we’ve “been there, done that” but since I like doing it again, ehhh, not the best experience. We still had some time so we walked through One Man’s Dream. Now it’s getting close to FP time … and getting closer to missing our LeCellier reservations. We arrived at FP line at 11:55. CM tells us we have to wait another 15 minutes. We step aside, but I stay a little close and decide to approach him again … what can it hurt? I explained that we have 12:50 LeCellier reservations, but we were hoping to catch RnRC first. He looks at his watch and comments that it will take us at least 30 minutes to get to EPCOT. “Exactly, my problem … can you please help us out?” Yep, he lets us through. Whew!! So, we blast off to the concert … what a great ride!! And then rush out of the park to find an EPCOT bus. My only comment about RnRC, not sure if this is a recent change, but it seemed like the ride was set to older, high energy, very recognizable Aerosmith tunes and they fit so well with the ride. Now, I really did not recognize any of the songs during the ride and that was a little disappointing. It seemed to take away from the ride.
Me - Planner - 40
DH - 43
DD -9
DS - 7
Staying at The Contemporary – check-in Sunday, May 23rd, check-out Friday, May 28th.
Monday, May 24th
The plan today: Lunch Reservations at LeCellier at 12:50; DHS at park opening to ride TSM, RnRC and TOT.
Our entire family loves the thrill rides, RnRC being one of our favorites. However, the last family trip, RnRC was down. DS and I on our last trip were able to ride it a lot, so DD and DH were really looking forward to riding it. Also, this would be the first opportunity for DH and DD to try out TSM. So, hoping the crowds would not be as crazy, I thought we could hit the main attractions at DHS, planning to leave the park by 11:30 in time for our EPCOT lunch reservations … things didn’t go exactly as planned.
We wake up and make it to DHS before park opening. As we are walking out of The Contemporary, a DHS bus was pulling up … lucky! Only two other families loaded the bus and after a stop at the Poly (with no one boarding), we were on our way. We made it through the gates, stood in the crowd with lots and lots and lots (maybe I need to add another “lots”) of people. Even though my kids aren’t little bitty, I still was making sure they were holding tightly onto my and their daddy’s hands and the caution to try to stay together. After the little opening, we joined the masses heading to TSM. Some turned towards RnRC and TOT, but most were going to TSM. Of course, the FP line was longer than the entrance line, but it was also outside the building. Funny comments: The green army man directing people to the FP “line” and acknowledging “Yes, I know that’s an oxymoron.” And, in standing in line for TSM, the rope ended, but they had 5 or 6 CMs continue the line and we had to loop around them. I made a “run out of rope?” comment and one of the CMs said that they cost less than the rope. ;) We enjoyed the queue and the game. Maybe the line was about 20 minutes start to finish.
So, it’s now about 9:30. We head towards TOT and RnRC … this is where I completely screwed up and quickly realized that I am a complete Disney novice when it is crowded. :( DH and kids stopped to buy drinks on Sunset Blvd and I went ahead with the tickets to grab FPs. Well, TOT was posting a 60 minute wait, I turned the corner, RnRC was posting a 70 minute wait. RnRC FP return time was 12:10. I knew my kids would be so upset if they couldn’t catch a limo ride to the concert, so even though I KNEW I had to leave the park before then to make it LeCellier, I grabbed the FPs anyway. At that point, I knew my kids cared more about RnRC than eating lunch, so if we missed our reservations, we just missed them. THEN, I turned around to meet the kids and see that TOT had a FP return time of about one hour later (1 ½ hours prior to RnRC return time) … kicking myself for the mistake of not checking the TOT return time first. Yep, mommy messed up. So frustrated with myself. Oh well. So, we decided to stand in line for TOT … 60 minute posted time, it ended up being about 70 minutes start to finish. They were circling everyone around the terrace area. Seriously, what a very hot line to stand in. Some parts were in the sun, but it was very humid being in the overgrown area next to the hotel. After being in line for a while, the gentleman in front of us explained that RnRC was delayed in opening that morning, so everyone must have grabbed a FP, then stood in TOT line. Also, only one side of elevators for TOT was working. After our hour plus wait to take a trip to another dimension (or the “spooky elevator ride” as my DS called it three years ago), we still had some time before our limo ride. One note, as we are walking down Sunset Blvd., there was a huge crowd in the street and strollers parked everywhere. DH was wondering what was going on. I commented that I thought Beauty and the Beast show was about to begin … no thanks, he said. This would be a recurring theme. Any long shows with outdoor theaters, we skipped this trip. Way too hot to wait outside in line then sit outside during the show. I’m glad we’ve seen most of these things before, that way I did not have to force DH into doing something he really did not want to do, or split up the family too often. I really enjoyed us spending most of the trip together.
During the wait, we take in the GMR. Love this ride, mostly because Wizard of Oz is one of my most favorite movies and DS loves Indiana Jones. GMR was basically walk-on which is sad because I enjoy standing in the cool theater watching the movie clips. We had the COWBOY!!! Yay! The only problem with this ride was we were seated towards the rear of the second car. I do not know if it was just this driver because he did not pull the car up enough or if this is always a problem (I do not think I’ve ever sat in the second car before), but it was difficult to hear the driver and we could still hear the first movie scene while the driver and front riders had moved onto the second scene. It was a little distracting and I felt like we missed a good portion of the ride. No big problem since we’ve “been there, done that” but since I like doing it again, ehhh, not the best experience. We still had some time so we walked through One Man’s Dream. Now it’s getting close to FP time … and getting closer to missing our LeCellier reservations. We arrived at FP line at 11:55. CM tells us we have to wait another 15 minutes. We step aside, but I stay a little close and decide to approach him again … what can it hurt? I explained that we have 12:50 LeCellier reservations, but we were hoping to catch RnRC first. He looks at his watch and comments that it will take us at least 30 minutes to get to EPCOT. “Exactly, my problem … can you please help us out?” Yep, he lets us through. Whew!! So, we blast off to the concert … what a great ride!! And then rush out of the park to find an EPCOT bus. My only comment about RnRC, not sure if this is a recent change, but it seemed like the ride was set to older, high energy, very recognizable Aerosmith tunes and they fit so well with the ride. Now, I really did not recognize any of the songs during the ride and that was a little disappointing. It seemed to take away from the ride.