I thought I might as well share a quick trip report for Sunday, March, 21st. It was short but really enjoyable day. The weather was great, and although the crowds were significant, we just went with the flow and enjoyed ourselves.
The day started with us arriving at the park a few minutes before 9, so we could open the place and hopefully hit a few rides before the crowds emerged. That would have been a pretty good plan, had the park not opened at 8. The crowds were already there. Still, our timing worked out, parking-wise. We ended up parking right in front of the tram stop at Timon! What an improvement that was from our last trip, when we were in the far opposite corner of Mickey and Friends.
Entering the park, we realized that the lines were going to be long. We did our usual "collection of the fast-passes" ritual, then decided to have breakfast in the park, a first for us. Usually, we eat light in the morning and have a nice big lunch. We decided on the River Belle Terrace and found the food to be really good, with nice-sized portions. It was expensive but worth it.
After breakfast, we had an interesting journey on POC, one that lasted over a half-hour. First we were stopped about 4 boats back from the first waterfall, for a few minutes. After a few "remain in your seats" announcements, they started unloading the boat closes to the falls. "Great", we thought. This will be a new experience. After the first boat was unloaded however, the ride began again. Everyone one ride cheered and down the waterfall, we plunged. Things were great until we entered the foggy area with the Pirate ship. We were stopped in that room, as you make the right turn towards the fort. We didn't mind the wait, as we were still digesting our breakfast and it just felt good to sit and just check out the scenery. After about 10 minutes, they turned on the inside lights. That really surprised me as I have never seen the lights on inside any dark attraction. It was kind of interesting to see, although I couldn't help but think about the little kids, staring into the water and realizing that they weren't in a sea, but rather a wading pool. Bad show, I suppose, but I'm sure there was a good reason. Finally, long after we started out, we made it back up the ramp to find that the huge line of people was gone. They had closed the ride. The CM apologized for the extended ride when we got back to the dock, although it wasn't really necessary. We made the best of it and were at least, well-rested upon our return.
Now, for my favorite part of the day.
We headed over to Coke Corner to meet some padders for the first time. We sat at a table for quite a while, staring at anyone who looked like they might be the folks were looking for. This turned out to be somewhat of a challenge, considering the crowds. We narrowed it down to about 5 tables. I looked at all of them, thinking things like, "What would a person who calls themselves "Dark Beer" look like?".
Our blatent observing (staring) finally caught the eye of a couple of padders who graciously introduced themselves, Morigoon and LSPoorEyoric (hope I got that right!). They were extremely nice and introduced us to everyone including Mamabot, Monorail Man, and Dark Beer. We even got to meet Al Lutz, which was an unexpected treat. He seemed to be a really nice fellow and we had a nice conversation for a few minutes. We all made our way to Whitewater for lunch and it was great to get a chance to converse with some padders IRL. You all were really great and we enjoyed meeting you very much!
Afterwards, we headed to Grizzly to cool off. Bad idea. The wait was 90 minutes and the fastpass return time was 6:30. We decided to pass, and instead, waited for an hour for California Screamin' which was exhilerating as always. After getting a free tortilla, we decided to head back to DL. We headed to the monorail station in DTD to avoid the entrance gate crowds and were surprised to find a very small line. Back in the park, we rode a few more attractions but the crowds were really getting large at this point. We decided that we had really done everything we set out to accomplish for the day and it was time to head back to the homestead. It was a great way to spend a Sunday.
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