Nine Hours at DLR About This Page:

[Dlandmom2]

I thought I'd follow my 22 Hours in the Desert TR with a Nine Hours at DLR TR!

I took the kids for one last hurrah at DLR today since we'll be blacked out over the summer starting this Wednesday. I couldn't wait to start the TR (small as it will be) since we had a really great time today. We didn't rush. We had no real plans other than to experience the new rides at Cars Land.

I took a LOT of pictures...well, nowhere near as many as chezp might take, but for 9 hours, it was a lot! I'll try to get them uploaded as quickly as I can, but I've got a busy couple of days ahead of me, so I might not be able to get to all of it until later in the week.

So, to entice you to come back...I promise a review of all three Cars Land rides, a new DCA eatery, and the new ride cars on the Matterhorn, among other things!

[chezp]

Oooh looking forward to reading all about it.

[lauriep]

I'm glad you and the kids made it and had such a good time! Can't wait to read all about it, especially to see more details of Carsland and hear about the rides.

[Colexis Mom]

Can't wait to hear all about it!

[KMB733]

Can't wait to read all about it and see the pictures!!!

[belle0517]

So excited to see your pictures!

[Dlandmom2]

For those of you who haven't read it yet, I did a quick intro to Cars Land in a TR last week here so I won't be including those general Cars Land pictures in this TR.

We left the house at 7:50am, half an hour later than I had hoped. I had wanted to be AT DLR by 8am since the park opened for EMH at 7am, and to the public at 8am. Still, we made great time thanks to the FasTrak toll road which allowed me to bypass Monday morning commuter traffic for half of the drive.

We made it to the Minnie & Friends parking garage around 8:40. By the time we got on the parking tram and made it to the entrance plaza, it was about 9am. We headed straight to the DCA gates, and there was hardly anyone in line. Sophia commented that it was probably because everyone was already at Cars Land! I was pretty sure she was correct!

Our first stop was to head left just inside the gates to get a GAC for Evan. To be honest, I wouldn't have attempted this trip if it weren't for Evan's GAC. We're fortunate to have a So Cal annual pass because there's no way that Evan would have enjoyed a trip to DLR with the regular summer crowd, let alone the increased crowds due to the opening of Cars Land. Because of his autism, he gets very agitated when he's not moving. Long lines and crowded conditions make him jump around and flap his arms to the point he would be bumping into others. I had heard that even the FastPass lines for the new rides were taking 40 minutes, so I had prepared Evan (and Sophia) that there was a chance we might not be able to experience the new rides if the lines were too long.

At Guest Services, the CM told us that Disney had decided to give out return times for GAC guests after the long FastPass waits during the opening weekend. He said that it reduced the FastPass waits to about 10-15 minutes. I was so relieved to hear that! Generally with Evan, we try to get FastPasses so that he understands that he will have to wait for a return time. This would be just in line with that procedure, so I knew he would be fine doing something else until our return time.

So, the first order of business, head over to Radiator Springs Racer to get our return time. As we were approaching the ride, we heard a CM tell a guest that the FastPasses were gone at 8:15am! And the wait was at about 3 1/2 hours! And it was only just after 9am! We were told to head over to the FastPass distribution area where we showed our GAC to a CM and was given a 12:20pm return time.

Sorry for the quick updates, but I've got a ton of things going on today and tomorrow, so I'm trying to squeeze in updates when I can!

I'll be back later today or tomorrow to update some more and post some pictures. They're uploading to Shutterfly right now, and it's telling me it will be another hour before they're done uploading! Yikes!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start! Thanks for the info on the GAC and the FPs!

[lauriep]

Glad the GAC worked for you. Giving out return times is a great idea. That's crazy-crowded if all the FP were gone by 9am!

[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great start! Thanks for the info on the GAC and the FPs!

This is really a case of the DLR hotel guest gets a huge benefit...they're able to enter the park at 7am and get a FastPass, probably two if they time it right before the regular guest can enter. It sounds just like the mania we know as Toy Story Mania where people just run to get FastPasses the first hour or two before they're all gone!

Originally Posted by lauriep

Glad the GAC worked for you. Giving out return times is a great idea. That's crazy-crowded if all the FP were gone by 9am!

Until Evan was about 5, I didn't even know that he could "qualify" for a GAC. I always thought I was lucky to live locally and afford an annual pass so that we could just get a FastPass or two, do a few rides, and then try again on another day. Sophia was understanding of why we couldn't wait in longer lines, but I know she often left the parks wishing we could've done more. Now that we are able to get a GAC for Evan, it really has made a difference in his (and Sophia's) enjoyment! He's vocalizing more as he's gotten older, and he knows to ask for his favorite ride (Big Thunder) on each visit. This is definitely a wonderful thing that Disney has made available for its guests, and I'm glad that other theme parks are offering something similar now.

[Dlandmom2]

After getting our 12:20pm return time for Radiator Springs Racers, we wanted to get some churros for a snack. We headed over to the Cozy Cone snack shop which sold churros, but it turned out they were bite size churros with some kind of sauce. Neither Sophia nor Evan wanted churro nuggets, so we decided to wait until we saw a stand selling the traditional long churros.

We decided to try Luigi's Flying Tires as our first ride of the day. The idea of the ride sounded great! It sounded a bit like the flying saucer ride at Disneyland back in the early days (before I was born!). These were large round "tires" that sat on a giant cushion of air, sort of like pucks on an air hockey table. There were also GIANT beach balls all over that you were supposed to pick up and throw/hit around. It looked like bumper cars on steroids!



The first strange thing I noticed about the ride. The CM who held us as we waited to get on told us the general rules of the ride. Do NOT step on the "tire" portion of the ride vehicle as it's essentially a giant balloon filled with air. If we step on it, it will deflate or pop. We were to step over the tire and onto the actual platform where the seat is. It seems to be an unusual thing to be aware of, but I guess that's how they designed the ride. And, I told the CM we would be riding together, and he told me to sit in the middle. Hmm, that's sort of the opposite of what parents are "trained" to do with the young ones at Disneyland...the smallest kid sits in the middle, and the adult or older kids sit on the outside.

As a funny aside, that CM's nametag said he was from Corona, where we live. When we mentioned it to him, we discovered that we probably live about a mile away from each other! It's a Small World after all....

Here's a picture I took after I sat down in my "flying tire." See how it says not to step on the outside tire portion but to step onto the platform?


Ok, the second interesting thing we noticed is that once we were allowed to get onto the ride, everyone was running to grab a giant beach ball before they got into their flying tire. Being the unprepared Disney fan I was yesterday, I just grabbed my two kids and headed toward an open flying tire. I figured we would just hit the beach balls around as they flew by during the ride. Bad idea, and I think maybe a flaw in the ride design. Once the ride starts, you lean in the direction where you want to move your tire, and it actually works! It was so neat that we were sort of floating (not really, but it felt like it) over the ground, and as we leaned in a particular direction, the tire would start going in that direction.

So far so good, except that as we leaned toward the direction of a beach ball, Sophia couldn't reach out far enough to grab it. Sophia is already 5'2", so she's not tiny. If she couldn't reach the beach balls on her side, there was no way Evan, who's about 4'8" or so, was going to be able to reach a beach ball on his side. I was smack dab in the middle...there was NO WAY I'd be able to reach anything! So, for us, the entire ride consisted of leaning toward lots of beach balls, but not being able to grab a single one. If the ride were designed simply as a bumper car type ride, which is what it basically seems like, then it would've been fun. Because of all the beach balls and the fun that a lot of people were having throwing them around (NOW I know why people were grabbing a beach ball BEFORE they got into their tire), we were quite disappointed that we never got to play with any beach balls. I'm thinking Disney needs to re-think the design of this ride, but I'm sure we'll be on it again just because the concept of a ride floating on air is WAY COOL!

Here are Sophia and Evan at the end of the ride. You can see one of the giant beach balls to Sophia's right.


I just love the theming. Here's the "name brand" of the flying tires you sit on:

Here's Evan modeling one of the new hat offerings:


Ok, I'm off to my next project, but hopefully I'll be back in a little while to update more!

[lauriep]

Interesting explanation of the Flying Tires ride! I'd think it could be dangerous for kids (or adults!) to be leaning out so far to grab a beach ball. Love the floating and leaning concept, though! Sort of sounds like a round Segway!

[Dlandmom2]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Interesting explanation of the Flying Tires ride! I'd think it could be dangerous for kids (or adults!) to be leaning out so far to grab a beach ball. Love the floating and leaning concept, though! Sort of sounds like a round Segway!

The ride vehicle was very secure. We were strapped in tight, and at no point did it feel even remotely like the vehicle would tip over. It's just that you're strapped in so tight, and you have to lean so far out of the vehicle that it's almost impossible to reach a ball that's sitting on the ground next to your vehicle. The only people I saw who were able to pick up a ball were adults riding alone who could scoot to one side, lean over, and with long arms pick up a ball.

Like I said, if it were just a floaty bumper car type ride, I would've really enjoyed it. With the addition of the beach balls, I felt like we didn't get the full ride experience.

[Dlandmom2]

After Luigi's, we headed over to Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. This ride was a cross between the spinning teacups and Primeval Whirl. If you've been to DCA's Francis' Ladybug Boogie, it's the same platform where you spin in a figure 8 loop. Add to that the actual ride vehicle which doesn't spin in a circle but rather whips you left to right in a 180 degree arc depending on which directing you're going along the figure 8 path. I'm sorry I can't describe it better...you'll all just have to go on the ride to experience it yourselves!





We three found this ride to be more fun than Luigi's due to the unexpected whipping from left to right (not a violent whip, just a sometimes stronger than expected one).

By the way, the wait times on these rides were showing about 60ish minutes, if I recall correctly, and I think Radiator Springs Racers was the only one that offered FastPass (but don't quote me on that).

[Dlandmom2]

At this point we were pretty much done with Cars Land since we knew we'd be back again in late August. Plus, the crowds were getting to be pretty bad.

We headed over to see the Boudin bread walkthrough (and get our free sourdough samples!). We peeked in at Ghirardelli's, but the kids surprisingly didn't want any ice cream! We were still on the lookout for a churro cart, so we kept going.

Sophia decided she wanted to go on Screamin' with us, but Evan wanted nothing to do with it. He's actually been on a coaster with a revolution, but for some reason Screamin' seems to scare him. We tried to convince him to try it once, knowing that he absolutely LOVES roller coasters, but he started getting really agitated, so we told him he didn't have to go, and Sophia elected to do the single rider line.

While Sophia waited in line, Evan and I went on the hunt for churros! We finally found a churro cart across from Toy Story Mania. There were only 3 or 4 parties ahead of us, but somehow it took 15 or so minutes before it got to our turn. The CM was just being meticulous, I think! Finally, with two freshly baked churros in our hands, we headed back to Screamin' where we saw Sophia walk toward us a minute later. She enjoyed her ride, as always. She hungrily grabbed her churro, and the kids enjoyed their little snack in the shade.

Over the loudspeakers, we heard an announcement for a show along the waterfront, so we watched as Goofy "directed" a water show accompanied by classical music (sort of like the Bellagio fountains in Vegas, but much tamer). That was fun to watch.

It's pretty impossible to see, but Goofy is standing on a podium over toward the right of the first picture.




We next headed over to Toy Story Mania. I love this ride, except the "gun" on my vehicle wasn't working properly. Usually, you pull on the string to shoot and then it snaps back in place so you can pull again. This time, I had to sort of "assist" the string back so I could pull again, so suffice it to say my forearm was incredibly sore after this ride! Still, it didn't deter me from getting 173,000+ points!

It was still only about 11, so we had to kill more time until we could go back to Radiator Springs Racers. We decided to head over to Goofy's Sky School (formerly known as Mulholland Madness). I didn't really want to ride because my head was feeling a bit "unsettled" (probably due to hunger...I should've bought a churro for myself), but Sophia insisted. The ride was fun, but now my head REALLY was feeling unsettled!

We decided to meander back to Cars Land and wait for our 12:20 return time. Outside Flo's V8 Cafe, we found a table open (actually, there were several tables open) so we sat down to snack on some Mickey shaped pretzels and water. It was nice to relax in the shade and people watch for a while. It was hot in the sun (probably mid 80s, but no clouds), but comfortable in the shade.

Finally, it was 12:20, so we headed over to Radiator Springs Racers!

Ok, I hate to leave you hanging, but I've got quite a few pictures in the next update, so I'm going to save them for tomorrow!