DCA: First experiences
The main entry way and the music and all feels very familiar to HS to me. Shops lining the street, that old fashioned Hollywood feel. Loved it! Oh and I haven’t mentioned (how have I not mentioned?!) that the Christmas decorations are EVERYWHERE here! And so wonderful!! It’s still a little early in the season for me, but how can you not love Christmas in a Disney park??
We took some time (AGAIN!) to orient ourselves and take it all in, and then we headed to Avengers Campus. Because after finishing End Game just hours earlier, that was the obvious choice. That land entrance is pretty darn cool, and all the little Easter eggs everywhere (and plenty more I’ve yet to notice I’m sure!) are wicked cool. We meandered our way through, heading toward GOTG, and passed Captain America out greeting folks. There are characters out everywhere on this coast, but especially in Avengers Campus where in our short visit we saw several.
GOTG was a posted 40 minute wait, and we waited about 25. The building is wicked cool, The Collector’s stuff is super awesome to take in, and the ride? EPIC! We got Freeride and boy was it ever! WAY too much fun, and hands down a whole bunch moreso than ToT (and I love ToT). We’ll be doing this one again this trip, maybe a few times!
After that we were feeling hungry, but not starving. So we made our way to Cars Land to hit up some Cozy Cone.
Holy cow you guys, Cars Land is amazing!! I think it might be my top land now for how immersive it is and how richly themed with not an inch of space not taken up by telling the story of Radiator Springs.
Mobile order at Cozy Cone was quick and efficient. We both opted for the bacon mac & cheese which was soooooooooo good!
I’ll insert here a little commentary about CMs thus far: they have run the gamut. We have had some wonderfully friendly CMs, like Maria who checked us in at GCH or the CM in the Emporium who noted our anniversary buttons and took more than a moment to congratulate us and wish us a good trip. Thennnnnnnnnnnn we’ve had other experiences, like the girl at Cozy Cone who, when I asked if she might have a drink tray looked at me like the car rental lady in planes trains and automobiles and said, “no tray” in a way that really sounded like when the car rental lady said “you’re fucked” . And there are “carnival barkers” all around yelling at people to “stay to the right” and “walk arouuuuunnnndddd the photographers” and other annoying, such things. All this to say: So far CM experiences on both coasts are variable because people are variable.
After Cozy Cone we hit up Radiator Springs Racers and waited the full posted time of 40 minutes. THAT is a fun ride! Love the theming throughout and although yes it’s similar to Test Track, this ride blows that one out of the water. Oh, and we won so there’s that. (Don’t mention to anyone that we didn’t race anyone and won by default).
We were getting really tired by now - it was 8pm, 11pm for us - so we decided to skip the other few things we had and close it down with a trip on WebSlingers. That queue was pretty awful, nearly as bad as JC. It lurches because it fills the room and then stops full on, and that got tiresome to these weary travelers. I began to wonder if it was even going to be worth it. We waited a full hour for this one (posted 70 minutes) and I can say without question that it was!! This is like TSM on steroids, and way more fun and a much bigger, more intense workout. Lots of fun to be had here and I hope we get to do it again, but we won’t wait that long for it because I’m not sure very many experiences are worth an hour in line. But it was AWESOME!!
