Overall it was a fun trip, but not as easy going as our trip in March. I'm pretty much Disney'ed out for awhile...
The Good: The Ramada Maingate was a decent place to stay. I just posted a full review on tripadvisor, but LMK if you have any specific questions.
The crowds weren't bad at all. We were able to get a lot of stuff done.
RSR is an amazing ride. Loved it. Unfortunately it does break down a LOT and wasn't opening until noon every day we were there so it was always a LONG line. We ate at Flo's and it was DELISH, but super expensive if you buy the kids car lunch box ($11 for a kids meal!) The Christmas decorations were beautiful and we loved that things literally appeared overnight!
The bad: The weather was all over the place, ranging from 96 on Monday to Rain on Thursday, to cold on Friday. It was really hard to plan for everything and we ended up spending a lot of money on extra layers for Friday.
Someone stole our little $15 umbrella stroller when we still had another day of touring, so we had to go buy ANOTHER one. My kids were really tired this trip.
The UGLY: We had several problems with the new procedure for 4/5 day hoppers before they changed it Friday. On our third day, we were lined up for CA (in the rain, FIRST in line at the gates on a non EMH day) and something happened with my 9 year old's ticket and it wouldn't scan. Meanwhile, the other side was pouring through, and we were there for a full 10 minutes almost 15, completely missing the change for RSR fastpasses. FORTUNATELY my parents and brother were in a different line (they had 3 day hoppers) and my brother booked it to the fastpass line. By the time we got through, the line for FP was back to Aladdin, but my brother was second in line so we just handed him our tickets and waited at the rope with the crowd. This same problem happened that afternoon when we hopped to DL that afternoon, spending another 15 minutes in line. We went to City Hall to complain because at this point, we had been held back for almost a half an hour! They did give us a few readmission passes for whatever rides we wanted, so we were able to do SM and ST that night but it was still extremely frustrating. Even more so was when it happened AGAIN Friday. It was a mess. I hope they get it fixed soon because it SUCKS right now.
Also, we ran into several REALLY rude people. I have NOTHING against other cultures visiting Disneyland but I do have a problem when they are rude and pushy. We encountered several instances of rude pushy people, but the worst experience was Monday's parade. I was saving a spot along the curb w/ my husband for the parade. We were there an hour early and had put some stuff out to help the 2 of us keep space for 9 and the toddler. DH took her to the bathroom and the rest of the group was headed over from Space Mtn, leaving me alone with the stroller and our "stuff" saving the spot. 20 minutes before the parade started, a foreign man and his HUGE tour group of about 40 just moved themselves into our spot even though it was CLEARLY being saved. There was room on the other side of the street. I stood up and told him I was saving it for my family and he told me that it was "ok" that there would be room for them. I TRIED to explain to him that there were 9 1/2 (10) people and he started screaming at me that he had paid the same amount for his ticket and he could stand wherever he wanted. Meanwhile I'm frantically trying to call DH and my parents to get them over there to help me. I'm only 5'2" and not a very aggressive person and this man just kept PUSHING me and moving his group back into our spot. I almost started crying, I was so mad and apparently my tear ducts are hard wired to my anger button, but I managed to hold it together. I told him that *I* was saving it, that they needed to find somewhere else to sit, that half of their group would be fine behind us, but there was not enough room for all 40, at which point Disney CM's started flocking over because he was yelling at me again and again that they paid the same for their tickets. They ended up moving us to the "VIP" area by the train, which is fine for viewing but the characters don't wave at you up there so my kids were disappointed. The only good thing that came about from it was that on the train's last run, the conductor asked us if we wanted to ride on the Lily Belle, which was beautiful, I wish I had been able to take all of the details in but it was dark.
Overall it was a good trip. I wouldn't take a 2 1/2 year old again. She was a monster and scared of all the rides this time except the merry go round. Every time we took her on it she threw a fit when we had to get off though. It was just no fun with her! She was SO easy in March too...
And at the end of the trip, we found out my grandpa is dying from stage 4 lung cancer and that really put a damper on the rest of the trip.
The Good: The Ramada Maingate was a decent place to stay. I just posted a full review on tripadvisor, but LMK if you have any specific questions.
The crowds weren't bad at all. We were able to get a lot of stuff done.
RSR is an amazing ride. Loved it. Unfortunately it does break down a LOT and wasn't opening until noon every day we were there so it was always a LONG line. We ate at Flo's and it was DELISH, but super expensive if you buy the kids car lunch box ($11 for a kids meal!) The Christmas decorations were beautiful and we loved that things literally appeared overnight!
The bad: The weather was all over the place, ranging from 96 on Monday to Rain on Thursday, to cold on Friday. It was really hard to plan for everything and we ended up spending a lot of money on extra layers for Friday.
Someone stole our little $15 umbrella stroller when we still had another day of touring, so we had to go buy ANOTHER one. My kids were really tired this trip.
The UGLY: We had several problems with the new procedure for 4/5 day hoppers before they changed it Friday. On our third day, we were lined up for CA (in the rain, FIRST in line at the gates on a non EMH day) and something happened with my 9 year old's ticket and it wouldn't scan. Meanwhile, the other side was pouring through, and we were there for a full 10 minutes almost 15, completely missing the change for RSR fastpasses. FORTUNATELY my parents and brother were in a different line (they had 3 day hoppers) and my brother booked it to the fastpass line. By the time we got through, the line for FP was back to Aladdin, but my brother was second in line so we just handed him our tickets and waited at the rope with the crowd. This same problem happened that afternoon when we hopped to DL that afternoon, spending another 15 minutes in line. We went to City Hall to complain because at this point, we had been held back for almost a half an hour! They did give us a few readmission passes for whatever rides we wanted, so we were able to do SM and ST that night but it was still extremely frustrating. Even more so was when it happened AGAIN Friday. It was a mess. I hope they get it fixed soon because it SUCKS right now.
Also, we ran into several REALLY rude people. I have NOTHING against other cultures visiting Disneyland but I do have a problem when they are rude and pushy. We encountered several instances of rude pushy people, but the worst experience was Monday's parade. I was saving a spot along the curb w/ my husband for the parade. We were there an hour early and had put some stuff out to help the 2 of us keep space for 9 and the toddler. DH took her to the bathroom and the rest of the group was headed over from Space Mtn, leaving me alone with the stroller and our "stuff" saving the spot. 20 minutes before the parade started, a foreign man and his HUGE tour group of about 40 just moved themselves into our spot even though it was CLEARLY being saved. There was room on the other side of the street. I stood up and told him I was saving it for my family and he told me that it was "ok" that there would be room for them. I TRIED to explain to him that there were 9 1/2 (10) people and he started screaming at me that he had paid the same amount for his ticket and he could stand wherever he wanted. Meanwhile I'm frantically trying to call DH and my parents to get them over there to help me. I'm only 5'2" and not a very aggressive person and this man just kept PUSHING me and moving his group back into our spot. I almost started crying, I was so mad and apparently my tear ducts are hard wired to my anger button, but I managed to hold it together. I told him that *I* was saving it, that they needed to find somewhere else to sit, that half of their group would be fine behind us, but there was not enough room for all 40, at which point Disney CM's started flocking over because he was yelling at me again and again that they paid the same for their tickets. They ended up moving us to the "VIP" area by the train, which is fine for viewing but the characters don't wave at you up there so my kids were disappointed. The only good thing that came about from it was that on the train's last run, the conductor asked us if we wanted to ride on the Lily Belle, which was beautiful, I wish I had been able to take all of the details in but it was dark.
Overall it was a good trip. I wouldn't take a 2 1/2 year old again. She was a monster and scared of all the rides this time except the merry go round. Every time we took her on it she threw a fit when we had to get off though. It was just no fun with her! She was SO easy in March too...
And at the end of the trip, we found out my grandpa is dying from stage 4 lung cancer and that really put a damper on the rest of the trip.
Saving spots is tricky business, especially if you only have 1 person saving for 10.
