Running Trip Report 5/30/23 to 6/1/23

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Thought I’d do a running trip report in case any of my odd meanderings and thoughts are helpful. And so I can remember in the future since my recollections of last July when planning this trip were not as clear as I’d prefer.

This is a family trip mostly planned/strategized by me (dad) with input from my son, 12 and daughter, 8. My wife is happy to do what makes the rest of us happy as long as she gets to ride Soarin’ and RSR. We’re visiting on 3 day park hoppers with G+ and DAS for autism purposes.

We opted to stay at the Tropicana and checked in last night (Monday 5/29). We did a visit to DTD last night since my daughter wanted/needed new ears since she couldn’t find the ones from last trip. A bit crowded, but not sure what else I expected on Memorial Day. But we were successful in obtaining ears (Little Mermaid) plus a couple of Star Wars souvenirs. I have to admit, a wooden music box that plays the Imperial March works better than expected.

Reservation today was for DL. We left the hotel at about 7:15 and were through everything into the rope drop crowd by 7:40. Booked an 8:15 LL for (Hyper)SM and a pre-open DAS return for ST while we waited. Didn’t even know it was an option to do that so I’ll need to play with that the next couple mornings. I’m assuming it’s only available for rides open for EE and reporting wait times but didn’t explore.

Made the very zig while others zag choice to do the Nemo subs first since it was the day’s priority non-LL ride since we missed it last year while it was being refurbished.

Heard that SM was down as we entered Tomorrowland and crossed my fingers for an early golden ticket but no luck there. We did Hyper-SM and the Star Wars loving duo of myself and my son quite enjoyed it especially whatever projection trick put a Tie Fighter practically on top of the track. Headed to Star Tours next to use the unnecessary DAS as there wasn’t even a CM at the merge by that point. Got a sequel trilogy set of Jakku, Exogol and Bakku. My daughter was convinced Kylo Ren pointed to her as the spy and I don’t have the heart to tell her otherwise. Grabbed an HM LL and MMRR DAS during the wait.

After the obligatory Star Trader purchases, we made our way to IJA around 9:15 to catch the end of the 8:30-9:30 DAS preselect window. The refurbished snake animatronic looked better in person than the ride video I watched and it was nice to see the boulder actually working. After a pit stop, headed over to HM which was it’s solid self. Booked an LL for Buzz since it fit in the schedule before an 11:00 DAS preselect for MFSR. Was hoping for BTMR, but it was too far out.

Didn’t pay enough attention to the message I got about the MMRR DAS being adjusted to realize that the ride was still down before trekking all the way across the park. Sat at one of the benches in the fake grass area in front of RR to regroup and snagged a new DAS for ROTR with a relatively quick return since it was just coming back from downtime.

After using the Buzz LL, made our way to GE. Saw the Mandalorian and Baby Yoda on the path parallel to the marketplace and were able to get the kids in for a picture. However, we got the the LL point just in time for an announcement that the ride was down. So the second DAS to convert to an anytime pass for the day.

Fortunately, we had an 11am DAS preselect for MFSR so we just walked up there. The LL line seemed slow and the preshow room was less full with a B-mode Hondo so there seem to be some reliability issues going on. On the ride we spotted a couple of graphics glitches but it recovered. Also learned that my daughter is not a star pilot prodigy, but that’s ok. I enjoyed all the sparks in the exit.

Luckily, MMRR was back up by the time we exited GE so we made our way back though the FL stroller traffic and got to try that out. A fun application of the trackless ride vehicles. By the point, it was almost noon and we were ready for a break. We spotted Cinderella making her way down the path as we walked to the gate. My daughter got a photo and was happy to say hi to a princess without waiting in the official line.

During the lunch/afternoon break, booked LLs for WS and Soarin’. My wife opted to extend her break while I took the kids in to DCA around 3:30. I was starting to notice grad night crowds pick up, but wasn’t worried with the two banked LLs and grabbing a quick return DAS for Monsters Inc. I limited the ride selection to thinks where a group of 3 made sense. After using the WS and Soarin’ LLs, booked an ST LL whole waiting to Monsters Inc and hopped after. Got a prequel set of Tatooine and Naboo on ST.

We made our way back over to GE and were able to use the converted pass for ROTR. The final Kylo Ren scene was in a B-mode where we was in a TIE on a screen. Still a fun ride though. Made our way to the Milk Stand after to sample that. Daughter says blue milk is better and my son says green. They did agree polystarch bread is good. I liked it all but will say I had to be careful not to get a case of brain freeze.

At this point, it was almost 6:30 and after confirming if the kids were interested in the parade (they were not), had the bright idea to hop on the train in Tomorrowland to avoid the Main Street parade crowds and go through the Primeval world like my son requested. This may have worked if the first train that came by hadn’t been so full resulting in us being the first in line to wait for the next train. Regardless, we closed our day with that.

Now to get some sleep to do RD for DCA tomorrow.

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Forgot to mention we were doing a running game of just got long is the line for Splash Mountain now. The kids could not fathom waiting four hours like we saw on the last check. I think they were almost happy they don’t have interest in it. At some point, will they close the line or will everyone that makes it in by close get to do it?

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You guys had a very lovely, action-packed day! The walk from Tropicana is so nice & easy! It’s the hotel we went on our first visit with the kids. Thanks for sharing your day!

We’ve been watching from home and we saw it up to 250 & the last we checked at 7:30pm in CA it had dipped slightly down to 215. I just checked and there’s no wait listed & it doesn’t say Temporarily Closed & the park is technically open for another 45 or so min., leading me to believe they closed off the line & are probably just trying to get through that 4 hour line (hopefully they only have 1-2 hours left of it so they can still get those CMs home).

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I too have been watching all day :blush: :rofl: and at 10pm it jumped 20 minutes to 260. I saw a tweet they closed the line at 10pm. They usually close the line right at park close but I guess since its so crazy long they decided an hour before closed was good.

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I was just about to go searching on the Twitterverse or for a YouTube live to see the situation of exactly when they closed the line. Your so good at knowing those little details. Thanks for sharing! I don’t blame them for closing it at 10pm! I’m surprised they didn’t close it sooner.

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Yeah. Closed line at 10 pm, closed doors to attraction for final time at 1:30 am.

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I knew someone would know what went on with Splash Mountain. Figured they’d be well past midnight clearing the line so 1:30 makes sense.

Anyway, on to day 2 and our DCA reservation. Since the kids have for some reason the kids are obsessed with Goofy’s Sky School, we went for the counterintuitive Paradise Gardens rope drop while grabbing a DAS return for RSR. Though this meant we were able to do Golden Zephyr, Goofy’s Sky School and the Silly Symphony Swings by 8:25.

We went on the Pixar Pal Around prior to our 8:30-9:30 TSMM DAS preselect. Sadly, we found out that the swinging cars do not agree with my daughter as the rocking was a bit much (not that my stomach blames her). Luckily a photo my Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl and a trip into the sweet shop smoothed things over before we went on TSMM.

We got onto RSR just before a surprisingly large LL group that looked to be about 20. I’m hoping they split into smaller groups for the CMs to manage. They seemed pretty on top of things as we went through though.

From there my son and I went over to GOTG for his first ever ride. Burning Love if anyone was wondering. Wasn’t sure how he was going to handle it but he said he had fun and that it made the freefall at the end of ROTR seem like falling after jumping in the air by comparison. Also informed my daughter she was right not to go on which is probably true since she doesn’t care for drops in the dark.

After using an LL on Soarin’, we went back for a WS DAS only to find out that it was closed, but got a rather extensive MEP out of it covering everything in both parks except the ILLs and PPF. So about as good of a golden ticket as I could hope for right as we were planning to take a break before hopping to DL.

I did some stacking during the break in spite of the golden ticket since I wasn’t sure if one from a DAS would behave the same. I was aiming to get in BTMR and MFSR before a 3:35 Oga’s reservation by booking and modifying out the time. But at 2:00, the 2:25 MFSR LL turned into another MEP. Not quite as good as the one from WS (no Indy, SM, GOTG, TSMM or WS) but having the second gave more flexibility in that I could use one up and still have a golden ticket in hand.

We went in around 2:30 with the intent to due ST and BTMR before Oga’s. However, ST was having issues (seemingly one of the vehicles was down) so the line was slow. Since I knew we weren’t going to hit the original BTMR window I booked, I just modified it to later knowing I had the MEP to save me there.

Oga’s was a good time. Got the table next to R3X so we could hear but not see him. Good interactions with the CMs who were quite in character. Though my daughter seemed to take the comment that the hyperdrive punch may take kids to lightspeed as a challenge. Regardless, it was good and I’m glad I sat at my computer waiting for reservations to open 60 days ago.

For after Oga’s, I secured an MFSR LL and ROTR DAS. Both Hondo on MFSR and the last Kylo Ren on ROTR were back up after being in B-mode when we went on yesterday. My daughter’s piloting improved as well.

From there, we utilized the golden ticket to do the BTMR and Autopia rides my kids kept asking about yesterday. I’m fortunate that they are understanding of dad having plans and that we will get to everything they want during the trip.

From there we grabbed the wife and kids some dinner at Hungry Bear before I wandered up to Ronto Roasters for myself. On the way, I could see the Tiana themed construction walls already up in front of Splash Mountain so they’re not wasting any time.

We wrapped up the day with the thing my kids have been thinking about since we told them about the trip. Building at Droid Depot. We are now the proud owners of a couple of astromechs (one C-series, one R-series). They did spend quite some time looking over all the options on the conveyor, but enjoyed themselves. The CM doing the activations was quite good at adding to the experience, getting into character and making activation a bit of a show. After some test time outside the store, we wandered the outpost a bit to see how they responded, but only one was making any noises and it wasn’t consistent. Luckily, I think I know how to duplicate the signals at home and the kids are still quite happy with them.

And now, the sound of the fireworks ending tells me it’s time to go to bed to be ready for our third and final day.

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Time to catch up with the third and final day of our trip yesterday.

We got in just in time for rope drop and stuck with our trip theme of do the oddball standby only ride(s) first by doing Astro Orbiters (which the kids are surprisingly fond of) followed by Jungle Cruise. After that, we went up to BTMR for our first LL. As we made our way out, Pocahontas was walking along a bridge so much daughter got to go right up to her and chat and get a photo without a line. From there, we used a DAS on MFSR but it was a walk on from either line, a far cry from the posted 120 minutes we saw at 9pm. That was all before 9am, a good reminder of why I like to be there for RD even if we don’t run to the superheadliners.

After a coffee and churro break (I would recommend the Taverne Cold Brew), we took advantage of a DAS for IJA before heading over to Tomorrowland. On the way, my daughter saw the souvenir Mickey popcorn holders with the straps and decided that is the perfect ‘purse’ for her smaller souvenirs. We rode (Hyper)SM and ST again before a trip on the Monorail to round out the morning around 11:30. Thus, we have maintained our streak of riding both MFSR and ST every day we’ve been to DL.

We took a long midday break to be able to stay later since we had ridden everything we intended to. Didn’t stop me from snagging evening LLs for WS and Soarin’ though. We went into DCA for dinner around 5. Grabbed a quantum pretzel from Pym’s for my son and then walked with it over to Smokejumpers for the rest of us. While there, I went into the app to grab a DAS for RSR and noted that RSE, IC, WS, GRR, Monsters and Goofy were all down simultaneously. I think the MEPs coming from this mix this was the cause of the LL line for Soarin’ stretching almost to Carthay Circle.

We walked into the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail area, but didn’t stay long as it was rather crowded. Instead, we looked around some shops while waiting for our LLs to come up. WS was back up by our window so we did that and then headed over to Soarin’ where there was still a line to just scan into LL. We waited probably half an hour after scanning to ride, but the fact that the left hand section of seats was down in our theater was the likely culprit for the delay.

By the time we exited, we were clear to head to RSR for our DAS RT. The line was moving and the people next to us in line were curious about our LL wait compared to their 102 minute SB wait. Sadly, right as they got in the car and we were one car from getting in, they closed and cleared the ride. CM said that everyone needed to ‘evacuate’ and there were strobe lights like in some fire alarms going off so it seemed like more than a typical breakdown.

After that disappointment, we at least got to walk through the neon and stick to our original plan of grabbing some ice cream. We did that and hopped over to DL so my son could get the kowakian monkey lizard shoulder puppet in GE before the fireworks. However, my daughter noticed as we got onto Main Street that she has lost her popcorn holder ‘purse’. So we went from divide and conquer where they went to check for it at Clarabelle’s while my son and I worked through the crowds back to the Creature Stall. When I got the message to buy replacements for the souvenirs my daughter had got there the day before, I knew they didn’t have luck.

Various creatures obtained, it became a new mission at around 9pm to replace everything and check with lost and found if they had it before fireworks. No luck at lost and found and I felt almost silly asking about it when the people in front of me were checking on lost glasses and phones, but :person_shrugging:. We met back up in the esplanade around 9:20 with all the souvenirs found but no popcorn holder ‘purse’. Reentering DL, we were anticipating fighting the flow of the post-fireworks crowds to find one after the show. However, fortune was on our side as the popcorn stand across from city hall had exactly what we needed. We watched the start of the show from there as best we could while waiting in that line before shifting to in front of the train station for the rest. Couldn’t really see the projections very well, but honestly I was content with just the music and the fireworks themselves. Even then, there’s a much better sense of showmanship than the typical fireworks show.

The trip may have ended a bit more chaotically than we would have liked but, ultimately, we got to do everything we planned to beforehand and many things more than once so I really can’t complain. Don’t expect to be back for a few years and probably only two days instead of three, but happy that we did the return trip while the kids are a good age to enjoy it.

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Sorry it ended up on chaotic note that it did. You should never feel bad about making a claim for any of your stuff from lost & found. And they may still yet find it & mail it back if they can definitively tie it back as yours based on the info you left with Lost & Find when you first checked.

Thanks again for your sharing your trip. I loved that you were able to go all/most of what you hoped & sounds like you had some good repeats as well. Hope your next trip the kids are still just as happy. Our oldest is almost 12 and he’s still just as Disney-loving if not more than he was at 1-2 when he first started going, so for some kids it’s just their thing. :slight_smile:

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Honestly, I suspect we’ll be talking about that last night years down the line in a way that we wouldn’t be had things gone to plan. All in all, it was a good trip and we got to everything on the priority list and got to repeat the favorites. I suspect it will be a few years before we get back but that just gives the Imagineers plenty of time to make something new.