DharmaLou
Once a Princess, Always a Princess
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2011
And I'm happy to say it's 99% highlights with very little disappointment!
First, THANK YOU to all the DISers who answered questions and were so helpful over the past year. It's funny, during the trip DH found the DIS boards & was telling me all about it. I had to break it to him that you guys are the ones that pointed us in the right direction throughout the trip!
Here are the lowlights: DD4 hated any and all indoor rides. She's somewhat sensitive to loud noises/high volume, and most all the rides are pretty loud. Combine that with a little fear of the dark, and most all indoor rides were out. Yes, even Small World (the little popping fireworks in the China section scared her. Sigh.). The indoor rides she went on were Small World, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Roger Rabbit, Pooh & Nemo. That's it. For real. Sigh.
Only other lowlight, and it wasn't enough to ruin anything or make us late but We were about 10th in line to get in to DCA yesterday. Lines were crazy long, so being 10th meant we got there EARLY. Well, the 3rd guy in line all of a sudden has his family of FIFTEEN (I'm not even kidding, sadly) join him in line 3 minutes before they opened gates. AND it was their first day and they had to sign all their tickets, so on and so forth. It took over 5 minutes.
That was IT for lowlights! For 4 days that's pretty good!
3 of the 4 mornings we started at Disneyland. The final morning we started at DCA.
4 days was a perfect amount of time, though two days in a row is tough. My feet want a divorce! I wear a FitBit and I averaged 10.5 miles walked each day!
The first day was spent getting used to the park and meeting characters. And realizing DD didn't like indoor rides. We took advantage of our Photo Pass + and had a lot of family photos taken and DD's photos with a dozen characters or so. I highly recommend the PP+! Our photographers were great - especially with our family photos! We stayed about 9 hours (it was our MM) and then went back to nap for a bit and returned in the evening and went to Cars Land. We ate at Flo's and watched some performances and walked around Paradise Pier.
Our 2nd day started out with Fantasyland, Matterhorn & more princesses - I was first in line to meet my girl-crush Merida, we rode Dumbo, tea cups and and the carousel 3 times each & then got our hair did at BBB. DH spent the first hour and a half riding Star Tours, Space Mountain, & Buzz... lather, rinse, repeat. We then headed to DCA for a lunch at Ariel's.
One thing I'll mention here, as we had 3 character meals is that they're GREAT - but I honestly didn't enjoy the MEAL part because I was spending all my time getting ready for characters, getting the autograph book ready, camera ready, etc. I just felt rushed. DD LOVED the experience, though.
After lunch we hit the Symphony Swings, Zephyr, Jellyfish & Fun Wheel over & over & over DD LOVED the Swings the best. We watched the Pixar parade then hit Mater's & some Bugs Land rides before heading back to the hotel for a while. That night we went back to DCA again and rode the PP rides again... and again... and rode Luigi's. DH and DD loved Luigi's, I thought it was ok but not worth a 40 minute wait. We ALL loved Mater's though - and honestly, Mater speaking spanish while in the queue was my favorite lol.
Our 3rd day DH & DD hit Fantasyland for the usual (teacups, Dumbo, etc) & I hit Star Tours & Space Mountain, then DD & I had breakfast with Minnie & Friends while DH went to POTC, HM & BTMRR. DD & I met him over there afterward & we finally met DD's favorite guy - Jack Skellington! I then hit up HM & we all went on Winnie the Pooh (DD hated it... sigh). Then we split up again and I did POTC & they went back to... the teacups lol. We hit a number of rides before heading back to the hotel to rest for a while, including Nemo, Astro Orbiters, Autopia and... the teacups. We returned to Disneyland again in the evening and DH and I used FPs for Space Mountain & Star Tours & also hit... you guessed it, teacups and Dumbo. Twice.
Our 4th day was Thanksgiving and we started at DCA. At rope drop I headed straight to the single rider line for RSR & DH/DD went to Soarin' for FPs and then to Paradise Pier for... swings, zephyr & jellyfish. I was about 30th in line in single rider & got on in about 5 minutes. I then met DH/DD & he left for Screamin' & TSMM & I took DD on the Fun Wheel, swings, zephyr & jellyfish. DH then left for single rider RSR and there was an hour 20 wait. DD got to dance in the Phineas & Ferb show and we hit up Bug's Land rides before getting a snack at Cozy Cones. DH & I then split up to use our FPs for Soarin' (it's an indoor ride, we didn't even bother with DD) & then headed back to rest up before Thanksgiving dinner at Goofy's. We had a GREAT dinner there, then headed to Disneyland in time for the parade. After the parade... guess what rides we hit? Teacups & Dumbo. I'm still dizzy. For real. We had a few last photos taken in front of the castle & bid our farewells.
Summation: We didn't see WOC, Fantasmic or Fireworks. DD would not have liked F! & hates the noise from fireworks. We just didn't get to WOC, though we wanted to. I'm bummed about all of these, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
YES, the week of Thanksgiving can get super busy. HOWEVER, if you can get yourself there at rope drop & hit up rides that aren't huge hits (or have someone head to get FPs for them) you can get on quite a few rides. Day 2 I rode Matterhorn 4 times in a row without having to get off. That was my first ride (while DD/DH did... teacups). At 9:30 on Weds I walked on HM at 10:00 I had a 5 min wait at POTC. Thanksgiving Day while everyone was at Cars Land, we were riding Swings, Zephyr & Jellyfish 3 times in a row without having to get off. We got to go arounnd 4 times on the fun wheel and DH had a 5 min wait at Screamin' at 9am. TSMM was also at 10 minutes then (but 40 minutes 30 minutes later). I highly recommend getting there at rope drop if you can because you'll get SO much done in a short time.
Finally, we stayed at HoJo. We had a great experience there and would definitely recommend it to anyone. We stayed in building 1 facing the 5 and we had no freeway noise. It was great!
Can't wait to get back!!
First, THANK YOU to all the DISers who answered questions and were so helpful over the past year. It's funny, during the trip DH found the DIS boards & was telling me all about it. I had to break it to him that you guys are the ones that pointed us in the right direction throughout the trip!
Here are the lowlights: DD4 hated any and all indoor rides. She's somewhat sensitive to loud noises/high volume, and most all the rides are pretty loud. Combine that with a little fear of the dark, and most all indoor rides were out. Yes, even Small World (the little popping fireworks in the China section scared her. Sigh.). The indoor rides she went on were Small World, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Roger Rabbit, Pooh & Nemo. That's it. For real. Sigh.
Only other lowlight, and it wasn't enough to ruin anything or make us late but We were about 10th in line to get in to DCA yesterday. Lines were crazy long, so being 10th meant we got there EARLY. Well, the 3rd guy in line all of a sudden has his family of FIFTEEN (I'm not even kidding, sadly) join him in line 3 minutes before they opened gates. AND it was their first day and they had to sign all their tickets, so on and so forth. It took over 5 minutes.
That was IT for lowlights! For 4 days that's pretty good!
3 of the 4 mornings we started at Disneyland. The final morning we started at DCA.
4 days was a perfect amount of time, though two days in a row is tough. My feet want a divorce! I wear a FitBit and I averaged 10.5 miles walked each day!
The first day was spent getting used to the park and meeting characters. And realizing DD didn't like indoor rides. We took advantage of our Photo Pass + and had a lot of family photos taken and DD's photos with a dozen characters or so. I highly recommend the PP+! Our photographers were great - especially with our family photos! We stayed about 9 hours (it was our MM) and then went back to nap for a bit and returned in the evening and went to Cars Land. We ate at Flo's and watched some performances and walked around Paradise Pier.
Our 2nd day started out with Fantasyland, Matterhorn & more princesses - I was first in line to meet my girl-crush Merida, we rode Dumbo, tea cups and and the carousel 3 times each & then got our hair did at BBB. DH spent the first hour and a half riding Star Tours, Space Mountain, & Buzz... lather, rinse, repeat. We then headed to DCA for a lunch at Ariel's.
One thing I'll mention here, as we had 3 character meals is that they're GREAT - but I honestly didn't enjoy the MEAL part because I was spending all my time getting ready for characters, getting the autograph book ready, camera ready, etc. I just felt rushed. DD LOVED the experience, though.
After lunch we hit the Symphony Swings, Zephyr, Jellyfish & Fun Wheel over & over & over DD LOVED the Swings the best. We watched the Pixar parade then hit Mater's & some Bugs Land rides before heading back to the hotel for a while. That night we went back to DCA again and rode the PP rides again... and again... and rode Luigi's. DH and DD loved Luigi's, I thought it was ok but not worth a 40 minute wait. We ALL loved Mater's though - and honestly, Mater speaking spanish while in the queue was my favorite lol.
Our 3rd day DH & DD hit Fantasyland for the usual (teacups, Dumbo, etc) & I hit Star Tours & Space Mountain, then DD & I had breakfast with Minnie & Friends while DH went to POTC, HM & BTMRR. DD & I met him over there afterward & we finally met DD's favorite guy - Jack Skellington! I then hit up HM & we all went on Winnie the Pooh (DD hated it... sigh). Then we split up again and I did POTC & they went back to... the teacups lol. We hit a number of rides before heading back to the hotel to rest for a while, including Nemo, Astro Orbiters, Autopia and... the teacups. We returned to Disneyland again in the evening and DH and I used FPs for Space Mountain & Star Tours & also hit... you guessed it, teacups and Dumbo. Twice.
Our 4th day was Thanksgiving and we started at DCA. At rope drop I headed straight to the single rider line for RSR & DH/DD went to Soarin' for FPs and then to Paradise Pier for... swings, zephyr & jellyfish. I was about 30th in line in single rider & got on in about 5 minutes. I then met DH/DD & he left for Screamin' & TSMM & I took DD on the Fun Wheel, swings, zephyr & jellyfish. DH then left for single rider RSR and there was an hour 20 wait. DD got to dance in the Phineas & Ferb show and we hit up Bug's Land rides before getting a snack at Cozy Cones. DH & I then split up to use our FPs for Soarin' (it's an indoor ride, we didn't even bother with DD) & then headed back to rest up before Thanksgiving dinner at Goofy's. We had a GREAT dinner there, then headed to Disneyland in time for the parade. After the parade... guess what rides we hit? Teacups & Dumbo. I'm still dizzy. For real. We had a few last photos taken in front of the castle & bid our farewells.
Summation: We didn't see WOC, Fantasmic or Fireworks. DD would not have liked F! & hates the noise from fireworks. We just didn't get to WOC, though we wanted to. I'm bummed about all of these, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
YES, the week of Thanksgiving can get super busy. HOWEVER, if you can get yourself there at rope drop & hit up rides that aren't huge hits (or have someone head to get FPs for them) you can get on quite a few rides. Day 2 I rode Matterhorn 4 times in a row without having to get off. That was my first ride (while DD/DH did... teacups). At 9:30 on Weds I walked on HM at 10:00 I had a 5 min wait at POTC. Thanksgiving Day while everyone was at Cars Land, we were riding Swings, Zephyr & Jellyfish 3 times in a row without having to get off. We got to go arounnd 4 times on the fun wheel and DH had a 5 min wait at Screamin' at 9am. TSMM was also at 10 minutes then (but 40 minutes 30 minutes later). I highly recommend getting there at rope drop if you can because you'll get SO much done in a short time.
Finally, we stayed at HoJo. We had a great experience there and would definitely recommend it to anyone. We stayed in building 1 facing the 5 and we had no freeway noise. It was great!
Can't wait to get back!!
But she and Aurora had a few good conversations, as she did with a few other princesses.
