LizzyS
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2011
We set off for Anaheim after work on Friday evening and arrived at our hotel (Red Lion) just after 10:30pm. We got into Disneyland Saturday morning to do rope drop at Tomorrowland about 15-20 minutes before 8am.
We always do Space Mountain first and the sign said it was already a 30 minute wait (and oh boy was the FP line LONG!), but we got in the standby line and we honestly only spent 15 minutes in line before we were on the ride. We are not Star Wars fans, but we enjoyed Hyperspace Mountain. Two things we missed, however, were the countdown before you "take off" and the original music.
We then went over and got in line for the Matterhorn and waited maybe 20 minutes (both sides were open, so that helped) and we both thought the new yeti effects were great! It's my favorite ride, so it's always a must for us.
When we next went to ride Indy, it was DOWN. My husband is a big Indiana Jones fan, so it's usually high on the priority list, so in total we probably checked back 6+ times throughout the day. Luckily, it came back up mid-afternoon and we grabbed a FP for it for 7:25-8:25 that evening. When we came back into the park from our afternoon at CA just before 7pm and wandered over that way, it was DOWN again. We thought we were going to miss it this trip for sure, but I talked DH into going over to Frontierland and chilling for a bit on a bench and coming back to Indy right at our FP time and sure enough, it was UP! It took us 10 minutes to get on the ride and that ended up being our last ride of the day!
Back to the morning after discovering Indy was down, we then rode BTMRR with about a 5-10 minute wait and, since we were right there, we then ate some breakfast at Rancho del Zocalo, which I thought was great! We used to go to RBT in the mornings, but they have The Steamboat breakfast there now, which we both got, and BOY was it less crowded than RBT used to be in the mornings! I liked the seating area at RDZ, too. We actually saw one of the feral cats chasing its own tail while eating breakfast there, lol.
Next up we hit Mr. Toad's Wild Ride because it's such a slow loader and we literally became stuck in Hell, lol. This was the first time we've had to be evacuated off a ride and don't you know our car stopped right in front of a demon in the Hell scene, lol. I love Mr. Toad and I thought the whole thing was hilarious.
After that, we hit POTC and HM before their lines got terribly long. I've learned POTC is a must either earlyish or very late in the day as it's so popular. A question- we can't remember the cat scene for the life of us- the pirate guy with the two grey cats squalling and hissing at him. Has that always been there and we were oblivious? lol
We spent most of our time at DL, but went over to CA from about 3pm-6:30pm. It really is nice to escape to a seemingly less crowded area for a while, though it's certainly still crowded.
We rode ToT this time and had never before. I was so nonchalant about it and my DH didn't even WANT to do it, but I dragged him on. It was fun, but we were also SCARED! It was a fun experience, but I don't ever see myself doing this on every day of a trip, lol. I felt a need to do it because I like the Twilight Zone tv series so much.
We put in the time to ride TSMM because it's one of my DH's favorites. We just go in expecting to have to wait for that ride and it was the longest line we waited in all day.
We did a lot of shopping during peak times when lines were getting pretty long mid-day. We ate at Hungry Bear for lunch (at 2pm) and the line was super slow for some reason this time. Anyway, I'd wait much longer for the CHURRO FUNNEL CAKE. My hubby and I split this and it was HEAVEN. Oh my gosh, it was good! We ate dinner at Pizza Port and got the Chicken Fusilli, as usual.
We didn't make it to fireworks as we were pretty beat and headed back to our hotel around 8:30pm. 12 hours non-stop seems to a breaking point for us, lol. All in all, we had a great time and I really think we maximized our time for a one day trip. The key is always being there early. You can ride a whole lot without even utilizing fastpasses if you do so; it always works out well for us.
Thanks to everyone on the disboards that's ever answered any of my dumb questions.
We always do Space Mountain first and the sign said it was already a 30 minute wait (and oh boy was the FP line LONG!), but we got in the standby line and we honestly only spent 15 minutes in line before we were on the ride. We are not Star Wars fans, but we enjoyed Hyperspace Mountain. Two things we missed, however, were the countdown before you "take off" and the original music.
We then went over and got in line for the Matterhorn and waited maybe 20 minutes (both sides were open, so that helped) and we both thought the new yeti effects were great! It's my favorite ride, so it's always a must for us.
When we next went to ride Indy, it was DOWN. My husband is a big Indiana Jones fan, so it's usually high on the priority list, so in total we probably checked back 6+ times throughout the day. Luckily, it came back up mid-afternoon and we grabbed a FP for it for 7:25-8:25 that evening. When we came back into the park from our afternoon at CA just before 7pm and wandered over that way, it was DOWN again. We thought we were going to miss it this trip for sure, but I talked DH into going over to Frontierland and chilling for a bit on a bench and coming back to Indy right at our FP time and sure enough, it was UP! It took us 10 minutes to get on the ride and that ended up being our last ride of the day!
Back to the morning after discovering Indy was down, we then rode BTMRR with about a 5-10 minute wait and, since we were right there, we then ate some breakfast at Rancho del Zocalo, which I thought was great! We used to go to RBT in the mornings, but they have The Steamboat breakfast there now, which we both got, and BOY was it less crowded than RBT used to be in the mornings! I liked the seating area at RDZ, too. We actually saw one of the feral cats chasing its own tail while eating breakfast there, lol.
Next up we hit Mr. Toad's Wild Ride because it's such a slow loader and we literally became stuck in Hell, lol. This was the first time we've had to be evacuated off a ride and don't you know our car stopped right in front of a demon in the Hell scene, lol. I love Mr. Toad and I thought the whole thing was hilarious.
After that, we hit POTC and HM before their lines got terribly long. I've learned POTC is a must either earlyish or very late in the day as it's so popular. A question- we can't remember the cat scene for the life of us- the pirate guy with the two grey cats squalling and hissing at him. Has that always been there and we were oblivious? lol
We spent most of our time at DL, but went over to CA from about 3pm-6:30pm. It really is nice to escape to a seemingly less crowded area for a while, though it's certainly still crowded.
We rode ToT this time and had never before. I was so nonchalant about it and my DH didn't even WANT to do it, but I dragged him on. It was fun, but we were also SCARED! It was a fun experience, but I don't ever see myself doing this on every day of a trip, lol. I felt a need to do it because I like the Twilight Zone tv series so much.
We put in the time to ride TSMM because it's one of my DH's favorites. We just go in expecting to have to wait for that ride and it was the longest line we waited in all day.
We did a lot of shopping during peak times when lines were getting pretty long mid-day. We ate at Hungry Bear for lunch (at 2pm) and the line was super slow for some reason this time. Anyway, I'd wait much longer for the CHURRO FUNNEL CAKE. My hubby and I split this and it was HEAVEN. Oh my gosh, it was good! We ate dinner at Pizza Port and got the Chicken Fusilli, as usual.
We didn't make it to fireworks as we were pretty beat and headed back to our hotel around 8:30pm. 12 hours non-stop seems to a breaking point for us, lol. All in all, we had a great time and I really think we maximized our time for a one day trip. The key is always being there early. You can ride a whole lot without even utilizing fastpasses if you do so; it always works out well for us.
Thanks to everyone on the disboards that's ever answered any of my dumb questions.
