[COH#1fan]

At first, it looked hopeless getting in and ensuring my position as the head Fast Pass holder for TSM, what with the turnstile computers being down and everybody getting diverted into one line, waiting what seems to be forever...


... but once we managed to get inside the park, Pixar Place was the first area we headed to. I'll admit it, I don't miss the Mickey Avenue soundstages (even thought I've made my peace with Sorcerer Mickey), and I guess this will be a good substitute as any. I just wonder what else they weill do with Pixar Place.


Enough from me, here is what the outside of the ride looks like. My sister and I got our Fast Passes already, but the standby wait was only 20 minutes. This was good enough for us, and personally, I would prefer the standby line as it has lots of eye candy. We even found a Hidden Mickey or two.


Now here is where I got my T-shirts mixed up. I thought the shirt that cost $40 was the SWW with Stormtrooper Donald. Turns out it was the Mr. Potato Head TSM shirt. Either way, it's still way too expensive for just a shirt.


Now this had me laughing. This just proves my theory that behind every popular toy there is a mass media marketing scheme, which was the entire premise of Toy Story 2. Too bad it's virtual cereal.

"Enough of the cereal story, SP. What did you think of the ride itself?" Oh, I'll tell you what I thought about the ride. It was one of the most funnest interactive rides I've ever experienced. I'm not ashamed to admit that it blows Universal's Spider-Man right out of the water. In fact, I would not be surprised if spies for Universal rode TSM and decided, "Hey, let's upgrade our Spider-Man ride to make it more interactive."

Unfortunately, my sister beat me twice in the two games that we rode.

I will have more "Photo-Vision" reports as they become available.

[darthstich]

Agree with everything you said there. It Really Blows Spidey to "itsy-bitsy" bits

[QuickGold]

I really think Disney hit the ball out of the park with TSMM. Even after riding it the 20-30 times that I have, it's still fun and if the lines weren't so god awful, I would ride a lot more times.

[queenofthehouse]

Is it best to get there early?
I have to say the first bottle neck photo worries me. Is usually that crowded?

[QuickGold]

Yes, you really ought to ride TSM first or get a FASTPASS right at park opening

[HDLady]

queenofthehouse said:

Is it best to get there early?
I have to say the first bottle neck photo worries me. Is usually that crowded?

Rope drop is a bit insane but the couple of times I've been there for it since TSM opened it was controlled chaos and worth getting to ride TSM a couple of times without waiting in line for an hour.

Just a reminder, though, Maureen. If you use Fastpass, you miss a good portion of the queue (including Mr. Potato Head). If you get there at rope drop you can pretty much walk on using standby (at least if it's not an EMH day). I suggest sending Lowell (since he's young and can probably sprint pretty fast) to the Fastpass line at rope drop. You can walk at a less frenetic pace to the TSM area and meet up with Lowell once he gets the Fastpasses. This way, you can ride once on standby to see the entire wait queue and then again using Fastpass.

[COH#1fan]

That's exactly what happened to me, HD. We got our fast passes, and noticed that the standby queue was relatively short, so we were able to ride it two times. The thing with the standby queue though is that people kept stopping to take pictures. :roll:

[HDLady]

Snuggie said:

That's exactly what happened to me, HD. We got our fast passes, and noticed that the standby queue was relatively short, so we were able to ride it two times. The thing with the standby queue though is that people kept stopping to take pictures. :roll:

For the most part, because I'm a long time WDW fan, I generally won't stand in line for any ride more than maybe 20 or 30 minutes. At this point, until the novelty wears off and (hopefully) the lines slow down at TSM, getting there at rope drop and doing a Fastpass/standby combo is pretty much the only way to get in a couple of fairly painless rides.

The photo thing is a bit annoying but I can understand because there are so many cool things in that queue! While I'm not a big photo taker, every time I go in there, I see something else to gawk at!

[queenofthehouse]

Snuggie said:

people kept stopping to take pictures. :roll:

That would be me, but I usually let people go so that I'm not holding anyone up. But Lowell does scold me for stopping.

But what's the deal with the rope drop? Does this area of the park open later then the main gate tme? If not, is the rope drop to add drama? Seems silly to me to have all those people standing around. If you were there early then you already waited to get in the main gate.

[HDLady]

They do a "phased entry". They allow guests past the bag check and the ticket turnstiles. You can walk part way down Hollywood Blvd and then they restrain you from going any further with a rope before the official time the gates open. They then do the famous "rope drop" and the sprint to the ride of chioce begins. Currently I would estimate maybe 75% of the crowd zooms to TSM. I believe the reasoning is that there would be a MAJOR bottleneck if they didn't allow anyone past the ticket entry turnstiles until the opening time so they let you through the turnstiles into to the park before opening but not onto any attractiions. BTW, there is a bit of entertainment and fanfare as opening time and countdown proceedes.