PTR: Feeling the Force at Disneyland 25 Hours to Go UPDATED 11/12

My husband and I are huge Disney Park fans and we have been to both of the American parks multiple times. We know Disney World much better than Disneyland and this will truly be our 2nd trip together to Disneyland. In the middle of our planning so much stuff has been announced like Seasons of the Force and the closures for Disneyland to make way for Star Wars Land. I should explain that I am a MASSIVE Star Wars fan while the Husband is a moderate Star Wars fan. We both love Disney I even do a Disney films podcast. Oh we are also a Disney couple meeting each other, getting engaged and got married at WDW.

So let me introduce you to us!

Hi I am Teresa I am the female fun side of this duo! I am 30 years old and I have been to Disneyland a total of 4 times. My first time at Disneyland was in May of 2013. After that I was there as a tag along with my Husband for a business trip in October 2013 then again in April 2014 as press for a Disney Store press event then the last time was in April 2015 for Star Wars Celebration.


from my first trip to DL and getting to meet the amazing Lightning McQueen (we LOVE cars)

My park favorites:
*snack: mickey pretzel
*thing to do non rides: meet and greets with characters
*ride at DL: Alice in Wonderland Caterpillars
*ride at DCA: Radiator Springs Racers
*place to eat: Carnation Cafe

This is my Husband Greg or audipolo on the boards. He is 32 almost 33! He has been to Disneyland 2 or 3 times total. He is a WDW fan the most but I am slowly trying to get him to see the awesomeness that is Disneyland or at least get him to appreciate it and enjoy when we are there. He likes the massiveness of WDW. He is a big parks guy and loves the history of the parks and he really loves to explore park cuisine.



His park favorites:
*snack: popcorn and a coke
*thing to do non rides: park photography
*ride at DL: space mountain
*ride at DCA: California Screamin'
*place to eat: undetermined yet

So here are are our quick trip details.

Dates: November 13th to 17th
4 day non park hopper tickets
Staying at the Sheraton Garden Grove

Well I am off to work I will write more about our plans later hope you enjoy this and follow along!

~Teresa

Welcome back!

The hours and entertainment schedule is now live and I am trying to figure out our plans. We have the following ADRs based off of what I thought our plans could be. Here is what I know so far.

Friday the 13th:

• Arrive in LAX at 7:04pm

Saturday the 14th: Original Plans DCA Day

• Chip n Dale Breakfast Storytellers Cafe 9:35am

Sunday the 15th: Original Plans DL Day 1

• Big Thunder Ranch Barbecue 7pm

Monday the 16th: Seasons of the Force Opening Day (DL Day 2)

Tuesday the 17th: Play it by ear

After seeing the times including MM/EMH, entertainment and when Fantasmic is showing I think I am going to have to change plans up. Next thing we need to I think is come up with a game plan of our must dos.

What are your must dos at DL?

This is our 2nd time there as a couple and my Husband's 3rd trip ever and my 5th. There is still plenty I have not ever experienced.

What do you recommend for newbies?

We did some talking and last night we came up with a list of must do's See below the things we really want to see at both DL and DCA.

Disney California Adventure

As I said before we are HUGE Cars fans so all of cars land is a priority but here is the breakdown

• Radiator Springs Racers as many times as we can
• Mater's Junkyard Jamboree
• Cars meet n greets
• Dusk Sha Boom/Neon experience in cars land
• DJs dance party
• Eating at the Cones
• Tower of Terror
• California Screamin'
• Animation Academy
• Toy Story
• World of Color
• Disney Viva Navidad
• Buena Vista Street Holiday Tree Lighting

We are planning two DCA days one of which is on a Tuesday the day we are leaving so we are going to rope drop that day. A few things I have been wondering is how long are fast passes available for when it comes to RSR? Also how do fastpasses for World of Color work and when is the best time to go and try to get those?

Disneyland

• Monorail- this may seem trivial but we have never ridden the DL monorail
• Paint the Night
• Fantasmic
• Mad Tea Party
• Main street Cinema
• great moments with mr lincoln
• Alice In wonderland
• Mad Tea party
• Christmas Parade
• Disneyland Forever Fireworks
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (which goes into refurb on monday the 16th)
• Dumbo
• Davy crockett canoes
• Mark Twain Riverboat
• Haunted Mansion
• Pooh
• IASW (does this have a christmas overlay)
• Train
• Pirates
• Tom Sawyer Island
• Tarzan's treehouse
• Indiana Jones
• Jungle Cruise
• Toontown specifically for donald's boat and chip n dales treehouse

Space Mountain we will do on Monday when Seasons of the Force starts. We have done quite a few things like all the fantasyland dark rides and stuff so this list is the big stuff we want to do again as well as the things we have never done.

More to come later. I will take any fastpass tips and tricks you guys have!

Here are our current plans:

We arrive in LAX at 7:04 on Friday Nov. 13th DL park is open until midnight so we may go ahead and go to the park just for a short time

Saturday Nov. 14th

DCA Day 1
DCA Hours: 9am to 11pm

*ADR at Storytellers for Chip n Dale Breakfast 9:35am

planning to see world of color this day

Sunday Nov. 15th

Disneyland Day 1
DL Hours: 9am to 12am

*ADR at Big Thunder Ranch BBQ

Planning to see fantasmic this day

Monday Nov. 16th

Disneyland Day 2
DL Hours: 9am to 10pm

First day of seasons of the force!

Hyperspace mountain podcast listener meet up for listeners of Skywalking Through Neverland, Disney Vault Talk and Fangirls Going Rogue (podcasts i host we are doing a meet up) 5:15pm

Planning to see Paint the Night and Disneyland Forever Fireworks this day

Doing all the seasons of the force stuff this day

Tuesday Nov. 17th

DCA Day 2
DCA Hours: 9am to 8pm

our last day so we are gonna get up early and rope drop DCA to get as much time in as we can

Meet super shuttle at 3:45pm

Leave

How does this look to you guys?

I'm following!
I am not the one to answer your fast pass questions, DH and tend to play it by ear and just TRY and take it easy. RSR fast passes will run out fast. you will want to get in line for them as soon as the park opens. If you don't mind riding separate from DH you can get more rides in if you do the single rider line. lots of times you end up in the same car.
The other thing I recommend is to upgrade your daily passes to park hoppers. There are lots of times when DL gets busy we hop on over to DCA or the other way around. Plus DCA closes before DL so it is nice to hop over for a couple more hours and some ice cream

aroseinwintr said:

I'm following!
I am not the one to answer your fast pass questions, DH and tend to play it by ear and just TRY and take it easy. RSR fast passes will run out fast. you will want to get in line for them as soon as the park opens. If you don't mind riding separate from DH you can get more rides in if you do the single rider line. lots of times you end up in the same car.
The other thing I recommend is to upgrade your daily passes to park hoppers. There are lots of times when DL gets busy we hop on over to DCA or the other way around. Plus DCA closes before DL so it is nice to hop over for a couple more hours and some ice cream

Click to expand...

I had forgotten about single rider so thanks for the reminder! I am looking at park hoppers but sometimes I feel like since I have a hopper I tend to try and use that feature and I feel like if i don't have it I can just focus on one park and not feel pressured to use that hopper. However a hopper would be good since DL stays open longer...decisions decisions thanks for following!

So I need to make a list of the characters that I want to get at the parks. Character meet and greets are kinds my favorite thing in the park.

Here is my list and then I will need to go figure out where to find them:

Disneyland 60th outfits

• Mickey
• Minnie
• Donald
• Pluto
• Goofy
• Daisy

Do characters meet and greet in christmas outfits in november?

• Fairy Godmother
• Genie
• Aladdin
• Jasmine
• Jack Skellington
• Sally
• Eeyore
• Tigger
• Pooh
• Ariel
• Peter Pan
• Captain Hook
• Frollo
• Evil Queen
• Thor
• Captain America
• Spiderman
• Alice
• Queen of Hearts
• Mad Hatter

Toon Town Versions of Characters

• Pluto
• Goofy
• Minnie
• Mickey in all his outfits (steamboat willie, band leader)

California Adventure

• Doc McStuffins
• Olaf
• Anna
• Elsa
• Sulley
• Flik
• Lightning McQueen
• Mater
• Red
• Buzz
• Woody
• Dug
• Oswald

From here any rare characters that come out I would love to get as well. Maybe you guys know of some?

We are 5 days away!!! There has been a new twist there are now two world of colors! The normal one and the Christmas one. Now I need to figure out how fast passes work and how to see both!

If anyone knows your help would be appreciated!

All our plans are the same except for Sunday we were bought park hoppers by my friend that is going with us so it seems we will now have more flexibility Sunday.

We will still need to see fantasmic that day since its our only day to do it.

I can't wait a bigger update soon!

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE:

COUNTDOWN: 4 days 8 Hours

I have made a few changes to our plans so this is what it looks like.

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 13th:
Leave Austin 5:40pm
Arrive LAX 7:04pm

Ride a super shuttle to our hotel
Arrive at Sheraton Garden Grove fingers crossed by 830pm-9pm

Get situated in the the room then uber or take hotel shuttle to Downtown Disney for dinner and walking around.

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 14th:
Wake up early enough to get the hotel shuttle or an uber/taxi to the Grand Californian Hotel for Chip n Dale's Critter Breakfast. I moved this reservation from 9:35am to 9:05am so that we can get into DCA earlier.

Finish breakfast and head over to DCA

Grab whatever fastpass we can for RSR, check out the line and the single rider line to see about riding RSR. If lines are too long head on over to GRR to get fastpasses for both WOC shows.

From here it will just be winging it. Riding rides and meeting characters. I am thinking about waiting until mid day to go and try to see Anna/Elsa and Olaf. Thoughts on this since there are no fast passes for them?

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 15th:
Meet my friend at the ticket area to get our tickets for that day that she bought us converted to park hoppers. Will probably try to meet her before park opening or right at park opening. We might also just talk to her about not park hopping and just going straight DL.

This is going to be a day of adventures with no real plans. We might go to DCA first and then we for sure will be at DL this day just not sure at what time. I would like to be there by 3:30pm to catch the Christmas Parade.

When we get to DL we will go get Fastpasses for F!

We will be eating at Big Th.under Ranch BBQ at 7pm and then we will see F! at what ever showing we get. In between all of this we will just be doing whatever and for sure meeting disney characters and taking lots of pictures.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 16th: Season of the Force Opening Day
We will be getting to the park maybe an hour before rope drop this day and meeting friends

Our primary goal this day is all Season of the Force Stuff

Hyperspace mountain, launch bay, new jedi training show, new scenes on star tours and anything else there is. I also plan on meeting spider man since he will be there.

No reservations this day as we don't know when we will have time to eat but the current plan is to eat at the hungry bear.

I am also planning on this being the day we see Paint the night and Disneyland Forever. I may try and work in Paint the night on Sunday.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 17th:
We were originally planning on this day to get up early pack our stuff have the front desk hang on to it and then hit the parks at rope drop. We will see what happens on this day and we had planned to go back to DCA this day but it really depends on what we get done. We may head to DL this day if we don't get everything done we wanted to including character pictures.

Leave to head home via super shuttle around 3:45-4pm

I will take any and all suggestions you guys have and any tips you may have to make this easier.

Well I have some catching up to do on your TR's but it sounds like this one is going to be a blast! I'm jealous that you guys are going to be out for the beginning of SoTF and I'm sure meeting up with Richard and Sarah should be a ton of fun as well! My daughter and I were planning on hitting SWW this year but since that's been canceled I don't see a Disney trip in the plans for next year I'll have to live vicariously through everyone else.

Based on your plans I have a few thoughts for you:

I've been to DL a few times to run Disney races so I'm somewhat accustomed to the short weekend trip like you guys are doing. I can say that the Park Hopper option really is handy when it comes to scheduling dinners, show times, and meet and greets for a shorter trip like this. It gives you a lot more flexibility when you can grab a pic with Newsie Mickey and then hop on over to DL and grab a photo with Pooh. Many of the characters did have holiday outfits when we went this time last year so that will be fun for you as well.

The single rider option is a godsend in most situations. My wife and I used it all the time when we went for the Avengers race this time last year and we were able to ride RSR five times in one day just using the single rider line. The wait time was never over 25 minutes the entire weekend. I can't guarantee it will be the same this year but you never know.

As for the World of Color fastpass, have you thought about doing one of the dining options with a guaranteed spot at one of the shows? It might be a bit late at this point but if you can't get a fastpass its worth a try. The Christmas version of WoC is amazing and can't be missed!

Be sure to post some photos when you get back. I'll be reading and listening to see how it went.

TigerTown said:

Well I have some catching up to do on your TR's but it sounds like this one is going to be a blast! I'm jealous that you guys are going to be out for the beginning of SoTF and I'm sure meeting up with Richard and Sarah should be a ton of fun as well! My daughter and I were planning on hitting SWW this year but since that's been canceled I don't see a Disney trip in the plans for next year I'll have to live vicariously through everyone else.

Based on your plans I have a few thoughts for you:

I've been to DL a few times to run Disney races so I'm somewhat accustomed to the short weekend trip like you guys are doing. I can say that the Park Hopper option really is handy when it comes to scheduling dinners, show times, and meet and greets for a shorter trip like this. It gives you a lot more flexibility when you can grab a pic with Newsie Mickey and then hop on over to DL and grab a photo with Pooh. Many of the characters did have holiday outfits when we went this time last year so that will be fun for you as well.

The single rider option is a godsend in most situations. My wife and I used it all the time when we went for the Avengers race this time last year and we were able to ride RSR five times in one day just using the single rider line. The wait time was never over 25 minutes the entire weekend. I can't guarantee it will be the same this year but you never know.

As for the World of Color fastpass, have you thought about doing one of the dining options with a guaranteed spot at one of the shows? It might be a bit late at this point but if you can't get a fastpass its worth a try. The Christmas version of WoC is amazing and can't be missed!

Be sure to post some photos when you get back. I'll be reading and listening to see how it went.

Click to expand...

We aren't doing hoppers because we really want to devote the time we have to the park we are in.

I can't wait to see Sarah and Richard and I'm just gonna try to avoid the races and just enjoy this short trip.

Thanks for the tips. You can still go to WDW there is gonna be a ton of amazing Star Wars stuff going on

Icecoldpenguin said:

...You can still go to WDW there is gonna be a ton of amazing Star Wars stuff going on

Click to expand...

My mom is in Sarasota and I'm such a DisNerd that I'm sure we'll pop in for a day or two It just won't be the same without SWW. Last year was our first SSW trip in a while and we had a blast hanging out with Tricia, Steve, and Jimmy Mac for the afternoon. I was really looking forward to doing it again this year.

TigerTown said:

My mom is in Sarasota and I'm such a DisNerd that I'm sure we'll pop in for a day or two It just won't be the same without SWW. Last year was our first SSW trip in a while and we had a blast hanging out with Tricia, Steve, and Jimmy Mac for the afternoon. I was really looking forward to doing it again this year.

Click to expand...

Well stay tuned there may still be a meet up for this coming year

Well folks we are now only

25 Hours Away

It is rapidly approaching and I am trying to figure out everything I need to do before I leave. I am hoping the weather stays with what the are predicting for the next few days and I am planning on layering my tops to stay warm in the evenings.

If you want to follow along while I am there before I turn this in to a trip report proper follow @Icecoldpenguin on twitter and instagram

This is gonna be a blast!

WooHoo!!! Have fun!! I'll be following along on Instagram and Twitter. I'm MOUSETROOPER on Instagram and @Mouse_Trooper on twitter.


Safe Travels!