First Trip to Disneyland...Questions

[bcrook]

My Disneyland tips redux:

1. Which happens to be my all time favorite. Look before you sit down somewhere. Because if a seat is damp or wet, butt lol it hasn't been raining think about it!

2. Do not wear open toed shoes at all costs. My Aunt Gert did not heed my warning, and as a result now can get a discount on pedicures. Super scary man!
If anyone is interested in knowing those details, just let me know. All I will add however on that subject, is that it involved a stroller, an angry old man with a cane, hot weather, and a malfunctioning toy. Go figure man.

3. If the mac and cheese looks like a most remarkable shade of biohazard orange don't eat it. Your tummy will thank you!

4. Do not wear high heels. I saw a lady one time wearing such a shoe. And she ended up getting stuck on Main Street in the railway track.

5. Don't make your food server angry. Believe me.... Tip well. Very, very well.

6. Do not attempt to swim across ROA it won't work. Check out YouTube.

7. Do utilize fast passes and single rider lines.

8. Do not anger the Gods or Jose and his fine feathered friends, if you should happen to visit the Tiki Room, because well in the one case, one may end up a toadie. And in the other case, you better cover your hair. An umbrella might be good.

9. Use your MM or EMH if you can get your booty out of bed early enough. I normally cannot. Lol

10. Don't think you can hide out somewhere in the park and be there already in the morning. They will find you man! Again, I shall reference YouTube.

Thank you. These seem very practical. And they are funny.

 

[bcrook]

We are WDW vets too. We have been to DL in June 3 out of the last 4 years, and last year were there in July (due to DD's activity schedule). We found it very manageable in the summer, even in July which surprised me (of course with the 60th anniversary this summer- who knows). I strongly recommend park opening in the summer. We were really surprised at how empty the parks were for the first couple of hours-- they were much more empty than we have found the WDW parks at rope drop. I think a good part of this may be because of the large local crowd that has to drive in as opposed to WDW where a big chunk of people are already staying on property. We have been known to do marathon days at DL- we have gotten to the park at rope drop at 8:00 a.m. and left after 11:00 p.m.- and I will say that while the lines are less in the late evening than in the afternoon- I would not say that they were "cleared" out and they certainly were longer than the first couple of hours in the morning. Again, I think for the local crowd, it is easier to stay later once you are there, than to get there early.

We actually really like the WOC dining package. We don't mind being in the wet zone, and I feel like we do not have to line up quite as early as those with regular FP when we have the dining package. Seems to me that people with regular FP line up about an hour and a half ahead of time and the front of the area fills up really quickly. We usually get to the Dining pass area between 45 minutes to an hour before the show and after they have opened the area- we typically walk right in and go right down to a rail spot in the wet zone. I'm short, so I pick wet over not being able to see over the person in front of me, as everyone stands for the show. My tip if you want to do that is bring ponchos. Depending on which way the wind is blowing you can get damp, or you can get soaked.

We think Fantasmic at DL is far superior to WDW's version. DL has a Peter Pan pirate ship sequence that we love. We have not been there since it went all FP though, so I can't really give you tips on that one.

If you like shows, Aladdin is an absolute must see! Mickey's and the Magical Map is really cute.

Unlike WDW, you can still find some random characters and some wandering characters. If you like characters, I would recommend taking a peek around the Town Square area in the afternoons if you are in that direction. You never know who might pop up. We have found Cruella there a couple of trips, and the Queen of Hearts on another trip. We have seen Mulan just inside the gates. You just never know who might pop up.

Also, you really want park hoppers. By WDW standards, DL/CA is really just one big park. We go back and forth all day. The parks are separated by just a plaza and bag check is on the outside edges of the plaza so there is no bag check when hopping between parks. You can literally get from the back of one park to the back of the other in 10 minutes.

As far as other little things not to miss- one thing I would recommend is doing a round trip on the train. Unlike WDW, the DL train actually has tunnels that have scenes created just for the train trip. If you like the characters, the Mad Hatter and Alice usually come out around 2:30 at Coke Corner on main street and host a game of musical chairs. Sometimes Mary Poppins shows up too and I have heard of Peter Pan occasionally dropping by. You might check around your trip time to see if the time has changed and if they are still doing it, but I think it has been going on around that time every day for years.

Thank you. I am leaning towards the carthay package. I understand what others have said, but I think I will do it. Splash Zone...hmmm. Dont know about that.
Now I'm looking forward to the train.

I always have hoppers. I like the Freedom to do as I please.

 

[dznyfam3]

I'm thinking this is a typo, but there is no Fantasmic! dining package at Carthay Circle. Carthay Circle has a dining package for World of Color. There are dining packages for Fantasmic! now, but they're at restaurants inside DL.

Yes total typo!! Lol!! Sorry for the confusion!! I totally meant WOC!

 

[ktlm]

Thank you. I am leaning towards the carthay package. I understand what others have said, but I think I will do it. Splash Zone...hmmm. Don know abou that.
.

It isn't constant and it is more of a mist than a splash, but it can be a really heavy mist (like a quick rain shower) at a few certain points in the show when the really high water cannons get shot off if the wind is blowing your way. The water gets shot high in the air straight up, but the wind, if blowing the right direction, can carry it to the crowd. We've done it without ponchos a couple of times. One of those times the wind was straight at us and even though I felt like my top half was soaked afterwards, I was surprised at how fast I dried. It wasn't like riding Kali at WDW or Grizzly at CA (or the occasional Splash Mountain total soak) where you are wet for hours. If you just have dollar store ponchos in your pockets or purse, you will stay dry. I also put my purse in a Disney shopping bag so it doesn't get wet, or if I remember (which is not often) I keep a big Ziplock bag in my purse for that and for water rides to keep it dry- or just wrap it in an extra dollar store poncho. I still take pictures, but I pull my camera totally in under my shirt or poncho immediately when I see the water cannons go off, or when things start to get really misty.

 

[DawgDad93]

You asked about RSR tips. At rope drop (assuming there are no early hours- or you can do it when the gate opens for early hours which is what we did), the wide right technique works. You do not want to enter from the GC entrance- you need to enter from the main entrance or you will be behind the crowd. As the CMs lead you down towards Carsland with the rope- stay as far to the right as you can get. Carsland is on the left, so everyone's natural inclination is to go the left side of the rope ( I had to about physically drag DH to the right with me because he thought I was crazy). When the CMs make the curve to Carsland, everyone on the left starts getting funneled into the right, so if you are in the front on the right side, you are at the head of the pack. If you do this during EMH/MM, know that RSR sometimes doesn't get going right at the start- some people recommend not using your EMH/MM for that, but it was a priority for us, and we were not sorry we did, even though we had to wait a bit for them to get the ride going. Also RSR has a single rider line. We used it a lot. Another tip is don't miss Carsland at night. It is beautiful and you can get some great photopass pics. Also be sure and enter Carsland from the Wharf at least once. The view is impressive- it looks real. The first time I did that it took my breath away.

Those are great tips! We will be there in two weeks and are staying at the Grand Californian. Do you have a rough estimate of how long the wait would be for RSR if we get to the main entrance 20 or 30 minutes early and use the "stay right" technique? And do you have a sense of how long the RSR FP line is around 8 or 9 a.m. on a day with 7 a.m. early entry? Finally, any idea when FPs have been running out? I ask because we should arrive at the hotel late morning that Thursday and would love to grab a RSR FP before heading over to DL. Thanks in advance!

 

[figment_jii]

This is a holiday week (because of President's Day on Monday, so some school districts have the entire week off), so things might be different when you go, but RSR FPs were running out about two hours after park opening this week (around 11:00 am or there about, with a 9:00 am opening). I would guess something similar will continue once the parks move into "Spring Break-Season" mode. Previously, the estimates were that FP were lasting into the afternoon (past noon at least), but this week that did not seem to be the case. I'm curious to see what happens next week (no holidays that I know of, pre-Spring Break season).

When you get to DLR, I would call Ask Otto (714-520-7090) and he can tell you if there are still RSR FPs available.

 

[ktlm]

Those are great tips! We will be there in two weeks and are staying at the Grand Californian. Do you have a rough estimate of how long the wait would be for RSR if we get to the main entrance 20 or 30 minutes early and use the "stay right" technique? And do you have a sense of how long the RSR FP line is around 8 or 9 a.m. on a day with 7 a.m. early entry? Finally, any idea when FPs have been running out? I ask because we should arrive at the hotel late morning that Thursday and would love to grab a RSR FP before heading over to DL. Thanks in advance!

figment jii has more current information than I do. We have not been since last summer. We did the 7:00 a.m. early entry and got there about 15 minutes before the gate opened. We did wide right, and I would say we were no more than 10 groups back. We did have about about a 20 minute wait, but that was because there we some ride technical issues and it took them that long to get the ride up and running. I've heard there are a lot of mornings it takes them a little while to get the ride moving. My suspicion is that if we had gotten there for a regular 8:00 a.m. opening instead of a 7:00 a.m. EMH that 15 minutes would not have been early enough to be that close to the front, but someone else who has done that probably has better information. We were in Carsland until the park opened and the line for RSR was an hour when the park opened that day. The FP machines do not work during EMH, you have to wait for the official park opening time. I was going to get in line to get a FP for later at about 15 minutes before EMH was over and was surprised to find that the line was already really long. The RSR line to get FP is very long at park opening most early entry days as the early entry people line up before park opening- it tends to stay long, but it does move fast. Actually it is pretty long at opening most regular entry days too unless you are at the front of the pack.

It is worth a shot at trying to get FP when you get in late Thursday morning. Since you are staying at the Grand Californian, it would be easy to use the park gate there and to go by the RSR FP machines on the way to DL. To us, it seemed like it was really inconsistent. One day, I specifically wanted to get FP to ride later at night (a must do as it is beautiful at night!), and I went at 11:00 a.m. thinking that would be the right time to get them and the return times were no where near evening. The line was really long too, I was around the corner past Carthay Circle. I had to stalk the machines for a couple of hours before it finally was in a late enough time range. The FPs did not run out until around 2:00 p.m. that day. Another day that same trip, I ran by just before noon to see if I could grab some FPs for later, and they were completely gone already. You just never know.

 

[DawgDad93]

Thanks to you and figment_jii both. We will be there March 5-7, which should (hopefully) be a week or so before spring break crowds start to ramp up. One other question: do you agree with what seems to be the consensus that we should not use the GC entrance to DCA at park opening?

 

[bcrook]

Returned from California! We had a great time in the National Parks, Beaches, Wineries, and 5 days on site at Disneyland!

We followed advice for Fantasmic! Loved the different venue and subtle changes.
Pirates of the Caribbean in DL is the best ride ever. I rode it over and over again.
We chose the Wine Country Trattoria Color of Magic dinner package. The cost was reasonable, and we liked the seating options. We chose to go all the up front...and face the mist. We got drenched! We had fun.

I was surprised how cool it was in the parks. I needed a jacket, and I wore a hoodie into the parks early one day. LOL

Radiator Springs or my group called it Mater's Test Track - was most excellent.

We loved being able to tour with the old fastpass system.

We were totally stunned at the short waits at TSMM and Soarin over California.

We spent 5 days in the parks, wandered back and forth, and could have stayed longer.

I got to see the new Yetis on Matterhorn (the purists may hate it, but I liked it). They were quite terrifying. The single rider line on the Matterhorn was convenient.

It's a Small World was awesome. I liked the embedded Disney characters in the rooms.

The Blue Bayou restaurant was super cool and relaxing, great service, and excellent food.

I really liked walking right out of the Grand Californian into Disney California Adventure.

Disney did an excellent job creating an island of fantasy in the middle of Anaheim.