Just got back today from a five night trip, our first ever during Halloween time. Trip report for anyone interested.
We left on Sunday from our place just south of Sacramento, about a 6 hour drive to Anaheim assuming no stops and no traffic. The last time we drove to DL was in 2012 when DS was 10 months old. After that trip, I said never again to driving, but the cost of flights (after two trips already this year where we flew) made me go back on my words. The drive was actually pretty good; left a little before 7 am, stopped after about 100 miles at Pea Soup Andersons for breakfast, stopped again just before the Grapevine to gas up, and then powered through to Anaheim, arriving at our hotel around 2 pm, so we made pretty good time! It helps that our son has evolved into a good traveler.
We stayed at the new Marriott Courtyard Theme Park entrance. I travel frequently for work and I'm a Marriott devotee, so points paid for our hotel this trip. The room was nice, two queens and a twin bunk, bathroom with two showers, tv which you could link to your Netflix account, mini fridge and microwave. After checking in and some quick unpacking, we headed into the parks, DL to be specific. We got our first ever annual passes (premium) in August, thankfully before the price increase, and it is nice to be able to go into the park late in the day without having to "waste" a whole day on a regular ticket. The park seemed fairly busy but not unbearable; I guess the day before (10/3) was gay days at DL and the place was packed; I read 56,000 at 9 pm that day, insane. Anyway, it seemed 10/4 was gay days at DCA so DL didn't seem too bad. We hit Astroblasters (our son's first ever ride when he was 10 months old and his favorite), BTMRR, and then had the Fantasmic Dinner package at RBT. Thought the food was ok, but BB is definitely better. After dinner, we did Jungle Cruise in the dark then headed over to watch the show around 8:20. Good thing we went when we did, the viewing areas were packed! When we did the BB dinner in May, we got to our area about 30 minutes before showtime and there was tons of space, so we were quite surprised to have to fight for spots; it seemed like they maybe oversold the dining packages? Anyway, the show was great, as usual, and we stayed at watched DF at the ROA for the first time and were presently surprised with the projections and how much of the fireworks we could see. We then called it a night.
Monday we headed into DCA and hit up TSMM which already had a 40 minute wait at 9 am, but we did it as it is our son's second favorite ride. We hit up Little mermaid and Goofy's Sky school, then used Fastpasses for Soarin and had lunch at Smokejumpers; meh. Like the theming a lot better than Taste Pilots though. Back to the hotel for a break, then into DL for the Happiest Haunts tour. I reviewed the tour earlier on this thread, so I won't rehash too much here; good tour, worth the money, our experience on HMH on this particular night sucked, would do the tour again but probably only every few years. On the way out after the tour MHP had begin and we looked around and saw what looked to be relatively thin crowds, getting our hopes up for our party on Wednesday.
Tuesday back to DCA, monster's inc and then to TSMM at the behest of the 4 yo, again with a 40 minute wait. But we love him. Then the in-laws arrived (mother, father and sister), they were joining us tue-thur and were coming mainly to see the 60th stuff and for MHP. Soarin again for the in laws who hadn't seen the upgraded film/projector yet, mermaid again for sister in law, Tower of Terror (MIL's favorite), lunch at the Pacific Wharf, and the 2:20 Aladdin show which my in laws had never seen. In laws then went to check in to their room at DLH while we used our RSR Fastpasses (we finally won a race! Seems like forever since our car won) and did some other car's land stuff. We had dinner reservations at Wine Country at in laws request, so wife, son and I sat up at the Alfresco terrace and had some drinks waiting for our checkin time, in laws joined us and we took in the Pixar play parade; the squirting water was a new addition for us! Dinner was ok, I've never been overly impressed with Wine Country's food. Then into DL to see the decorations and catch PTN and DF for the in laws. I was really worried that we wouldn't be able to get a good spot, and sure enough when we walked in around 7 the parade route was already packed. We hit Astroblasters again, then went to IASW. I posted what happened next on another thread, but long story short: after we came out of IASW, it was 5 minutes to showtime, the ride had stopped running, the queue was empty, and we were allowed to watch the parade from the queue! Best spots ever and no wait! We saw all of the floats right as they came out from backstage, and to top it off, after the last float passed they had us exit the queue and follow the parade! My in laws were thrilled. We ended up with a middling view of DF (by the lighthouse by storybook) heads on a swivel between IASW projections, Matterhorn effects, and fireworks, but PtN spot made it all worth it.
Wednesday brought DL again, starting with Minnie's breakfast. Confusion with the new AP structure and photo pass for premium APs, I could have sworn I read somewhere that existing premium APs got photo pass with theirs, we got the digital code from Minnie's but were told the next day at our breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen that the photo pass was only for sig and sig plus APs. We hit all the major rides in relatively short order; matterhorn, BTMRR, Splash, HMH (MUCH better experience this time) Mark Twain, jungle cruise. We then took a hotel break, grabbing SM:GG Fastpasses before we left. Came back for our MHP, arrived right at start of soundsational parade, what a mess that was! But got through and saw a surprisingly short line at little red wagon so had corndogs for dinner. Met up with the in laws and used our SM fast passes, then made way to toon town for the pre party. Waited entirely too long in the treat trail and roger rabbit ride lines, then headed out to do the rest of the party. It seemed more crowded than Monday's party and it was hotter too, not unbearable but we were glad we had decided not to do costumes. Did a few rides, did some treat trails; some were short (BTR) some were long (ROA), hit up the AP trail. In laws called it quits before the fireworks, we stayed for those, grabbing a spot in the hub about five minutes before show. Couldn't really see the Jack ball but had ok views of the actual fireworks. Our consensus was MHP was good to do once, but it felt too crowded for a hard ticket event and none of us really had interest in doing it again any time soon.
Thursday was a slower day as we were exhausted from three nonstop days in the parks. Breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen, then goodbye to the in laws, but not before MIL spoiled DS by getting him the Zurg ball shooting gun; thanks mom! Back to our hotel to rest and take advantage of the waterpark, which was pretty awesome. Into the parks around 4 for what ended up being our last day. We had originally planned to stay until Saturday, but after seeing the forecast for Friday (100+ degrees) we decided to cut our trip short. DCA for (what else) TSMM, swings, dinner at white water snacks (Carnitas Angus hamburger, yum!), downtown Disney, monorail into DL, autopia and one last Astroblasters ride, then some quick shopping and out of the park before the parade craziness.
Drove back today and glad we did as we saw it hit 105 in Anaheim! Feel bad for all those who had MHP tonight. Drive took longer than expected, mostly because of a fire at the very top of the grapevine which delayed us for about an hour, plus several pit stops and a dinner stop at Pea Soup Andersons. Took us about 8.5 hours to get home.
All in all, great trip. Looking forward to our next trip in December, but also anxious as we are going to be there from 12/27-1/1 along with the rest of humanity. Any tips or tricks? Trying to lower expectations as I know the parks will be insane. The only things I definitely want to do will be IASW and Jingle Cruise (which I plan to knock out with the holiday tour) WoC winter dreams, and Hyper SM and other new SW stuff. Anything else will be gravy and I know lines will be long and Fastpasses gone quickly. When do the parks reach capacity? Does DCA ever reach capacity or just DL? We are considering waiting in DL on 12/31 for whatever show they do, but we may be better off just watching it from our hotel room.
Wow, that turned out to be longer than I thought! Hope those of you who made it through found it somewhat entertaining or useful.
I also added it to the second post on page 1.
I've seen some videos from other years at MHP where they do projections for Halloween Screams on IASW. Does anyone know if that's still the case this year. Thinking about skipping PTN since we have two other nights to see it, but don't want to subject DD6 to the big crush to squeeze into the hub or MS.
