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Disneyland Resort (DL, DLR, DCA) Discussion Thread

p. 393 - Pixar Place Hotel transformation will be completed on January 30th, 2024!

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Here's a few pics from last night:

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A Monorail MARK VII for Scott.

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Red Car Trolley hat, complete with ears.

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A (not so) interesting Trolley shirt.

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Shirts, antenna balls, hats, frames - all kinds of Red Car merch.

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Mickey conductor.

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Satchel, with the ghost of Mickey. (I wonder if he got ran over by the Red Car at some point.)

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Models - all kinds of goodies.

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This is the entrance to Carsland from the Pacific Wharf food area.

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It's just enormous!

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I know you haven't seen this picture before!

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"DJ" and the dancers (who come out of "Flo's" to start the show) entertaining the people.

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The side of "Radiator Springs Curios", where old "Route 66" signs go to rust away.

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Stanley.

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The detail in the rock work as seen from on-ride.

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The waterfalls are really impressive! I just think you go past them a little too fast.

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Carsland heiroglyphics.

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And there it be!

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Trolley coming...

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.....annnnnnnd going.

 

Thanks for looking!

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Hey everyone, Wanted to give a quick TR of my visit to DCA on Thursday. I arrived at the parks around 720 am. They opened the gates at 730 and were very quick about getting people in (they had every single turnstile open). The mad rush went straight for fastpass which required you to queue at the Carthay Circle Theater. I chose to avoid that and waited with the small 100 - 200 people who waited to just go straight to the ride.

 

At 8 they played the new themed announcement for the park opening. It talked about Walt first arriving to California seeking adventure. Then they slowly walked everyone to RSR which already had a 90min wait thanks to magic morning. I hopped in Single Rider and waited 15 mins for my ride. I won't go into details, but the ride is fantastic. Every worry I had for it went out the door. The dark ride is extremely entertaining (there are no view issues even for smaller riders) and the race part feels much faster and thrilling than I expected.

 

Afterwards I rode Screamin' and Mermaid which were basically walk-ons (Toy Story had a 30+ min wait) and headed to get a WoC Fastpass. I got a Blue section 1.5 hours after park opening which obviously means focus has shifted when it comes to early AM rushes.

 

I wanted to check out Buena Vista Street some more so I headed back. My first stop was Starbucks which had a line out the door. A CM said it was between a 30 to 45 min wait. I decided to pass. The rest of BVS is beautiful. It's small, but so well made that it's easily my favorite Disney park entrance.

 

I then headed over to the ghost town known as Disneyland (it got busier later on) and tried to ride Matterhorn, unfortunately it was down. I headed back to my hotel for a nap as I had just driven all night from the bay area. Headed back to DCA around 2 and met up with some friends. We rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree which has got to be one of the most stupid fun flats I've ever ridden. Talk about a surprise. We skipped Luigi's 75 minute wait.

 

Hopped in Single Rider for RSR again as it was a 10 min wait because the ride was coming back up for a lengthy downtime. Made it to the front of the line (only 2 people ahead of us) and the ride went down again for about 45 minutes. Guest were noticeably irritated, but thus is life with a new ride. You can run it empty as much as you want but throw in the human factor and stuffs going to happen. The staff was really cool and Maintenance was there within a minute or 2, and when I say maintenance I mean about 10 guys plus what looked like ops managers. I overheard a CM saying it was an issue with doors opening at Ramon's inside the ride.

 

Stopped at Cove Bar for much needed alcohol. Rode TSMM and tore up my finger while scoring the high score. Headed back to DL and did Space, Matterhorn and watched Magical and Fantasmic. Matterhorn's new trains are cramped and still just a rough. The queue felt slightly faster but not anything to rave about.

 

The biggest thing coming out of it is that I spent a ton of time at DCA and feel like I easily could have done another full day there to experience everything. I never ended up seeing WoC (This time) and never got on ToT, Goofy, Grizzly, or Soarin'. Never saw Pixar Play Parade or caught Aladdin. Didn't get to draw int he animation building or ride the smaller Paradise Pier rides. DCA is easily a full day park, or even a 2 day park if you want to experience all the entertainment (and amazing food) as well.

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. The dark ride is extremely entertaining (there are no view issues even for smaller riders)

 

Were you there with a smaller rider, who rode in the front row?

 

-RO

 

I think this was an argument earlier and I don't want to start it again, but yes I was and she absolutely loved it. I don't know if it's an issue for others, but since 90% of the stuff in the dark ride is next to you and elevated, it was easy to see for her. The only negative was you couldn't see her in the ride photo.

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I've seen the point mentioned in many places, and you may be the first to say it isn't a problem for the dark ride section. The onride is big problem. ANd I would think THAT will be what changes it. If they lose onride photo revenue because of the eyes blocking out kids, the eyes will go, for sure.

 

Sounds like you did most of the big rides, and went to Disneyland, and took a nap, yet think it's a two day park now? It seems essentially everyone there was in the RSR line. Getting Blue 1.5 hours after opening is rather amazing in the summer.

 

-RO

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^Don't try and pick apart what he said so you can prove your ridiculous point. If you haven't noticed, just about the whole message board is tired out of it, so please stop it. It doesn't even matter if you right or wrong at this point, what matters is that the people that are actually going there, are reporting back that they are enjoying it. All you are doing is bringing negativity every time you post. So, please once again, let it go.

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Sorry everyone, I hadn't been on here for a few days and didn't notice the last few pages otherwise I never would have made that comment. I had thought people were wondering about it not having some huge debate.

 

RSR did have a big line all day but the entire park was busy (though handling it very well) by noon.

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Finally the west coast has bragging rights again.

To be fair, if you think that getting one solid E-Ticket...the first REAL centerpiece attraction in almost 20 years is really "bragging rights" - then go for it, brag all you want.

 

I'm going to go on a rant here -

 

It really irks me to no end to watch all the Californians brag and be all "OMFG WE ARE SOOOOO AWESOME" whenever a new ride gets built at the Disneyland Resort. Here's the reality check - there are LOTS of great rides built at many different Disney parks. And, guess what? The best ones are located at Tokyo Disney.

 

You don't hear the Japanese, French, or even Floridians constantly shoving their awesome rides in other peoples faces, and it's obnoxious as hell when the Californians do it.

 

And yes, Radiator Springs Racers DOES look really, really, really awesome...and I really want to get out and ride it. But I'll be honest, it's the attitude of many Disneyland fan boys being so obnoxious that makes me NOT want to come ride it. The last thing I want to do when I go visit a park, that I actually am choosing to spend lots of money to visit, is have annoying people tell me how awesome it is, and how much better it is, and how "our park has this" and "our park has that" and "our park is so much better", blah, blah, fu*king, blah.... Honestly, I don't want to hear it, and it makes me like the park a LOT less because of it.

 

People ask me all the time "Robb, why do you hate the Disneyland resort?" Well, I don't. I actually really like it. I *hate* the fanboys who happen to frequent it and have to remind you how amazing it is. As though they are trying to over compensate for small male reproductive organs or something. Just stop, ok? No one wants to hear it!!!

 

And here's another reality check - there is really no need to continue telling people how awesome the ride is, as though no awesome ride has ever been built before...

 

Because I got two words for you....

 

LAVA. FU*KING. MONSTER.

 

Yeah, so there.

 

/end rant.

 

--Robb "Sorry, I just really hate the 'we are better than you' attitude of many Californians sometimes...I just had to say something." Alvey

 

That's dissapointing, i've been to Disneyland many times and never had a fanboy come up to me and try to shove that their home park is better than other parks in my face. I also enjoyed Radiator Springs Racers more than Journey to the Center of the Earth, both are extremely well themed but I love the movie cars and whenever I drive out in Utah or Arizona I would always think to myself how awesome of a setting it was for a drive, so riding RSR was a very "Red Barchetta" moment for me. I do agree that Disneyland fans can be strange, but so are many WDW, TDLR, Cedar Point, Holiday World, and most other parks out there. Theres no reason to raise your blood pressure off of something silly like theme park fans...

 

To each his own, it's entirely our opinion which ones we like better, but I think by saying that your words for everybody is LAVA F*CKING MONSTER it really doesn't mean anything to me.

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I'm really looking forward to riding RSR soon.. My Premium pass is still good until the middle of July, but I'm waiting for the So Cal passes to be blocked

 

 

 

With so much hype about Cars Land/RSR, has Disneyland been pretty busy? I mean obviously it's summer, but has the new DCA lightened some of the crowds? (Just thinking optimistically)

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I had to run around taking care of a few errands today. Almost everywhere I went someone would initiate a conversation about Disneyland and/or DCA (DLR in general) and how much they were looking forward to their planned vacation this summer. I really can't remember anything generating as much excitement about visiting DLR as this remake of DCA has. It seems I see a TV commercial for Carsland every 20-30 minutes or so on TV. I would expect attendance this year to be off the charts just going off of what I'm seeing and hearing from people that live 6-7 hours away here in NorCal. While I'm also excited to visit and check out all the new stuff, I'm also a little worried that the usual lull in late August into September may not exist this year.

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I'm really looking forward to riding RSR soon.. My Premium pass is still good until the middle of July, but I'm waiting for the So Cal passes to be blocked

 

With so much hype about Cars Land/RSR, has Disneyland been pretty busy? I mean obviously it's summer, but has the new DCA lightened some of the crowds? (Just thinking optimistically)

 

I was there on a SoCal blocked day and it was still pretty packed. You know it's busy when even Mermaid and Monsters Inc. have lines. The park is doing extremely well at managing the crowds and keeping people happy though. The huge amount of entertainment helps (the entertainment schedule for DCA was bigger than DL's). I think this summer is going to be packed with tourists who have been waiting the last few years to do a big family trip.

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^^^Based on yesterday's Sunday visit, DCA is dramatically altering crowd flow at the resort. When we hopped over to Disneyland around 1 pm, the Star Tours standby was 30 minutes with Fastpasses an hour or 90 'minutes out. Space was 40 with FP 2 hours out. With the exception of the Matterhorn (60 mins) all attraction waits were shorter than expected for the final summer Sunday before the SoCal AP block out. On the flip side, waits for everything at DCA are up (except around rope drop when the herd thunders into Carsland.

 

It's a great time to visit Disneyland; it must have been nigh empty in the early hours.

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^^^Based on yesterday's Sunday visit, DCA is dramatically altering crowd flow at the resort. When we hopped over to Disneyland around 1 pm, the Star Tours standby was 30 minutes with Fastpasses an hour or 90 'minutes out. Space was 40 with FP 2 hours out. With the exception of the Matterhorn (60 mins) all attraction waits were shorter than expected for the final summer Sunday before the SoCal AP block out. On the flip side, waits for everything at DCA are up (except around rope drop when the herd thunders into Carsland.

 

It's a great time to visit Disneyland; it must have been nigh empty in the early hours.

I still don't think that it's been long enough to make statements about how the crowd flow has affected Disneyland. The line for Star Tours has been between 15-40 minutes (usually around 20) the last few times I've been in the park (before Cars Land opened), including just last week when it was 30 minutes on a PACKED day (120+ on Indy, etc.). I think closer to the end of July we'll have a clear picture on the effect of DCA on Disneyland. Glad to hear Cars Land has been a success though.

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The high demand for Carsland won't fade any time soon, at least through the summer. Without question there are more people in DCA than previously. While overall resort attendance is most likely climbing, some of the people stuck in those 3 hours Radiator Springs Racers lines or waiting half a day for their RSR Fastpass to "ripen" would otherwise have been in the original park.

 

That doesn't mean that Disneyland can't be crowded regardless. After all, we're only two weekends in to a major new attraction. I judge crowds based on Fastpass availability. The ability to grab a Space FP no more than two hours out on a summer Sunday afternoon is a new experience for me. The rest averaged an hour out, virtually instant as FP goes.

 

It's going to be interesting to watch how the crowd flow evolves. Once demand for the new land is satisfied, the resort will probably swing back to prior patterns. In the meantime, Disneyland itself may be more enjoyably manageable.

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^^^Based on yesterday's Sunday visit, DCA is dramatically altering crowd flow at the resort. When we hopped over to Disneyland around 1 pm, the Star Tours standby was 30 minutes with Fastpasses an hour or 90 'minutes out. Space was 40 with FP 2 hours out. With the exception of the Matterhorn (60 mins) all attraction waits were shorter than expected for the final summer Sunday before the SoCal AP block out. On the flip side, waits for everything at DCA are up (except around rope drop when the herd thunders into Carsland.

 

It's a great time to visit Disneyland; it must have been nigh empty in the early hours.

 

Thanks!

 

As often as I go (twice a month), I've yet to see Star Tours less than 40 minutes or so (with fast pass times usually being hours later), and I've not seen Space at 40 minutes unless it's pretty slow - I usually do fast pass only for Space because the line is always an hour (or so it seems).

 

I'm not drawing any conclusions, but I would definitely say that the new DCA has 'lightened the load' on Disneyland - for now at least.

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^^^Based on yesterday's Sunday visit, DCA is dramatically altering crowd flow at the resort. When we hopped over to Disneyland around 1 pm, the Star Tours standby was 30 minutes with Fastpasses an hour or 90 'minutes out. Space was 40 with FP 2 hours out. With the exception of the Matterhorn (60 mins) all attraction waits were shorter than expected for the final summer Sunday before the SoCal AP block out. On the flip side, waits for everything at DCA are up (except around rope drop when the herd thunders into Carsland.

 

It's a great time to visit Disneyland; it must have been nigh empty in the early hours.

 

You can't identify a paradigm shift while the presence of "NEW" is still a very significant one. Right now everything you said can be explained simply by the presence of "NEW" as in DCA is the new thing, and people will flock to it, and away from the traditionally crowded not new stuff.

 

Same goes for the Matterhorn being 60mins. People just want to ride on the new trains, and afterwards will care as little or as much as they used to.

 

Once the "NEW" has gone away, then we'll be able to identify shifts in crowd patterns, if there are any. I figure the overall crowds will be greater than they have been in years past, but they'll still follow the same pattern we've observed for decades as has happened with every large scale opening up to and including this one.

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^^^ There's always a pretty good line when I go. I ride it because it for the nostalgia (favorite ride as a kid).

 

But this is also CA, where people think SFMM has the best roller coasters on the planet.

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^ I think you have to forgive people near big parks with large advertising budgets when it comes to thinking what's good and what's not. The most exposure a lot of people will get to the theme park industry is the ads for their local parks. I know a lot of people that think Thorpe Park have some world class things, simply because the adverts make a convincing point.

 

I guess it'll be interesting to see how Star Tours is holding up in a year after mermaid and cars land fully settle in.

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