GeorgiaHoo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2005
Wanted to thank everyone for all the great advice I received over the weekend that helped make my 1-day, short notice trip to Disneyland successful. I followed folks' advice on arrival time, MaxPass, and where to eat and everything went about as well as can be expected for what I wanted to accomplish and the timing. Here's a quick report (which really just summarizes some of my in-park experiences I posted yesterday). Let me know if you have any questions.
Arrival - recommendation was to arrive no later than 7:00 am for an 8:00 opening. Due to the fact that I was on east coast time I was up early anyway and arrived at 6:30 am and was literally the first person at the gates. I went to grab a coffee from Starbucks and when I returned around 6:45 there were about 4 other waiting. By 7:00 there were 10 or so people in each of multiple lines, and by the time they opened the gates to the turnstiles at 7:40 there were a LOT of people waiting. Since I was up front I was scanned in right away even though the turnstiles weren't open so immediately made a FastPass reservation using MaxPass for 8:30-9:30 for Hyperspace Mountain. They opened the turnstiles around 7:45 and I walked over to the Adventureland rope and was one of the first people in line there.
Morning - rope dropped at 8:00 and I went to Indiana Jones first. Even though I was like third in line at rope drop a lot of people ran towards Indy so I was only about 25th in line there. They were still testing the ride when we arrived so couldn't board right away but I was done by about 8:25. Then walked over to Splash Mountain and was the only person there. Made a FastPass for Big Thunder while walking to Splash and rode that immediately after Splash, then made another FastPass for Matterhorn, and rode that after Big Thunder, then used my FastPass for Space Mountain. Still had some time so made two more morning FastPasses for Guardians and Incredicoaster. I was able to complete all those rides by 11 am or so which was more productive than I expected. And when I left the park around that time there were massive lines at both the gates to Disneyland and the bag check. Bag check especially looked miserable.
Evening - had to leave for a few hours after grabbing an early lunch but kept an eye on availability for RSR while I was gone and made FastPasses for that for 5:20 return, Toy Story for 5:55 return, then Splash for 6:30 and Haunted Mansion (after I got back to the park) for 7:00 so had those waiting for me when I returned. Splash broke as we were about to board and was told it would be at least a 45 minute wait so grabbed dinner and by that time I was pretty beat down (only had 4 hours sleep the night before and it was almost 11:00 pm EST) so I did some shopping for the family and headed back to the hotel.
Food - had a late breakfast/early lunch at Pacific Wharf Cafe and got the breadbowl with clam chowder. I've had better clam chowder but it was good and filling. The breadbowl was very good--freshly cooked, crisp on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. Had an early dinner at Ballast Point and thought the fish tacos were pretty tasty. Beer was outrageously overpriced but a good selection and Ballast Point is a solid brewery. After Splash went down I ended up getting the beef stew breadbowl from French Market. The stew was pretty good but the breadbowl was really inferior to the one I had earlier in the day--tasted like bread that had been sitting out all day long, which it probably had. And the table situation was really chaotic, the floor super-sticky, so a bit stressful but I'd go back at hopefully a less busy time.
Overall it was a good (if tiring) trip. Rode just about everything I wanted to except Pirates and some of the rides in fantasyland like Alice and Toad and could have done those if I powered through till midnight. Probably helped a lot that I was a solo adult. And going towards Adventureland instead of Fantasyland or Tomorrowland absolutely made a difference in the morning. Can't say enough about early arrival--if you arrive at 7:30 or later then there's going to be a wait to get through the turnstiles and you'll be towards the back of a pretty good crowd regardless of which way you go. Even though most people went somewhere other than Adventureland there was probably already a 15+ minute wait for Indiana Jones when I got off around 8:25, and that's just going to push you back everywhere else.
Arrival - recommendation was to arrive no later than 7:00 am for an 8:00 opening. Due to the fact that I was on east coast time I was up early anyway and arrived at 6:30 am and was literally the first person at the gates. I went to grab a coffee from Starbucks and when I returned around 6:45 there were about 4 other waiting. By 7:00 there were 10 or so people in each of multiple lines, and by the time they opened the gates to the turnstiles at 7:40 there were a LOT of people waiting. Since I was up front I was scanned in right away even though the turnstiles weren't open so immediately made a FastPass reservation using MaxPass for 8:30-9:30 for Hyperspace Mountain. They opened the turnstiles around 7:45 and I walked over to the Adventureland rope and was one of the first people in line there.
Morning - rope dropped at 8:00 and I went to Indiana Jones first. Even though I was like third in line at rope drop a lot of people ran towards Indy so I was only about 25th in line there. They were still testing the ride when we arrived so couldn't board right away but I was done by about 8:25. Then walked over to Splash Mountain and was the only person there. Made a FastPass for Big Thunder while walking to Splash and rode that immediately after Splash, then made another FastPass for Matterhorn, and rode that after Big Thunder, then used my FastPass for Space Mountain. Still had some time so made two more morning FastPasses for Guardians and Incredicoaster. I was able to complete all those rides by 11 am or so which was more productive than I expected. And when I left the park around that time there were massive lines at both the gates to Disneyland and the bag check. Bag check especially looked miserable.
Evening - had to leave for a few hours after grabbing an early lunch but kept an eye on availability for RSR while I was gone and made FastPasses for that for 5:20 return, Toy Story for 5:55 return, then Splash for 6:30 and Haunted Mansion (after I got back to the park) for 7:00 so had those waiting for me when I returned. Splash broke as we were about to board and was told it would be at least a 45 minute wait so grabbed dinner and by that time I was pretty beat down (only had 4 hours sleep the night before and it was almost 11:00 pm EST) so I did some shopping for the family and headed back to the hotel.
Food - had a late breakfast/early lunch at Pacific Wharf Cafe and got the breadbowl with clam chowder. I've had better clam chowder but it was good and filling. The breadbowl was very good--freshly cooked, crisp on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. Had an early dinner at Ballast Point and thought the fish tacos were pretty tasty. Beer was outrageously overpriced but a good selection and Ballast Point is a solid brewery. After Splash went down I ended up getting the beef stew breadbowl from French Market. The stew was pretty good but the breadbowl was really inferior to the one I had earlier in the day--tasted like bread that had been sitting out all day long, which it probably had. And the table situation was really chaotic, the floor super-sticky, so a bit stressful but I'd go back at hopefully a less busy time.
Overall it was a good (if tiring) trip. Rode just about everything I wanted to except Pirates and some of the rides in fantasyland like Alice and Toad and could have done those if I powered through till midnight. Probably helped a lot that I was a solo adult. And going towards Adventureland instead of Fantasyland or Tomorrowland absolutely made a difference in the morning. Can't say enough about early arrival--if you arrive at 7:30 or later then there's going to be a wait to get through the turnstiles and you'll be towards the back of a pretty good crowd regardless of which way you go. Even though most people went somewhere other than Adventureland there was probably already a 15+ minute wait for Indiana Jones when I got off around 8:25, and that's just going to push you back everywhere else.
