WonkaKid
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2009
Folks, I arrived at the park at my usual time of 6:50 this morning. Usually there's a car or two ahead of me at the parking structure entrance. This morning there were about 50. What made it worse was that once inside, there were cones setup to merge four lanes of traffic into one. That seemed like a really bad idea, especially given how busy it was and would be. I saw a lot of people ignore and drive around them. Once I parked and got down to the security lines, there were only about six lanes open. Which meant that the lines were long. I didn't get to the park gates until around 7:30. Those were also long but at least they were letting people in.
I was able to meet a friend at the rope well before the drop (which was 7:50 -- ten minutes early, presumably to allow people to get into the park and spread out as they tried to get their ROTR boarding group). The scene there was pretty hectic. It's one of the most crowded days I've ever seen at the rope. No surprise, given all of the traffic and the crowds at the gate. The path through the castle was closed, which meant that we had to go the long way around -- between the Matterhorn and Alice, like we used to do when there was some big refurb being done on the castle. We manged to be first on PP and still had a few minutes to spare before zero hour.
ROTR potential riders take note: I already had the app open on my phone and was at the ROTR screen. However at 8:00, I couldn't get the BG button to activate. Meanwhile, two friends next to me were able to get their BGs quickly. After trying a few more times to get the screen to refresh, I closed the app and restarted it. That worked... except by the time I was able to get my BG I was issued... 130. That's useless and I knew I wouldn't be riding today. But I didn't mind much. It would have been nice because friends have told me how cool it is but I can always try again next weekend. Meanwhile, one friend got 27 and another got 24. I guess it just wasn't my day, at least as far as ROTR goes. The attraction didn't open until about 9:30 and I believe it broke down at least twice during the day, one time for something like two hours, or so I'm told.
So after Mr. Toad and Dumbo, I went to meet a friend and her family over at Galactic Grill. I'd brought some gifts for her daughters and then we all did a few rounds of Buzz. That was really nice.
Despite the earlier crowds, the park scene wasn't horrible. In fact, it was better than I expected it to be. But still pretty thick.
Did reasonably on Buzz today. Broke 2M once and then scored 1.9M. I had first and second place.
I have some of the new ROTR maps, if anyone would like one or two (pics below).
In closing, I also met up with the daughter of some old friends. She's a wonderful young lady and we had a great time. As I was about to leave around 3:00, I connected with her and seven of her friends. As I walked them towards the Matterhorn, one of them suggested that it would be fun to do Buzz. But the line was at least 25 minutes long and FPs were being issued for about 90 minutes after the pull time. So I told them to hang on and I'd see what I could do. I found a CM I know at the ride and asked if she could help us out a bit. She was very kind and brought all of us in through the FP entrance. What was great was that as we walked through, the group of kids (16-17) began to clap and chant my name. That made me laugh and I absolutely loved it. Lately I've been dealing with a failed relationship of sorts that's been very difficult and some days it really gets to me (like the past three days) . When they did that, it made me forget all of my troubles. And then when we exited the ride, they all saw that I had the top two scores (2M and 1.9M). They began to chant my name again and everyone looked over. It made me feel great and it cracked me up. A few hours ago I got a wonderful video from all of them (second post below) in which they thanked me for Buzz and all of my park tips. Really made my day great.
Park pics and then bed. Really tired tonight.
The new ROTR park maps. Message me if you'd like a set.
Lines at the security gates. Yup. It was buzy ;-).
The crowd was 100-deep at rope drop.
I was able to meet a friend at the rope well before the drop (which was 7:50 -- ten minutes early, presumably to allow people to get into the park and spread out as they tried to get their ROTR boarding group). The scene there was pretty hectic. It's one of the most crowded days I've ever seen at the rope. No surprise, given all of the traffic and the crowds at the gate. The path through the castle was closed, which meant that we had to go the long way around -- between the Matterhorn and Alice, like we used to do when there was some big refurb being done on the castle. We manged to be first on PP and still had a few minutes to spare before zero hour.
ROTR potential riders take note: I already had the app open on my phone and was at the ROTR screen. However at 8:00, I couldn't get the BG button to activate. Meanwhile, two friends next to me were able to get their BGs quickly. After trying a few more times to get the screen to refresh, I closed the app and restarted it. That worked... except by the time I was able to get my BG I was issued... 130. That's useless and I knew I wouldn't be riding today. But I didn't mind much. It would have been nice because friends have told me how cool it is but I can always try again next weekend. Meanwhile, one friend got 27 and another got 24. I guess it just wasn't my day, at least as far as ROTR goes. The attraction didn't open until about 9:30 and I believe it broke down at least twice during the day, one time for something like two hours, or so I'm told.
So after Mr. Toad and Dumbo, I went to meet a friend and her family over at Galactic Grill. I'd brought some gifts for her daughters and then we all did a few rounds of Buzz. That was really nice.
Despite the earlier crowds, the park scene wasn't horrible. In fact, it was better than I expected it to be. But still pretty thick.
Did reasonably on Buzz today. Broke 2M once and then scored 1.9M. I had first and second place.
I have some of the new ROTR maps, if anyone would like one or two (pics below).
In closing, I also met up with the daughter of some old friends. She's a wonderful young lady and we had a great time. As I was about to leave around 3:00, I connected with her and seven of her friends. As I walked them towards the Matterhorn, one of them suggested that it would be fun to do Buzz. But the line was at least 25 minutes long and FPs were being issued for about 90 minutes after the pull time. So I told them to hang on and I'd see what I could do. I found a CM I know at the ride and asked if she could help us out a bit. She was very kind and brought all of us in through the FP entrance. What was great was that as we walked through, the group of kids (16-17) began to clap and chant my name. That made me laugh and I absolutely loved it. Lately I've been dealing with a failed relationship of sorts that's been very difficult and some days it really gets to me (like the past three days) . When they did that, it made me forget all of my troubles. And then when we exited the ride, they all saw that I had the top two scores (2M and 1.9M). They began to chant my name again and everyone looked over. It made me feel great and it cracked me up. A few hours ago I got a wonderful video from all of them (second post below) in which they thanked me for Buzz and all of my park tips. Really made my day great.
Park pics and then bed. Really tired tonight.
The new ROTR park maps. Message me if you'd like a set.
Lines at the security gates. Yup. It was buzy ;-).
The crowd was 100-deep at rope drop.
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