WendyWhy
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2011
It was our family's first trip since 2019 and I was completely overwhelmed by having to learn about the app, Genie+, ILL/LL, the new rides, etc, etc...I was a ball of nerves and guess what? Best. Trip. Ever. Going to jot down some quick thoughts before I forget and hopefully encourage someone like me who was a former FP pro who felt like the new changes were going to be too much to learn.
Number 1 tip - slowly read through the sticky posts at the top about Rope Drop and Genie+. When you start feeling overwhelmed, take a break and come back and if you're really getting confused, take the time to watch the recommended YouTube videos that will walk you through each step. We did one day at DL and one at DCA - no hoppers. Very nervous about Spring Break crowds (LAUSD is on break this week) but our local school district had the same break and we decided to bite the bullet - no regrets, it was a wonderful trip.
Flying into SNA was a breeze - only 25 min from the parks, and about $35-38 each way in a Lyft for our family of 5 (could be more or less depending on time of day). Stayed at Sheraton Park - first time off-property and even though I dearly missed early entry, we saved too much money to be tempted to stay at the Grand again now that we need two rooms. (Just a note that the non-TSA Pre check line to make our departure was a full 30min - make sure you give yourself plenty of time)
Rope Drop - our hotel was a 15 min walk from the entrance. We left our hotel by 6:45AM and I wondered if it was "too early" - but nope, already healthy sized crowds ahead of us awaiting security to open at 7. We walked with purpose to the farthest turnstiles each day and were always the second family to be scanned in each morning at our individual turnstile. If you're one of the first 3 families to get scanned in, they do scan you in before opening up for the race to the rope, so it's a fast start to get to the rope. We made it to the front of the rope each day.
I wish we didn't have to do Peter Pan at DL first, it's a sickness/tradition and we just do it. With the EE crowd that is already there, we have a speedy person at the front of the rope who beelines to PP and it still ends up being a 25 min wait - but by the time we finished riding it was already a 45 min wait and it's a must ride for us but we generally don't stay late enough for the wait to drop. We still ended up riding everything we wanted by using a combo of standby, LL and ILL for ROR and MMRR. Everyone agreed that the ILL for ROR was totally worth it - it was a 2+ hour standby wait and the ride really lived up to the hype. Our 7 yo loved MMRR - but there was less enthusiasm about whether or not the ILL was "worth it" from the rest of us. When I booked it on the app, the standby wait was 60min, but when it was time to redeem the wait posted was "only" 35min. Eh...I still think it ended up being a good buy since it allowed us to meet up with a local family who joined later that day. If we didn't have to meet up with that other family, a 35 min wait wouldn't be too terrible if you have older kids (7 and up). Our kids loved the Charade game app - made the lines fly by!
A few glitches from our DL day:
- our Millennium Falcon LLs just disappeared from our app - the ride never closed - they just disappeared (and we didn't get new MEPs). We were really lucky that we had a MEP from an earlier ride, that we were able to use but that was kind of scary! It was one of our last rides of the day, so we felt lucky that we got to ride it before leaving for the day
- DH and older kids rode SM single rider - since it was so fast and I was in line for Storybook boats with the youngest kids in our group, I told them to ride again...During that second single rider ride, it broke mid-ride. The lights came on...they saw everything, the elevators, the staff had to push them manually so that gravity could roll them down...They ended up being stuck for about 10min and got to ride again. Felt lucky that everything ended up being fine and will definitely be a DL memory for the ages. Used their downtime to save tables at Plaza Inn for dinner and they got to meet us for a fried chicken feast while regaling us with their behind-the-scenes adventure.
We did rope drop RSR for our DCA morning. We were at the front of the rope and had our speedy runner go ahead - it ended up being a 45 min wait, there's almost no way to get a shorter wait on a high crowd day because of the EE guests who were already lined up to get on (that day RSR did not open till 8, so there would probably be a shorter wait if it had been open for EE). Also as the line was swelling, there were some people who would innocently look like they were joining their group (like us!) but ended up being line cutters. I did have to tell a couple of young guys that they were absolutely not going to cut us, so they got behind us...most people are too polite to say anything...By 8:15am, there was an announcement to people joining the line that it was a 2hour wait! Even though we didn't buy the ILL, it would have been totally worth it if we didn't make it at rope drop. We did end up riding everything - with the app, it was easy to see when rides were down and when they went back up. We got lucky twice - got to ride TSMM once when it went back up after a breakdown with no wait, then used a LL to ride it again later. Ate dinner next to Goofy Sky School after the ride broke just when we were going to redeem our LL, as we finished eating, noticed empty cars starting to run, we hustled over and hopped on with not wait. Used our MEP to ride Soarin' a second time.
DCA Food and Wine was a blast - we loved the Mickey Snickers Macaron, pineapple coconut churro, bulgolgi fried rice, korean burrito (spicy), korean fried chicken slider (spicy), pork belly was great but the mac salad with it was meh.
Those are the things off the top of my head - really appreciate all the other posters who shared their knowledge to help make our trip so smooth. Thank you so much!
Number 1 tip - slowly read through the sticky posts at the top about Rope Drop and Genie+. When you start feeling overwhelmed, take a break and come back and if you're really getting confused, take the time to watch the recommended YouTube videos that will walk you through each step. We did one day at DL and one at DCA - no hoppers. Very nervous about Spring Break crowds (LAUSD is on break this week) but our local school district had the same break and we decided to bite the bullet - no regrets, it was a wonderful trip.
Flying into SNA was a breeze - only 25 min from the parks, and about $35-38 each way in a Lyft for our family of 5 (could be more or less depending on time of day). Stayed at Sheraton Park - first time off-property and even though I dearly missed early entry, we saved too much money to be tempted to stay at the Grand again now that we need two rooms. (Just a note that the non-TSA Pre check line to make our departure was a full 30min - make sure you give yourself plenty of time)
Rope Drop - our hotel was a 15 min walk from the entrance. We left our hotel by 6:45AM and I wondered if it was "too early" - but nope, already healthy sized crowds ahead of us awaiting security to open at 7. We walked with purpose to the farthest turnstiles each day and were always the second family to be scanned in each morning at our individual turnstile. If you're one of the first 3 families to get scanned in, they do scan you in before opening up for the race to the rope, so it's a fast start to get to the rope. We made it to the front of the rope each day.
I wish we didn't have to do Peter Pan at DL first, it's a sickness/tradition and we just do it. With the EE crowd that is already there, we have a speedy person at the front of the rope who beelines to PP and it still ends up being a 25 min wait - but by the time we finished riding it was already a 45 min wait and it's a must ride for us but we generally don't stay late enough for the wait to drop. We still ended up riding everything we wanted by using a combo of standby, LL and ILL for ROR and MMRR. Everyone agreed that the ILL for ROR was totally worth it - it was a 2+ hour standby wait and the ride really lived up to the hype. Our 7 yo loved MMRR - but there was less enthusiasm about whether or not the ILL was "worth it" from the rest of us. When I booked it on the app, the standby wait was 60min, but when it was time to redeem the wait posted was "only" 35min. Eh...I still think it ended up being a good buy since it allowed us to meet up with a local family who joined later that day. If we didn't have to meet up with that other family, a 35 min wait wouldn't be too terrible if you have older kids (7 and up). Our kids loved the Charade game app - made the lines fly by!
A few glitches from our DL day:
- our Millennium Falcon LLs just disappeared from our app - the ride never closed - they just disappeared (and we didn't get new MEPs). We were really lucky that we had a MEP from an earlier ride, that we were able to use but that was kind of scary! It was one of our last rides of the day, so we felt lucky that we got to ride it before leaving for the day
- DH and older kids rode SM single rider - since it was so fast and I was in line for Storybook boats with the youngest kids in our group, I told them to ride again...During that second single rider ride, it broke mid-ride. The lights came on...they saw everything, the elevators, the staff had to push them manually so that gravity could roll them down...They ended up being stuck for about 10min and got to ride again. Felt lucky that everything ended up being fine and will definitely be a DL memory for the ages. Used their downtime to save tables at Plaza Inn for dinner and they got to meet us for a fried chicken feast while regaling us with their behind-the-scenes adventure.
We did rope drop RSR for our DCA morning. We were at the front of the rope and had our speedy runner go ahead - it ended up being a 45 min wait, there's almost no way to get a shorter wait on a high crowd day because of the EE guests who were already lined up to get on (that day RSR did not open till 8, so there would probably be a shorter wait if it had been open for EE). Also as the line was swelling, there were some people who would innocently look like they were joining their group (like us!) but ended up being line cutters. I did have to tell a couple of young guys that they were absolutely not going to cut us, so they got behind us...most people are too polite to say anything...By 8:15am, there was an announcement to people joining the line that it was a 2hour wait! Even though we didn't buy the ILL, it would have been totally worth it if we didn't make it at rope drop. We did end up riding everything - with the app, it was easy to see when rides were down and when they went back up. We got lucky twice - got to ride TSMM once when it went back up after a breakdown with no wait, then used a LL to ride it again later. Ate dinner next to Goofy Sky School after the ride broke just when we were going to redeem our LL, as we finished eating, noticed empty cars starting to run, we hustled over and hopped on with not wait. Used our MEP to ride Soarin' a second time.
DCA Food and Wine was a blast - we loved the Mickey Snickers Macaron, pineapple coconut churro, bulgolgi fried rice, korean burrito (spicy), korean fried chicken slider (spicy), pork belly was great but the mac salad with it was meh.
Those are the things off the top of my head - really appreciate all the other posters who shared their knowledge to help make our trip so smooth. Thank you so much!
