SoonerSean
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2006
My daughter and I went to our first San Diego Comic Con and also hit Disneyland. Here's a brief report...
We had three day park hopper tickets and hit Disneyland for our first evening on Wednesday. Due to delays flying in from Dallas we were almost three hours late and instead of getting to the park by about 5 it was almost 8:00 - talk about disappointing!!! But once inside Disneyland everything was fine. Place was certainly crowded but we were able to ride POTC, HM, BTMR, and ST as well as grab some dinner and watch the fireworks before we had to call it a night due to our early departure time for San Diego the next morning.
Went back on Friday morning and decided we'd get to CA at 7:30 to line up for the 8:00 park opening. To our surprise a castmember walked up and gave us a pass that allowed entry during the 7-8 hour. I guess they release a few of those on the extra magic hour mornings. So we walked in at 7:30 and headed straight for Radiator Springs. Road it via the standy-by line and waited only about 20 minutes... then off to Soarin' and another short line (10 minutes at most)... then Toy Story... then we were done and off to Disneyland. By then it was just about 9:00 and the crowds were somewhat light. We saw Merida skipping along towards Fantasyland and followed her and found ourselves only 4th in line to see her.
After that it was easy to jump in line to see Cinderella, Snow White, and a guest princess (Ariel). Then off to a day of riding rides. This was Friday and it was HOT and humid... more so than I think we were expecting. At 10AM the sun was already bearing down. And by then the crowds were building. We were able to ride most everything we wanted but experienced breakdowns at Snow White and POTC - both after waiting in line for extended periods. Nothing like standing in line for 30 minutes and being near the front only to have everything shut down and have to leave. At Snow White the ride appeared fine and the line was moving. Then there was a cast member change at the start point and the new employee sat down and immediately announced the ride was broken (though a family had just departed). How she knew it was broken was beyond me -- she just got there.
We had dinner that night at Blue Bayou. Food was okay but the service was this side of lousy. Our waiter must have been new because he was just scattered. He ran around like crazy but never did anything. Like he'd sprint out of the kitchen - circle one of the tables and run back - having never stopped. Or he'd come right like he was going to speak with us - stop and run back to the kitchen. The table next to us didn't get their salads until they asked for them - this was after their meals had arrived and it took another 10 minutes so they had salads for dessert. We were told they didn't have any steak knives (????). Had my steak been tender it wouldn't have mattered - but I had to saw it with my butter knife. The ambiance was great but with the odd service and chewy meat almost $100 for our meal was a bit much.
We ended the day by returning to CA to see World of Color. We watched it from the side of the lagoon where crowds were thinner. So while we couldn't see the images projected on the mist we could still hear the music and see the water dancing. Nice show... though some music choices seemed odd. Visually it was great though. CA closed IMMEDIATELY at the end of the show which meant getting out of the park was a challenge. I wish they stayed open even to 11:00 to help disperse things a bit better.
I have to say... I LOVE CA... just the look of the park when you enter. I could go there and never ride anything and enjoy a day of just admiring how well they did all of the buildings and attractions. Love the old Hollywood feel and then Carsland... that street that you walk down is exceptional.
Saturday we hit DL at 7AM for our extra hour since we had a 3-day hopper. Went right in and just powered through several Fantasyland rides and had them all done by shortly after 8. Enjoyed another couple of hours of fairly quiet time before the heat and crowds arrived. We rode Indiana Jones, Autopia, Star Tours again, Splash Mountain (sit in the back and avoid the soaking), and HM and POTC a couple of times each. Also road Alice in Wonderland and noticed the changes that had been made since we last road it a long time back.
We made the mistake of eating at the Pizza Port in Tomorrowland for lunch... worst pizza EVER and almost $7 a slice. Ugh. Still trying to get that stop out of my head. Just awful.
More rides and dealing with the heat... found that you can rest up in Innoventions in Tomorrowland. Lots of rooms/seats if you can find an empty one and cold cold cold AC. Loved it! Also the Avengers stuff on the top floor was neat - especially all the armor suits from Iron Man.
Dinner that night was at Café Orleans. Reasonably good food and a better value (for us anyway) than Blue Bayou. Service was great too. Only complaint is that the inside seating doesn't offer much ambiance. So lesson learned there - sit outside if the weather is nice. We left stuffed. And the weather at night was wonderful. Once that sun started down and temps headed south it truly was amazing. Hard to believe it was so hot during the day and so absolutely perfect from about 5-6PM on every evening.
Finished up the day with a few more rides and went off to close things out with our FP to BTMR (daughter's favorite) only to find it was broken. So disappointment there but we'd already been on it three times.
If I had any complaints (other than Pizza Port) it would be the inconsistent ride times that were posted. Knowing about how long things take from experience you knew when you walked up if a ride time of say 15 minutes was really going to be 30. We never got a good response as to why so many rides had times that were clearly not correct. A couple caught us by surprise but by days 2 and 3 we knew what to expect. If Haunted Mansion had a line to the gates the 5 minute time on the sign was obviously way off (for example).
To sum things up... had a great time and really the only negatives were the lunch at Pizza Port (truly nasty), the oppressive heat from about 10AM-5PM daily, and rides that seemed to fail right before we rode them. The crowds were thick - but we anticipated it and since we're regulars to the Florida parks we're used to it. But with the heat they were a little hard to deal with a handful of times.
We had three day park hopper tickets and hit Disneyland for our first evening on Wednesday. Due to delays flying in from Dallas we were almost three hours late and instead of getting to the park by about 5 it was almost 8:00 - talk about disappointing!!! But once inside Disneyland everything was fine. Place was certainly crowded but we were able to ride POTC, HM, BTMR, and ST as well as grab some dinner and watch the fireworks before we had to call it a night due to our early departure time for San Diego the next morning.
Went back on Friday morning and decided we'd get to CA at 7:30 to line up for the 8:00 park opening. To our surprise a castmember walked up and gave us a pass that allowed entry during the 7-8 hour. I guess they release a few of those on the extra magic hour mornings. So we walked in at 7:30 and headed straight for Radiator Springs. Road it via the standy-by line and waited only about 20 minutes... then off to Soarin' and another short line (10 minutes at most)... then Toy Story... then we were done and off to Disneyland. By then it was just about 9:00 and the crowds were somewhat light. We saw Merida skipping along towards Fantasyland and followed her and found ourselves only 4th in line to see her.
After that it was easy to jump in line to see Cinderella, Snow White, and a guest princess (Ariel). Then off to a day of riding rides. This was Friday and it was HOT and humid... more so than I think we were expecting. At 10AM the sun was already bearing down. And by then the crowds were building. We were able to ride most everything we wanted but experienced breakdowns at Snow White and POTC - both after waiting in line for extended periods. Nothing like standing in line for 30 minutes and being near the front only to have everything shut down and have to leave. At Snow White the ride appeared fine and the line was moving. Then there was a cast member change at the start point and the new employee sat down and immediately announced the ride was broken (though a family had just departed). How she knew it was broken was beyond me -- she just got there.
We had dinner that night at Blue Bayou. Food was okay but the service was this side of lousy. Our waiter must have been new because he was just scattered. He ran around like crazy but never did anything. Like he'd sprint out of the kitchen - circle one of the tables and run back - having never stopped. Or he'd come right like he was going to speak with us - stop and run back to the kitchen. The table next to us didn't get their salads until they asked for them - this was after their meals had arrived and it took another 10 minutes so they had salads for dessert. We were told they didn't have any steak knives (????). Had my steak been tender it wouldn't have mattered - but I had to saw it with my butter knife. The ambiance was great but with the odd service and chewy meat almost $100 for our meal was a bit much.
We ended the day by returning to CA to see World of Color. We watched it from the side of the lagoon where crowds were thinner. So while we couldn't see the images projected on the mist we could still hear the music and see the water dancing. Nice show... though some music choices seemed odd. Visually it was great though. CA closed IMMEDIATELY at the end of the show which meant getting out of the park was a challenge. I wish they stayed open even to 11:00 to help disperse things a bit better.
I have to say... I LOVE CA... just the look of the park when you enter. I could go there and never ride anything and enjoy a day of just admiring how well they did all of the buildings and attractions. Love the old Hollywood feel and then Carsland... that street that you walk down is exceptional.
Saturday we hit DL at 7AM for our extra hour since we had a 3-day hopper. Went right in and just powered through several Fantasyland rides and had them all done by shortly after 8. Enjoyed another couple of hours of fairly quiet time before the heat and crowds arrived. We rode Indiana Jones, Autopia, Star Tours again, Splash Mountain (sit in the back and avoid the soaking), and HM and POTC a couple of times each. Also road Alice in Wonderland and noticed the changes that had been made since we last road it a long time back.
We made the mistake of eating at the Pizza Port in Tomorrowland for lunch... worst pizza EVER and almost $7 a slice. Ugh. Still trying to get that stop out of my head. Just awful.
More rides and dealing with the heat... found that you can rest up in Innoventions in Tomorrowland. Lots of rooms/seats if you can find an empty one and cold cold cold AC. Loved it! Also the Avengers stuff on the top floor was neat - especially all the armor suits from Iron Man.
Dinner that night was at Café Orleans. Reasonably good food and a better value (for us anyway) than Blue Bayou. Service was great too. Only complaint is that the inside seating doesn't offer much ambiance. So lesson learned there - sit outside if the weather is nice. We left stuffed. And the weather at night was wonderful. Once that sun started down and temps headed south it truly was amazing. Hard to believe it was so hot during the day and so absolutely perfect from about 5-6PM on every evening.
Finished up the day with a few more rides and went off to close things out with our FP to BTMR (daughter's favorite) only to find it was broken. So disappointment there but we'd already been on it three times.
If I had any complaints (other than Pizza Port) it would be the inconsistent ride times that were posted. Knowing about how long things take from experience you knew when you walked up if a ride time of say 15 minutes was really going to be 30. We never got a good response as to why so many rides had times that were clearly not correct. A couple caught us by surprise but by days 2 and 3 we knew what to expect. If Haunted Mansion had a line to the gates the 5 minute time on the sign was obviously way off (for example).
To sum things up... had a great time and really the only negatives were the lunch at Pizza Port (truly nasty), the oppressive heat from about 10AM-5PM daily, and rides that seemed to fail right before we rode them. The crowds were thick - but we anticipated it and since we're regulars to the Florida parks we're used to it. But with the heat they were a little hard to deal with a handful of times.
