Turning 28 at DLR! A 6/12 solo/Dismeet PTR! -- On hold until 2012; 3/14

[DisneyFirefly]

Hello!

I'm Dana, I'm 26, and a WDW vet (and a former CM), but I've never had the opportunity to go to DLR. I've looked into it in the past, but never decided to go. Then I met a lovely person here on the Dis known as franandaj (hitherto known as Alison or Ali) who lives near there and now I'm going to DLR for my birthday next year!

I'm the one in the white shirt This was taken on my trip to WDW last month, by my lovely Dis friend PrincessInOz, who I spent three days with at WDW

So, this is the plan for right now.

Where and When: I'll be departing Chicago on May 31 and coming home on June 4. My birthday's June 3. I'll be staying with franandaj and her DP in their villa at the Grand Californian I was looking at a hotel on my own and she basically told me not to worry about it. I really have no clue what the itinerary is going to be, but she said something about a couple of surprises, but I haven't a clue what they are.

Why: As I mentioned, my birthday is June 3, so I'll be there for my birthday. I spent my 20th and 24th birthdays at Magic Kingdom at WDW (both as a CM), so this should be fun. This will be a quasi-solo, quasi-Dismeet trip, much like the one I just came home from. Alison and I have discussed the fact that I move much quicker than she and her DP do, and I'm all right with that, as are they. I have absolutely no problem hanging out in the park by myself, especially since I've never been to this one and won't have anyone to laugh at me if I get lost

A little about me: As I said, I'm 26 and a former WDW CM. I currently have not one, not two, but FOUR Disney trips planned within the next two years. I have this one, a trip with my best friend and her husband to WDW in 11/11, and a trip to WDW with two friends in 12/11. Those two WDW trips will be in a combined PTR over on that part of the Dis. My family is also planning a reunion in WDW in November 2012. I love Disney and plan to move back to work for them. I also am currently considering starting a home based travel agency, since I help people plan WDW trips all the time here at home. At the moment, though, I work as a night shift nurse's aide at an assisted living facility. I'm hoping to switch to days in January, but that will depend on if there's a position open. The reason I took nights was because of the way our shifts work (rotating 12 hour shifts) and the fact that if I'd enrolled at a traditional on-campus university to finish my degree (at the time, I was going to go into nursing), I wouldn't be able to attend classes if I worked day shift. I'm instead going to do an online program for a business degree.

Now, I have no clue what goes into planning a trip to DLR. I'm used to planning for WDW, and I know that it's a little different when you're going to California So, yeah, any tips or suggestions would be awesome

Yay!


Links

Airline, airport, airfare confusion
Dining ideas
Ticketing options and birthday chatter
Dining chatter
Possibly on hold or canceled...
On hold until my 28th birthday

 

[PrincessInOz]

Just in case anyone missed it.....

The HAG is the one on the LEFT! (Did I get it the RIGHT way round??)

Marking my spot.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Just in case anyone missed it.....

The HAG is the one on the LEFT! (Did I get it the RIGHT way round??)

Marking my spot.

You are such a dork



Glad you're here!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Just doing my Dis-board Civic duty....

 

[DisneyFirefly]

 

[therussells08]

I've never been to DLR or the DLR boards, but I'm here!

 

[franandaj]

Yay for the DLR TR!

So here's a few things I'd like to add.....

Here's what our room will look like:

You can either sleep here:

or here:

This will be your bathroom:

But I might let you use my jacuzzi tub:

This is my bedroom:

And hopefully this will be our view from the room:

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yay for the DLR TR!

So here's a few things I'd like to add.....

Here's what our room will look like:

You can either sleep here:

or here:

This will be your bathroom:

But I might let you use my jacuzzi tub:

This is my bedroom:

And hopefully this will be our view from the room:

Alison - I'm NOT sure if I expressed myself as clearly as Firefly did in your Cheating PTR.....But.......I so hate you at the moment!!

That sure is a nice apartment and VIEW!!!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I've never been to DLR or the DLR boards, but I'm here!

Yay! I've poked at the DLR boards before when I was looking at taking this trip, but I never really hung out here much, since I didn't have any information or a need of any at the time

Yay for the DLR TR!

So here's a few things I'd like to add.....

Here's what our room will look like:

That room is beautiful! I can't wait to go!

Alison - I'm NOT sure if I expressed myself as clearly as Firefly did in your Cheating PTR.....But.......I so hate you at the moment!!

That sure is a nice apartment and VIEW!!!

I know, right?! You should try and come up

 

[DisneyFirefly]

All righty, so, I don't have much to update with at the moment, but I'm trying to figure out my flight so I know what to look for. I almost exclusively fly Southwest, which flies out of Midway Airport here in Chicago. They fly into LAX, SNA, Burbank, and a few other airports, but I don't know which would be the best option.

I'm leaning toward LAX, but I really don't know what would be best. I'm also not sure how to get from the airport to the Grand Californian Any suggestions? I've never been to California at all.

 

[franandaj]

All righty, so, I don't have much to update with at the moment, but I'm trying to figure out my flight so I know what to look for. I almost exclusively fly Southwest, which flies out of Midway Airport here in Chicago. They fly into LAX, SNA, Burbank, and a few other airports, but I don't know which would be the best option.

I'm leaning toward LAX, but I really don't know what would be best. I'm also not sure how to get from the airport to the Grand Californian Any suggestions? I've never been to California at all.

I will be happy to pick you up at the airport. SNA is preferred, LAX is OK, but sucky, Burbank could be a nightmare, it's at least an hour away in good traffic!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I will be happy to pick you up at the airport. SNA is preferred, LAX is OK, but sucky, Burbank could be a nightmare, it's at least an hour away in good traffic!

Works for me I looked at airfare to LAX and SNA on Southwest out of Midway and they're both all right at the moment. I can't get the exact dates yet, though. And I'm sure I could find something cheaper if I fly out of O'Hare.

 

[franandaj]

Also to add to the last post, if you went to SNA, I could stop by the hotel on the way back (if you came in earlier than Fran was ready to go out there) we could drop off luggage with Bell Services, check in (get a good room) and let you start running around while I went back and dealt with the chaos at home, we would have room keys, and Fran and I could come back in our own time and get into the room once she is ready, which takes time!

With LAX there would be some serious backtracking, and it is a huge airport. I'm guessing that you would be coming in earlier than we might be ready to go out to the parks so in this instance we'd have to figure out what to do, take a shuttle or see if I could get there....

Let me know the options and we can work it out....

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Also to add to the last post, if you went to SNA, I could stop by the hotel on the way back (if you came in earlier than Fran was ready to go out there) we could drop off luggage with Bell Services, check in (get a good room) and let you start running around while I went back and dealt with the chaos at home, we would have room keys, and Fran and I could come back in our own time and get into the room once she is ready, which takes time!

With LAX there would be some serious backtracking, and it is a huge airport. I'm guessing that you would be coming in earlier than we might be ready to go out to the parks so in this instance we'd have to figure out what to do, take a shuttle or see if I could get there....

Let me know the options and we can work it out....

SNA works for me I prefer earlier flights, so I'm leaning toward one of those. If you'd like to do that, I don't mind. I'm pretty flexible. O'Hare's pretty huge as well, so I understand about big airports. If my flight gets in too early for you guys (the earliest I saw from O'Hare was landing around 10am and from Midway around 8:30, I think), then I can always take a cab or something. We'll figure it out

 

[stephielela]

I love SNA! When my BFF and I were planning our SoCal trip, we were going to fly SW there. I flew out of there to go back to college when we went to FLR for my 22nd Bday, it's cute, and smallish, which is nice!

P.S. Subbing!

 

[franandaj]

SNA works for me I prefer earlier flights, so I'm leaning toward one of those. If you'd like to do that, I don't mind. I'm pretty flexible. O'Hare's pretty huge as well, so I understand about big airports. If my flight gets in too early for you guys (the earliest I saw from O'Hare was landing around 10am and from Midway around 8:30, I think), then I can always take a cab or something. We'll figure it out

OK, so we have our first plans! You'll fly in at some point earlier than I'd normally like to get up. I'll pick you up at John Wayne Airport, and we'll stop at VGC on our way back. I'll have my luggage packed and in the car (for the most part), we can check our bags with Bell Services, check into the hotel and I'll let you run around while I go back home and get the rest of things squared away.

That will work out nicely because the earlier we check in, the better chance we have of getting of room with a good view. If one will come available during the day and we're not scheduled to get it, it's more possible to switch our room before everyone else has checked in.

So we should plan on seeing WoC either Thursday or Friday night. Guests of the GCH/VGC can get into DCA at 9AM to get FPs for WoC in advance of regular guests. We will hopefully be able to see it from our room, but only the water show portion. The rooms are not at the right angle to see the water projections. Fran says she'll skip the show (she's not that impressed), but I'd like to see if from a non HA viewing area. We've seen it twice from the viewing area, once in the HA section and once in the VIP section. I'd like to see if we can get right up on the railing, it's a lot of waiting, but still.

We should make a plan to see Fantasmic! too. They usually run it twice per night. We should go to the 2nd showing. It's very different from WDW's there is no designated viewing area. People start camping out on the Rivers of America at around 5PM for the first show at like 8:30 or 9:30, so it's better to see the second show. You just hover around as the crowds are exiting from the first and then zoom in to get a spot once they've cleared, you don't have to wait nearly as long.

Wednesday night we may have a possible obstructed view of the show with no waiting...but we'll have to see about that.

Yay! Planning! You'll have to tell me where you want to eat at as well. Check out the thread called My Disneyland Dining Reviews, start around page 88. That's the DLR Food Porn thread, the author is JeffGoldblum. I'll add some pics to it and bring it back to the top of the thread. No one has posted there for a while. I'll definitely do some rides with you too. When you were making your top 10 rides for WDW, I made a similar list, but first I had to make my Top 10 DLR rides because they are different and rides that I like at DLR, I pretty much don't like at WDW because I like the DLR ones better except for ToT, that I like WDW's better....

Anyways Yay for planning!

 

[PrincessInOz]

This airport confusion is turning out very well!!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I love SNA! When my BFF and I were planning our SoCal trip, we were going to fly SW there. I flew out of there to go back to college when we went to FLR for my 22nd Bday, it's cute, and smallish, which is nice!

P.S. Subbing!

That sounds good, then! I've never been to California at all, even on a layover Thanks for joining in!

OK, so we have our first plans! You'll fly in at some point earlier than I'd normally like to get up. I'll pick you up at John Wayne Airport, and we'll stop at VGC on our way back. I'll have my luggage packed and in the car (for the most part), we can check our bags with Bell Services, check into the hotel and I'll let you run around while I go back home and get the rest of things squared away.

That will work out nicely because the earlier we check in, the better chance we have of getting of room with a good view. If one will come available during the day and we're not scheduled to get it, it's more possible to switch our room before everyone else has checked in.

So we should plan on seeing WoC either Thursday or Friday night. Guests of the GCH/VGC can get into DCA at 9AM to get FPs for WoC in advance of regular guests. We will hopefully be able to see it from our room, but only the water show portion. The rooms are not at the right angle to see the water projections. Fran says she'll skip the show (she's not that impressed), but I'd like to see if from a non HA viewing area. We've seen it twice from the viewing area, once in the HA section and once in the VIP section. I'd like to see if we can get right up on the railing, it's a lot of waiting, but still.

We should make a plan to see Fantasmic! too. They usually run it twice per night. We should go to the 2nd showing. It's very different from WDW's there is no designated viewing area. People start camping out on the Rivers of America at around 5PM for the first show at like 8:30 or 9:30, so it's better to see the second show. You just hover around as the crowds are exiting from the first and then zoom in to get a spot once they've cleared, you don't have to wait nearly as long.

Wednesday night we may have a possible obstructed view of the show with no waiting...but we'll have to see about that.

Yay! Planning! You'll have to tell me where you want to eat at as well. Check out the thread called My Disneyland Dining Reviews, start around page 88. That's the DLR Food Porn thread, the author is JeffGoldblum. I'll add some pics to it and bring it back to the top of the thread. No one has posted there for a while. I'll definitely do some rides with you too. When you were making your top 10 rides for WDW, I made a similar list, but first I had to make my Top 10 DLR rides because they are different and rides that I like at DLR, I pretty much don't like at WDW because I like the DLR ones better except for ToT, that I like WDW's better....

Anyways Yay for planning!

Okay, most of that I'll have to look up this weekend I'm only on this computer fairly briefly (I'm supposed to be getting a quote for Comcast internet, since we're thinking of switching) and I'm buying a new laptop on Friday after work, so I'll be around more often when I'm at home

This airport confusion is turning out very well!!

Indeed!

 

[franandaj]

Okay, most of that I'll have to look up this weekend I'm only on this computer fairly briefly (I'm supposed to be getting a quote for Comcast internet, since we're thinking of switching) and I'm buying a new laptop on Friday after work, so I'll be around more often when I'm at home

Yay for a new computer...it's been lonely with you working days and Sharon working period! When you're thinking about places to eat, there aren't a lot of choices like at WDW. There are plenty of restaurants, and lots of good ones, but it's a lot more casual you can make reservations usually a couple days out. The exception is Blue Bayou. That is a place you eat at knowing that you will pay an arm and a leg for the ambiance. I've heard the food has gotten better, but still you'll run about $40+ per person.

There are five character meals. Goofy's Kitchen at DLH, Storyteller's at GCH, something at PP Hotel with Lilo & Stitch, Ariel's Grotto at lunch in DCA and Minnie's Breakfast at the Plaza Inn in DL. Most of the restaurants in DL are CS, except for BB, Cafe Orleans and Carnation Cafe. In DCA there's Ariel's and Wine Country Trattoria, but those only serve Dinner for WoC packages. The rest of the TS restaurants are in the hotels or DTD.

We plan on cooking in the room Tuesday and Thursday nights because Fran will be beat from having fun on Wednesday! You are welcome to join us, if you like what we're having! Do you like lasagna? If so I promise I'll make it without mushrooms!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I too am hoping that you get connected real soon.

Sorry to hijack but I'm hoping frananaj can help out here. I've been looking at the best way to get a fastpass ticket for World of Colour and am wondering where the best viewing location is. I was also wondering if I should think about booking a dinner pre-fixe (probably Ariel's Grotto because the menu seems to contain items that would suit DH vegetarianism and DS tastes c.f. the Trattoria) to get a Preferred Seating. The alternative was to order a picnic plate on-line.

Bear in mind that we'll be there in January and would probably prefer to be inside for a warm meal

TIA.