Thank You Disney Movie Rewards TR (November 16-22, 2014) - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I'm going to start out by apologizing for the severe lack of pictures. I don't know why, but we do not take nearly as many pictures on trips as we use to. This day seems to have a big shortage!
Today's Update: Monday November 17, 2014 - How Many Rides Can We Break In a Day!
We all woke up at about 6:30am. The time difference works to our advantage in CA! We all got showered, ate breakfast in the room, got dressed and left at about 8:45am. The kids and I made a stop in the gift shop in the lobby, while Pat went and moved the car from valet parking to self-parking. When he returned we walked over to Disneyland!
We arrived and got in line at about 9:20am. Here are the kids waiting ever so impatiently:
Once the gates opened we made our way over to Guest Services to pick up DAS cards for the kids. I had brought our cards from Florida and that made the process a little quicker without having to explain all of their needs. Pat went over to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln (he is still recovering from a concussion and was not able to do certain rides) while the kids and I went to the rope to Tomorrowland to go ride Space Mountain. We had planned to pick up FP for Star Tours on the way, but with the crowd, we missed the FP machines. We were on Space Mounain within a couple of minutes.
We did not buy any of our ride photos, but we did take pictures of the screens:
After riding we found the Star Tours FP distribution and picked up FP's for 11:10-12:10. I also stopped at the kiosk and got a DAS return time for the Matterhorn for Shana. Pat then arrived and we rode Buzz Lightyear all together.
Shana's time was ready to go ride the Matterhorn so we made our way over there and the ride had gone down. We headed back toward Star Tours and decided to stop and get some snacks. Shana got a churro, and the rest of us got pretzels.
After we finished eating our FP time was available and we headed that direction. We went to the FP line and the CM was a little short saying they weren't admitting any FP's, I asked why but she was vague and just said they were clearing the standby line.
We were a little frustrated and didn't really understand the problem. We went over to the DAS kiosk to change to Roger Rabbit since the Matterhorn was down. While I was there I asked if she knew what was wrong with Star Tours. She checked on her system and said she wasn't showing a problem and asked if we would mind walking over there to try again. We did and this time they told us the ride was down. We went back to the kiosk to let her know and she gave us 4 re-entry passes for any ride that day.
We started making our way to Toon Town to ride Roger Rabbit. On the way we stopped at everyone tried on some hats:
When we got to Toon Town we went to Roger Rabbit and guess what? Yep, it just went down. We decided to see how long the line was to see Mickey and it was 30 minutes and we decided to try at a different time. As we were heading out of Toon Town we checked back at Roger Rabbit and it was running so we went ahead and rode. The kids decided since it was a short line to ride a second time.
We left Toon Town and as we were walking back we saw that the Matterhorn was back up, but the line was really long. Since Shana was the only one wanting to ride we decided to try later as a single rider.
We decided at that point to use the re-entry tickets we had gotten to ride It's a Small World since we were right there and the line was extremely long! The holiday overlay was really cute.
I thought it was really cute this trip that the kids wanted to ride together frequently. It was nice to ride with Pat for a change.
After Small World we went back to the DAS kiosk and the same lady was there and was worried that we hadn't been able to ride Roger Rabbit. I guess she got a report that it had gone down and was worried we weren't able to ride. We told her it was at first but that it came back up before we left Toon Town. We got our DAS signed for Haunted Mansion. We asked if Star Tours was back up and she said she thought it was.
We went over there and they let us use our FP's even though they were past their time, because of the ride going down.
I had a little laugh while in line. The FP line was stopped and standing still for a minute and the family in front of us got impatient and decided to jump over to the other line that seemed to be moving. Well, when we got up to the point with the glasses they were stopped and our line moved right on by. Cracked me up a little.
After Star Tours, we were all feeling a bit hungry. We decided to try Jolly Holiday. Pat decided on a roast-beef sandwich, I had the cappers sandwich, Hunter had a chocolate muffin and a croissant, and Shana had a chocolate muffin and a mint whoopie pie. We have limited food rules on vacation. :roll eyes:
After lunch we were going to stop and get FP's for Indy but yep, the ride went down and they stopped issuing FP's temporarily. We decided to head to Haunted Mansion and thank goodness it was working!!!!
I went to the DAS kiosk near Haunted Mansion and asked if Indy was back up and it wasn't, so I got a time for Big Thunder Mountain. We headed in that direction and had about 5 minutes before we could get in line. While we were waiting a lady in a scooter came up and asked the kids if they wanted to trade pins. She was really nice and the kids enjoyed talking to her. Once they were done our ride time was ready. The kids and I rode, Pat went and got a frozen lemonade.
After Big Thunder Mountain, we checked at a kiosk again and Indy was back up so we got a time on our DAS. We had a few minutes to wait and Pirates only had a 15 minute wait so we went and rode that in the meantime. The kids and I rode Indy while Pat made his way over toward the Tiki Room where we were going to meet up. When we got there we got some Dole Whips and made it into the show, just in time.
We then went to the gift shop across the way. Shana collects the parrots they sell and was looking for one she liked, and she ended up buying one.
Love all the pics trying on hats, and I love your DS's "mouse" ears! Crazy that so many rides went down when you tried to ride them. I hope that doesn't happen when I'm there. I notice they left two empty seats in your Space Mountain car... pet peeve, I hate when ride operators don't fill the vehicles completely.
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A good start to your day so far. Pat doesn't look too bummed that he's on his own a lot of the time. Big rides aren't the reason I go to Disney, but it's still a bummer to have limitations.
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Love all the pics trying on hats, and I love your DS's "mouse" ears! Crazy that so many rides went down when you tried to ride them. I hope that doesn't happen when I'm there. I notice they left two empty seats in your Space Mountain car... pet peeve, I hate when ride operators don't fill the vehicles completely.
Hunter loves his Oswald ears!! I don't know what was with us and breaking the rides. We did end up riding everything at some point, but it added a lot of backtracking. I noticed the empty seats too, but I think that was because the ride was loading very fast and there wasn't a line yet. I'm kind of glad, because sometimes I don't like riding with other people (I'll talk about that later )
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Good grief, what was it with all those rides going down on you that day? Despite that, you've still managed to cram a lot in so far.
I think we must have had a curse on us and as we walked to a ride it shut down. We actually got everything accomplished this day even with all the broken rides.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KimmyAnn1147
A good start to your day so far. Pat doesn't look too bummed that he's on his own a lot of the time. Big rides aren't the reason I go to Disney, but it's still a bummer to have limitations.
No, we don't go solely for the big rides either, and he knew going in it would be an issue. I made sure to try to plan things he liked to do while he waited for us, and I think that helped.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
You've done a lot so far, despite having so many rides go down this morning!
We are troopers and really knock things out, it was not very crowded and that helped a lot. But all the extra walking was not fun.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Great start! Too bad for all the fuss about rides being down, but you managed a lot even so. Lots of smiles, too!
I have never seen so many rides go down in one day. When we got to Indy and it was done we all looked at each other like "seriously". I'm sure the CM thought we were nuts, but it had become the theme of the day.
I'm caught up! I forgot you told me about the rides going down. I'm still envious about your view. I really need to get in a DL trip one day.
I don't know what was with the rides that day. I guess Disneyland just thought we needed some extra walking. You should definitely visit Disneyland, we prefer WDW, but there is something special about Disneyland.
Sorry about the delay in updates. I decided last week when Pat left town that we would do a modified homeschool week and I would spend the week painting our bedroom. We moved here in December of 2011 and the room was pink and purple (and no it did not belong to a 6 year old girl, it was the master bedroom for a 60+ year old couple). This project has exploded to me having to empty the closet because for some reason they painted some of the wall in the closet pink, and then I decided I'm not putting anything back in the closet until it has been washed, and sorted and decluttered. Needless to say I am still working on finishing but the room looks so, so, so much better!
On with the TR!
Today's Update: What is an Alpaca?
After Shana got her parrot purchased and sent off to our room, we realized that we had done all the attractions on our list and it was time to go meet Captain America. Now for those that didn't read the TR, this was a deal made between Shana and me. She has a major crush on Captain America and really did not want to meet him, but I agreed to go on Mickey's Wheel of Death (aka Mickey's Fun Wheel, although I'm not sure why ) if she agreed to meet Captain America and not be a snarky brat while waiting or while meeting him (and yes the snarky brat part was part of the deal. If she was a snarky brat, I wouldn't ride! )
We got to the Marvel area and there was only a short line for Captain America. Hunter was disappointed when he was told that the Marvel characters couldn't sign his Mickey Vinylmation, something to do with all the copyright stuff. We were quickly in to see Captain America and I'm sure he was confused why Shana was as red as his shield and had a big silly grin on her face but he was really nice.
After meeting Captain America, Hunter wanted to do the Iron Man creator (not sure exactly what this was called). It was basically a video that took his image and then turned him into Iron Man. It was pretty cute.
After he finished that we still had some time to kill and decided to go meet Thor. We weren't originally planning to meet Thor but I'm sure glad we did. I think this was the best meet & greet we have ever had!
To meet Thor they initially take you into a room that turns into a "portal" to Asgard. I was pretty impressed with the level that went into this meet & greet. We were taken into the room with about 20-30 other people. Thor came down and started set down the mjolnir (his hammer) and asked if anyone thought that they harnessed the power of gold and could lift the Mjolnir. Hunter, of course, raised his hand and really wanted to do it but we were all around the room in a horseshoe shape and Thor had his back to us. He went up to some kids on the other side of the room and they didn't want to try. He then asked some other kids and they said no. Thor said will no one try? That is when I was so thankful for the people in the room that all pointed to Hunter (Thor was still at an angle that he couldn't see him).
Well, Hunter went up and I think Hunter outsmarted Disney. The Mjolnir is held down by a magnet and if you try to pull straight up, the magnet will hold strong and you won't be able to lift it. I think what is suppose happen is the child can't lift it and then when Thor goes to help they release the magnet and is able to lift it. Well, Hunter is a pretty sharp cookie and he tipped it at a slight angle and was able to lift it without the help of Thor.
After Hunter lifted it they told us to come up and get pictures with Thor. This is where things got funny! There was a PhotoPass photographer and the other CM asked if I wanted her to get some pictures on my phone. I handed her my iPhone and after the PhotoPass photographer took a couple pictures the CM, said "by the way I love your llama".
My phone lock screen is this picture of our alpaca, Apollo:
I replied back that it wasn't a llama, that it was an alpaca. That's when Thor, totally in character said "What is an alpaca?" She showed him the picture and I replied with "It's kind of like a llama". Thor then looked at me smiling with just his bottom teeth like the picture. He then said that we should all smile like alpacas. We were all laughing so hard that not all of them came out but they are quite funny!
This was the normal picture before the alpaca smiles:
And, here is the attempted alpaca smiles...
After laughing our way out of there, we decided to head toward Blue Bayou for dinner. We stopped at the shooting arcade for some shootin' fun! We checked in for our reservation and waited for about 10 minutes. We got a table by the water, but it didn't matter much as the park was closing soon. Service was not the best this night, it seemed to take way to long to get everything. The table next to us was sat after us and left about 20 minutes before we did, and not because we were being slow. Although, I think that table was part of the reason our service was slow. It was a husband and wife with a baby and they were very demanding and pushy with the server. This seemed to cause us to get pushed to the back burner.
The kids shared the surf & turf (lobster tail & filet mignon), I had the filet and Pat had the jambalaya. The food was good and we enjoyed the evening, although we were tired and would have liked things to move a long a little faster.
After dinner the park was already closed so we made our way out and into Downtown Disney. We made a stop at Marceline's Candy shop and got some treats. I got peanut butter fudge, Hunter got a giant Mickey cookie and I know Shana got something but I didn't write it down.
Back at the room, the kids needed to get showers and Shana got into one bathroom and got her shower started, I had gone in the bedroom and put on my foot splints (needed for my plantar fasciitis) after a few minutes I asked Pat to see what Hunter was doing because he wasn't in the shower yet. He came back and showed me this picture:
Pat went back out to slide his pants off and Hunter woke up a little and asked about his cookie and Daddy said he could have it in the morning and Hunter said "okay" and went back to sleep. Clearly he was really worn out to pass up eating his cookie.
Shana finished up her shower and decided to watch Iron Man, which we had checked out from the concierge earlier in the day. I made my notes and we were off to bed.
A great time, even if it did make for a long, tiring day! I absolutely love the story about Hunter and the hammer, and then the very, very funny exchange about Apollo.
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Despite that, you've still managed to cram a lot in so far. 
)
I don't know what was with the rides that day. I guess Disneyland just thought we needed some extra walking. You should definitely visit Disneyland, we prefer WDW, but there is something special about Disneyland.
) if she agreed to meet Captain America and not be a snarky brat while waiting or while meeting him (and yes the snarky brat part was part of the deal. If she was a snarky brat, I wouldn't ride! 
)
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