Official DL July 2015 thread

[alicat8]

Thanks!!

8 hours til I'm on a plane!!

 

[RemainSeatedPlease]

I have been in the parks for the last three days. I'm not gonna lie, the crowds have been awful. I don't usually go in summer, and now I remember why! Some in my party regularly go in summer and they said this seemed worse than usual. Mornings are still good, productive. However between 11 am and 11 pm just walking around was difficult. Definitely use that time to take breaks, have sit down meals, and watch shows. I still had a great time! And I know you will too. I just didn't expect to get everything that I wanted to do done in a day or two like I can when I go in January.

 

[Disney127]

I have been in the parks for the last three days. I'm not gonna lie, the crowds have been awful. I don't usually go in summer, and now I remember why! Some in my party regularly go in summer and they said this seemed worse than usual. Mornings are still good, productive. However between 11 am and 11 pm just walking around was difficult. Definitely use that time to take breaks, have sit down meals, and watch shows. I still had a great time! And I know you will too. I just didn't expect to get everything that I wanted to do done in a day or two like I can when I go in January.

We have been in the parks since the 16th and agree with above. We usually go in Nov so this whole summer crowds are new to us. We are here for many days so we do get to do what we want to at a more leisurely pace but agree that we probablywon't be coming back during the summer season.

 

[lizabu]

I just came back and completely agree. Get to the parks early. You can get things done between 7-11. After that just chill. Go back to the room and lay down, have a nice relaxing lunch, see a show, ride the train etc. it gets hot too so we enjoyed going back to the room to lay down and then coming back for nighttime entertainment.

 

[jrsharp21]

5 more days until we head out for DL!

 

[Just Peachy]

Got back a couple of days ago from a week at the DLR. To me the crowds were about the same as for any Holiday trips we have done as a family (always had to fit in trips around school and work schedules). However, the July 17th was the most crowded but the "surprise" early hour entry at 7:00 really helped to spread out the crowd somewhat as most visitors expected an 8:00 rope drop. On the 18th and 19th the afternoon and nighttime rains really emptied out the parks where all the rides that were still running (all the dark rides) and performances were easy to get to (less than 10 minutes or straight walk-on). Unfortunately, the parades and fireworks were cancelled both of those nights but the access to rides with no lines and performances that were less than 70% full made up for it. My family took refuge from the rain in the Animation Academy and noticed that the Anna & Elsa Royal Welcome area was completely empty except for Anna and Elsa standing alone and talking to each other. So we walked over and joined them for about 15 minutes, taking pictures and staging "gag" shots we plan on using on post cards later this year. We also took the Walking in Walt's Footsteps Tour during the rain and while the only attraction that was open during the tour was the Haunted Mansion, we got to spend over an hour in the Dream Suites and took some time to sit out on the Dream Suite veranda overlooking the walkway through the French Quarter. Totally awesome and unique (at least to us)!

As is typical for our trips, we were out of the parks between noon and 6:00PM so we may have missed the biggest crowds on those days that the weather was dry.

 

[Pyrotechnictigger]

Arrive at the Hilton on the 18th, will be at the gate at daft 'o' clock on the 19th as we'll be 8 hours behind. Space Mountain, you're first and you ROCK! Can't wait!!!!!

 

[elaine amj]

We just got back last night. Crowds were brutal all week. Unfortunately, unlike Just Peachy, we didn't encounter reductions in lines during the rain. It all seemed just as busy to us and the pathways were still packed. We did keep on going in the rain, watching shows. The one absolutely crazy downpour, we made it to Mickey and the Magical Map in the nick of time. After the show, the rain let up a little and we waited 15 mins for Its a Small World. I probably wasn't going on the right rides? I remember saying that I was surprised with how crowded the parks felt even after all that rain. People were determined! This was the evening of July 19th (when we had the really bad rain that lasted forever).

All that said, with a lot of juggling, we really didn't wait more than 10-15 mins in line for most things (other than shows and the night events)

 

[RemainSeatedPlease]

I also didn't notice the crowds go down during the heavy rain on the 19th, people didn't seem to mind it at all! Standby times remained high until about 11 pm. The terrible weather this past week really didn't help things, it was SO DANG HUMID in the mornings and then pouring rain in the afternoons/evenings. I thought I was at DW for a while there! The humidity was the real killer, I had to sit on the floor under an air vent one day with a cast member bringing me water because I was dizzy.

Yeah, I'm never coming in summer again.

 

[elaine amj]

I also didn't notice the crowds go down during the heavy rain on the 19th, people didn't seem to mind it at all! Standby times remained high until about 11 pm. The terrible weather this past week really didn't help things, it was SO DANG HUMID in the mornings and then pouring rain in the afternoons/evenings. I thought I was at DW for a while there! The humidity was the real killer, I had to sit on the floor under an air vent one day with a cast member bringing me water because I was dizzy.

Yeah, I'm never coming in summer again.

Ha ha, we said we must have taken a wrong turn and ended up at WDW!

 

[lizabu]

On Saturday when we went to see Aladdin there was some lady who I think was having a heat stroke they wheeled out of there in a wheelchair. I think she was having a heatstroke because all the people around her were fanning her.

 

[Disney127]

I also didn't notice the crowds go down during the heavy rain on the 19th, people didn't seem to mind it at all! Standby times remained high until about 11 pm. The terrible weather this past week really didn't help things, it was SO DANG HUMID in the mornings and then pouring rain in the afternoons/evenings. I thought I was at DW for a while there! The humidity was the real killer, I had to sit on the floor under an air vent one day with a cast member bringing me water because I was dizzy.

Yeah, I'm never coming in summer again.

Yeah, we are going to stick to Feb or Nov if we can help it. LOL. July with the crowds and heat has been abit crazy. We are still here and have seen and rode everything that we wanted to. DCA was quite 'empty' this morning - went on many rides within the first hour. It just always seems busier over at DL.

 

[telecomguy]

Checked into our hotel this afternoon, Hyatt Orange County down on Chapman. Wish we were closer, but this is what DW booked through Costco. Been watching the wait times, little bit concerned because it seems to be busy. We will be getting to the parks at rope drop every day, so hopefully we will get a lot done.

 

[elaine amj]

Make sure you call Otto - he really did help a lot (although I kept wishing for a proper app).

Have fun! If nothing else, I'm sure the rain is gone now that I am home.

 

[alicat8]

We've been here for 2 days. It's hot, but there's a breeze, which I am not used to at all! The castle looks AMAZING!! I don't think the crowds are bad at all, but I'm used to DW in the summer! We've been taking midday breaks, but the longest we've waited for anything at this point is about 35 min for Small World. (Used FPs for Frozen show, RSR, Soarin' and ToT) I'm typing up at TR on one of my other boards-I'll share some highlights when I'm done!

 

[elaine amj]

So glad your trip is going so well!

 

[gmi3804]

Here's how our day on 7/17 went.

We avoided DL for most of the day on THE day. What happened was we'd planned DCA for that day because we had EE there. Arriving at 6:30, the Esplanade was filled about halfway with people waiting to get into DL, and hardly anyone on the DCA side. Because they decided to open DL before 7AM as a surprise, we thought we'd pop in just to say "we were there," and collect our "I Was There" buttons and souvenir 60th Anniversary GuideMaps. We then went back to DCA for the RD, walking onto everything for about two hours. We started with RSR and then TSMM three times in a row without getting out of the vehicle. They had 60th Anniversary cupcake stands set up in a couple places at DCA, so we enjoyed a few of those, and walked into the Animation Academy and learned how to draw Pooh. After a noon lunch at Carthay Circle, we took our afternoon break and spent time at the GCH pool before our 6:30PM Napa Rose dinner. Friends from Long Beach joined us for dinner; they have SoCal APs and couldn't get into the parks during the summer blackout days. After dinner, they hung around for a while and we changed our clothes to go back to the 10:15 WoC, which we had FPs for from our CCR lunch. We didn't book the CCR WoC package, but they let us order off the WoC menu anyway, a great value at $39 for appetizer, entree, dessert AND WoC FP! We arrived about 20 minutes early and got spots right against the rail, dead center, one level up (and still felt some of the mist). It was perfect timing, since most everyone was at DL for the fireworks. There was a third WoC planned for that evening, which I heard later was quite jammed.

A great day!

 

[elaine amj]

Thanks for the report. i'm glad we didn't try for 3rd WOC. Crowds had gotten really thick in DL by late afternoon and we gave up and hopped over to DCA. It was awesome! The park was very empty and we had a great evening We also watched the 2nd WOC and it was so relaxed the CMs let us sit on the steps rather than making us stand.

I will say DL was awesome from 7am until about 10am. Between 7 and 8am we walked on to a bunch of rides - Matterhorn 2x, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, and Nemo (10 min wait). Once the morning ceremony was over before 10:30am, the park started feeling super congested.

 

[telecomguy]

Make sure you call Otto - he really did help a lot (although I kept wishing for a proper app).

Have fun! If nothing else, I'm sure the rain is gone now that I am home.

I've been using Otto, although I was standing in line for Dumbo so I decided to call and see what he said. The sign at the ride said 20 minutes, Otto said 5. Maybe there is a delay.

 

[telecomguy]

So, we're back in our room now, taking our midday break. We got to DL this morning around 7:30am. We were probably about 20-25 people deep in line for turnstyle. We got through fairly quick, we were to the right of the ECV entrance and they kept pulling people from our line over to there. I must say, the process of scanning the card and taking a picture is a huge difference than how easy it has been over the years to enter a WDW park. At any rate,I got us almost to the front for rope drop, although being the less experienced DL visitor,we went around the castle on the Matterhorn side and looped around to PPF, but the line was way too long for me to even consider it. So we rode:

• Snow White's Scary Adventures
• Pinocchio's Daring Journey
• Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (was going to ride it first, but they said it was closed)
• Alice in Wonderland
• Mad Tea Party
• Storybook Land Canal Boats (20 minute wait, we detoured to the F! fastpass area to see what color they were on (it was yellow, I wanted blue))
• it's a small world
• Dumbo (back to F! fastpass, finally got a blue one)
• Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (walked by PotC but it was closed)
• Pirates of the Caribbean (came back, it reopened and the line was short)

So, 11 rides in the morning. The FP return times didn't seem so bad when we walked by and looked at a couple of them. So, hopefully it stays this way.