We've lived in SoCal for 2 yrs now but haven't made it to DL yet...until my husband's work had pity on him and gave him 6 free tickets to use before the end of the year.
It was a very last minute thing but so wonderful for my kids ages 5, 10, 13, and my reluctant 16 yr old. My youngest 3 had been to DL about 8 yrs ago but didn't remember much. I LOVE DL so was very excited despite it being crazy crowd season.
We meant to start at 8am but life happens and we didn't get into the park until 9am. Kids were so excited but I had to laugh when they all said they thought the castle would be bigger!
We immediately went to Pirates and Haunted Mansion since those were at the top of the kid's ride list. We only had to wait about 5 minutes for each! Surprising since the park was already pretty full. We then headed over to Its a Small World since that was on MY list. That was about a 25 min wait so hubby went to get fast passes for Star Tours while we waited. Loved the holiday edition! We went straight to tea cups which had no wait either!
Stopped for a snack of Mickey pretzels and drinks.
Caught the Jedi Training show and then it was time for Star Tours .I LOVE fast passes! You really can't do Disney on a crowded day without them! The standard line was an hour but we only waited about 7 minutes with the fast passes.
Time for lunch so we decided to head home for a break since the youngest two were pretty tired. We stopped at Disney Train depot before leaving and got to watch a ton of characters from the depot while we waited. We saw Mulan, Mickey, Pluto, Donald Duck, Goody, Aladddin's Genie, and Jasmine.
We rode the train around the park which was a very nice ride. We hadn't done that before.
We headed home for a few hours to eat and rest.
We got back at 7pm and headed to California Adventure. We hit Bug's Land first which was practically emty. We walked on almost all rides and rode some twice. We did the Bug's Life movie too which my kids loved.
We hit Luigi's Flying tires (only a 5 min wait) and then hit the snack bar at the Cozy Cone Hotel, love that set up! So stinking cute! Mator and Lightening McQueen were doing character pics there too.
We caught the Wonder of ? Lights show which was really cool with the lights and water show. Very impressive.
We did the Little Mermaid ride since it was right there by the light show which had no wait either! Love that cute ride too, great songs from the movie.
Kids were wiped out by that time so we headed out.
All in all we there from 9am-2:30pm and 7-10pm. Granted we didn't ride that many rides because it was a peak season crowd day, but we rode more than we expected with minimal waits.
The enjoyed just taking it all in and I loved getting my Disney Magic fix.
It was enough to convince us to get the SoCal annual pass! Woohoo! Can't wait until January and we are back!
It was a very last minute thing but so wonderful for my kids ages 5, 10, 13, and my reluctant 16 yr old. My youngest 3 had been to DL about 8 yrs ago but didn't remember much. I LOVE DL so was very excited despite it being crazy crowd season.
We meant to start at 8am but life happens and we didn't get into the park until 9am. Kids were so excited but I had to laugh when they all said they thought the castle would be bigger!
We immediately went to Pirates and Haunted Mansion since those were at the top of the kid's ride list. We only had to wait about 5 minutes for each! Surprising since the park was already pretty full. We then headed over to Its a Small World since that was on MY list. That was about a 25 min wait so hubby went to get fast passes for Star Tours while we waited. Loved the holiday edition! We went straight to tea cups which had no wait either!
Stopped for a snack of Mickey pretzels and drinks.
Caught the Jedi Training show and then it was time for Star Tours .I LOVE fast passes! You really can't do Disney on a crowded day without them! The standard line was an hour but we only waited about 7 minutes with the fast passes.
Time for lunch so we decided to head home for a break since the youngest two were pretty tired. We stopped at Disney Train depot before leaving and got to watch a ton of characters from the depot while we waited. We saw Mulan, Mickey, Pluto, Donald Duck, Goody, Aladddin's Genie, and Jasmine.
We rode the train around the park which was a very nice ride. We hadn't done that before.
We headed home for a few hours to eat and rest.
We got back at 7pm and headed to California Adventure. We hit Bug's Land first which was practically emty. We walked on almost all rides and rode some twice. We did the Bug's Life movie too which my kids loved.
We hit Luigi's Flying tires (only a 5 min wait) and then hit the snack bar at the Cozy Cone Hotel, love that set up! So stinking cute! Mator and Lightening McQueen were doing character pics there too.
We caught the Wonder of ? Lights show which was really cool with the lights and water show. Very impressive.
We did the Little Mermaid ride since it was right there by the light show which had no wait either! Love that cute ride too, great songs from the movie.
Kids were wiped out by that time so we headed out.
All in all we there from 9am-2:30pm and 7-10pm. Granted we didn't ride that many rides because it was a peak season crowd day, but we rode more than we expected with minimal waits.
The enjoyed just taking it all in and I loved getting my Disney Magic fix.
It was enough to convince us to get the SoCal annual pass! Woohoo! Can't wait until January and we are back!
when we went home for a break we left him there when we went back in the evening! Admittedly, he's at a phase where nothing excites him except archery or Xbox.
