All Aboard!: What is your favorite way to lap the DLRR...

[Starcade]

I have noticed like myself there are quite a few DLRR fans that really enjoy The Grand Circle(ish) Tour. What is your favorite way to ride the DLRR? Example what station do you prefer to get on, and what station to you prefer to get off, how many laps or do you even complete a lap, who do you enjoy riding with etc.?

DLRR is always special to me because it allows for a calm ride around the park being able to take in all the sites while taking a break and enjoying a snack and time with my family. First it was my parents and grandmother as I rode a small child and now it's my wife and kids. I could easily spend several laps on it if my wife and kids wouldn't protest. We often get on at Main Street Station and do a lap and then continue past the MSS to whatever land we decide we want our first ride to involve. ( often decided by what FP we pick up.)

But my ideal ride is probably getting a churro at dusk and them loading at the NOS station and doing a lap or 3 then exiting in TL station once the the sun is completely down for a ride on Space Mtn. Watching the park go from day to night and seeing the lights begin to twinkle hearing all the music while getting a bit of rest for tired feet just all pairs so nicely. You get to see the ROA in the day and then again in the early evening. Something about it at my current age and place life just feels right.

We went a couple of months back with friends of ours and even though they grew up in SD and Northern Cali. and had been to the parks from time to time growing up, they had never ridden the DLRR?!? They thought it was just a way to get from place to place and had no idea about the Grand Canyon or Primeval Worlds nor did they realize the view behind ROA.

I am curious what are some of your ideal ways to enjoy the DLRR? Or do you even care for it at all?

[sbk1234]

LOVE the DLRR! I always like to get off after the Dinosaurs, so that usually means exiting at Main Street.

given the time and flexibility, I prefer a full lap. Even two if it’s in the afternoon and I’m hot and really need to sit down for a while.

back in the old days of tickets for attractions, we would always take two or three laps, since that gave us a longer ride for the ticket.

[Theme_Park_Insider]

My family's tradition was to take the last ride of the day on the DLRR. So I most fondly remember it at nighttime, starting and ending at Main Street Station. Kind of, one last look at Disneyland until we could come again. Then I'd sleep on the drive home and wake up at home...I felt like it brought me home.

[C. Andrew Nelson]

When I arrive at the park in the morning my first inclination is to board the Disneyland Railroad at the Main Street station and ride for one complete lap. But later in the day, especially in th evening, I do just like Starcade said and get on at the New Orleans Square station (such a charming section of the park) and do a couple of laps before getting off at Tomorrowland or back again in New Orleans Square. There are less crowds at the NOS station, more atmosphere, and the best scenery lies between NOS and Tomorrowland.

Sometimes I'll take the train to the Toon Town station if I'm interested in going to It's A Small World and I happen to be on the other side of the park. I use the DRR as transportation. I think I got into that habit because I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and used the SF cable cars to help get around town. Just as the majority of park guests board the DRR at Main Street, the majority of tourists in San Francisco try to board the cable cars at the end of the line turnarounds. I learned to go up a couple of blocks and hop on the cable car where there were no lines. I do the same with the Disneyland Railroad and hop on at NOS where there are less guests waiting to board...after I've done my touristy geek-out fanboy boarding at Main Street at the start of my day.

[HiddenMickey87]

We usually get on at the NOS station around 11-12. By then, we've done the major rides and we enjoy a relaxing grand circle (or two), with a Mint Julep.
In the evening, we enjoy another couple rides to enjoy the lights. Usually we get on at MSUSA.

[Right Down Broadway]

When I was a kid, it was always the first ride of the day for us, as Walt intended. We'd ride all the way around, the sights along the line heightening our anticipation for the day ahead.

Later, in the mid-1990s, when I had an AP, I was close with several of the train CMs (still am), and I'd go on Saturday evenings and ride several trips in the cab with them, talking trains the whole time.

[Eagleman]

When come in to Disneyland park.........
Love to go to the MAIN STREET STAION and start my excitement
by taking trip around "Walt Disney" Magic Kingdom

on the Disneyland Railroad.........

Love hearing the

conductor call out all the stops
and saying ALL BOARD !

Then I would enjoy my round trip and end it at
New Orleans Square Station

to start my adventure in the park !!

[Mike_M]

This was my favorite way to ride the grand circle tour.

[MRaymond]

I will usually do at least one full lap whenever I ride for the first time, then I'll exit closest to whatever attraction I want to ride next.

[Eagleman]

This was my favorite way to ride the grand circle tour.

That would be Nice to do..........

parlor car and named

Lilly Belle

after "Walt Disney's wife Lillian"
The best ,that I can do was the caboose car........But that was fun way, to make a trip !

[micromind]

I almost always start at Main Street and go one full lap, often 2.

This is a great intro to the park, I find it easy to get into the general spirit of the other stuff in DL.

[Spongeocto4]

Oddly enough, I think I have gotten on the train mostly at the New Orleans Square station the most, compared to Main Street. I don't know why.

Last time in 2015, I got on at the Tomorrowland Station and got off at NOS, rode Splash, then got back on the train at NOS, and rode it back to Tomorrowland.

One thing I would love to do, is to ride the train at nighttime. I think I've only done it once, when I was just young kid(TL to MS?).

Love hearing the conductor call out all the stops and saying ALL BOARD !

Agreed. The announcement gives me chills.

[Eagleman]

One thing I would love to do, is to ride the train at nighttime.

Train ride at night.........around the park does have a different type ""MAGIC""

[pure supercool]

I like to get on at New Orleans square and just ride that baby all the way back to where I got on. I don't take the train as transportation, I treat it as a ride so to speak.

[Barbaraann]

Back in 2005, when Disneyland was celebrating it's 50th Anniversary/Birthday, I made my very first trip ever to Disneyland. I was visiting with a friend, and her three kids, and we first entered the park about mid day. I was excited to be there, and we didn't just rush into Town Square, the way many first time guests might do. Instead we boarded the train, and did an entire trip around. I was excited that I got to ride the Ward Kimball train, due to his connection with Jiminy Cricket. Those first glimpses into the park, were amazing, and the look down Main Street from the train platform were moments I will never forget. So when people ask what was the very first ride you ever rode at Disneyland, "I reply the Disneyland Railroad".

[Right Down Broadway]

One thing I would love to do, is to ride the train at nighttime.

If riding the train is a magical experience, riding it at night makes it doubly so.

I remember waiting for the train at night at Main Street Station, peering down the darkened tracks to the left. Soon, a slight yellow glow would start to dance in silence on the shrubbery as the locomotive approached, getting brighter and brighter. Eventually, you could hear the engine softly chuffing, and the headlight would come into view, piercing the darkness.

As the engine rolled by, you could see things in the dark that you couldn't in broad daylight. The flickering of the fire playing on the rails beneath the engine; the soft glow from the gauge lamps in the cab. The occasional spark thrown out of the smokestack. Back in the good old days, when there were actual block signals along the line, the glow from red or green lamps was mesmerizing. And when the engine was stopped at Frontierland Station, with steam billowing around the engine, the cloudy mist itself would be painted by the nearby signal's colors.

Riding in the cars, your eyes would adjust to the darkness along the black jungles of Adventureland. Coming through the first tunnel into the blazing illumination of New Orleans Square was a party for the eyes. Then, back into tunnels and an even darker "true backwoods." The glittering bauble of Small World. Darkness. Glowing Tomorrowland. A trip to the Grand Canyon and Primeval World. More darkness, before arriving at Main Street Station, and a "newly electrified" Town Square.

No doubt about it, a nighttime ride on the Disneyland Railroad is an experience not to be missed.

[Mr Wiggins]

^ That's poetry. Great post!

[Sun Bonnet]

I don't think I have ever taken the train at night. Maybe as a child. I will make sure to do so next time. I usually board at NOS though we've boarded at every station and used it as transportation once we've made it through the Grand Canyon and Primeval World.

[Eagleman]

"Walt Disney's" passion for trains, help to inspire which also led to the creation of Disneyland,
And having that Journey around a very Magical Kingdom !
The Grand Circle Tour

[bayouguy]

When my family went on the one a year summer visit to Disneyland, we always went on the DLRR as our first attraction. It was always dad’s choice since me and my sister would call most of the choices. Mom made a few choices.
Later on, when I went with friends, I would suggest the DLRR, but usually the group I was with would nix the idea.
Still later, when I took my nephews to Disneyland, they would want to get on the train to see the dinosaurs.
Currently, my daughter likes to climb aboard the train because she likes it. And, as she told me once, that this was grandpa’s favorite ride and he always chose the train as the first ride to get on.