2019 Holiday Time at DLR Superthread: 11/08/19 - 1/06/20!

[CaliforniaGirl09]

We are back from our three-night/four-day Christmas trip, and I'm really happy with how everything went. We have spent Christmas at Disneyland and Disney World a couple times, and I think this time was my favorite. The crowds for the holidays were (relatively speaking) manageable. On Monday 12/23 it rained a little in the afternoon, which pretty much cleared everything out. It was like the old days at Disneyland We had some good meals, including Catal's Santa breakfast on 12/24 that we really enjoyed (see pics), Christmas dinner at Storytellers that was fine, and a new park favorite--the seasonal chicken soup at Cochina Cucamonga that was so good my husband had it twice. We also had a lovely surprise waiting in our DVC room at the VGC one night. I was shocked. We've never received anything like this from a DVC stay--love it! (see pic).

Catalo starter (all food served family style)


Really cute Hot Cocoa cart that the kids enjoyed while I enjoyed my bottomless mimosas


This was waiting for us in our room on 12/23--so nice!!


In other random observations ...
--Maxpass really is a thing of beauty. WDW people have no idea what they are missing. FP+ sucks for so many reasons but especially now with the tiers at HS and Epcot.
--I can't believe how many VIP tours there were while we were there. So many plaids! I kept thinking that each of those $3000+ a pop
--I do like Ghost Galaxy, but Hyperspace mountain really is awesome. Wish they'd keep it like that.
--I forgot how much I loved the holiday Haunted Mansion.
--I sat in one of the side seats for Soaring and I'm finally done with what used to be my favorite ride. I *loved* soaring over CA, but soaring over the world is just horrible IMO. I can't believe someone actually sat in those side seats and said "this is fine." Everything is curved. I was one who petitioned on Twitter to keep Soaring over CA, but deaf ears
--It feels as if they've moved away from speciality merchandise. Some of the stores that used to have unique things are gone (the vault, the one across from playhouse disney, etc.) and it felt as if the same stuff was pretty much in every store. It saved me money so I guess I'm not complaining, LOL.
--I'd hoped to buy some cute PJs, but all the smaller sizes were sold out by time we arrived Should have shopped online at the Disneystore before we left.
--I wasn't sure how the "no gifts to open" on Christmas morning would work, but it was fine with our 20 and 22 year olds. I'd planned to do the PJs and/or other cute things, but I didn't really find anything so we went with a couple gift cards from grandparents and a couple packs of M&Ms By time we got home last night they were almost too tired to open gifts. Almost.

Thanks to all for the help and excitement on this thread.

 

[midnight star]

Has anyone been in the park since the 25-now? I've been checking the app and the wait times really don't look bad at all considering the time...normally it's slammed

 

[KrzyKtty101]

In the DL park now. A lot more empty than I thought. Waiting to see how it gets throughout today.

 

[midnight star]

In the DL park now. A lot more empty than I thought. Waiting to see how it gets throughout today.

Enjoy! I'm wondering how next week will be

 

[Aurora0427]

Has anyone been in the park since the 25-now? I've been checking the app and the wait times really don't look bad at all considering the time...normally it's slammed

We’ve been checking the app as well and we had much longer wait times when we were there on December 14!

 

[midnight star]

We’ve been checking the app as well and we had much longer wait times when we were there on December 14!

Disney posted this not too long ago. I checked the app again and it still doesn’t look horrible? The only wait time that made me cringe was 60 minutes for pirates. But Indy is down so I have a feeling people probably went there. And the falcon is 100 but I’m sure many people visiting have seen the new land or ride yet so that makes sense. Everything else, If you go there early, you would’ve hit or have a fastpass for. Maybe later on it will get worse

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Disney posted this not too long ago. I checked the app again and it still doesn’t look horrible? The only wait time that made me cringe was 60 minutes for pirates. But Indy is down so I have a feeling people probably went there. And the falcon is 100 but I’m sure many people visiting have seen the new land or ride yet so that makes sense. Everything else, If you go there early, you would’ve hit or have a fastpass for. Maybe later on it will get worse View attachment 460824

They’ve stopped selling tickets to Disneyland. Still selling for DCA.

 

[Aurora0427]

Disney posted this not too long ago. I checked the app again and it still doesn’t look horrible? The only wait time that made me cringe was 60 minutes for pirates. But Indy is down so I have a feeling people probably went there. And the falcon is 100 but I’m sure many people visiting have seen the new land or ride yet so that makes sense. Everything else, If you go there early, you would’ve hit or have a fastpass for. Maybe later on it will get worse View attachment 460824

I think it’s going to get crazy. It’s sunny and beautiful here in San Diego so if it’s nice like this is OC, I think the parks will be packed because not everyone local has an AP. Also I bet tons of people are checking in starting today and they’ll head to the parks in droves once they arrive. But I agree.... appears that if you rope dropped this morning you did alright![/QUOTE]

 

[KrzyKtty101]

It definitely got busier by lunch time. We left after the one o'clock parade and will be back early evening.

 

[Aurora0427]

So @CaliforniaGirl09 I wanted to comment on your post but my kids distracted me! Loved hearing about your trip and I’m totally on board with your sentiments about Soarin and Max pass. FP+ totally sucks and it’ll be so hard to go back to WDW and not have max pass! I don’t understand why they are trying to make Soarin Round the World happen. It doesn’t even make sense.... Soarin over California is so appropriate for its location and it’s such a great movie. As new San Diegans, we love seeing the scenes in our new home city! Let Epcot have Soarin round the world!

 

[Aurora0427]

Well @midnight star looks like the sh*t has hit the fan! I just checked wait times. Snow White, Toad and Pinocchio are 45 minutes and RSR has a 210 minute wait. I’m not sad I’m missing out. I think they’re out of fast passes as well for most attractions.

 

[midnight star]

Well @midnight star looks like the sh*t has hit the fan! I just checked wait times. Snow White, Toad and Pinocchio are 45 minutes and RSR has a 210 minute wait. I’m not sad I’m missing out. I think they’re out of fast passes as well for most attractions.

And Indy is 205 LOL!! If we end up not going to universal Sunday, I may brave the parks!!!
My coworker is there now and she said the morning was great and then afternoon it was out of control haha. But they have been there since Tuesday and have passes so they are ok with just doing whatever.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

So @CaliforniaGirl09 I wanted to comment on your post but my kids distracted me! Loved hearing about your trip and I’m totally on board with your sentiments about Soarin and Max pass. FP+ totally sucks and it’ll be so hard to go back to WDW and not have max pass! I don’t understand why they are trying to make Soarin Round the World happen. It doesn’t even make sense.... Soarin over California is so appropriate for its location and it’s such a great movie. As new San Diegans, we love seeing the scenes in our new home city! Let Epcot have Soarin round the world!

LOL, so glad I'm not alone. I was so happy when they brought Soarin over CA back this summer and was really hoping they'd keep it. People seemed to love it. I think it's better to have different ones at different parks. The one at Tokyo Disney is completely different--completely. We happened to be there last summer when it opened and caught it a few times.

It's amazing how different the mentality is at WDW. WDW people think that three rides (and only one of those max a headliner) with FP+ that must be planned 30-60 days in advance is a good thing. With Maxpass on 12/23, we must have done over a dozen rides, including all the headliners with a late start and long break in the afternoon. Vast difference. I've been going to WDW pretty frequently the past few years for RunDisney races, and DL is *so* much better for rides. I also forgot how much I like the longer park hours at DL.

 

[midnight star]

It's amazing how different the mentality is at WDW. WDW people think that three rides (and only one of those max a headliner) with FP+ that must be planned 30-60 days in advance is a good thing.

I'm going to WDW at the end of next month. I'm still in shock that they only let you get 3 rides a day with fastpsss+...and the advice to get more after you used the 3 is to obsessively stalk the app and refresh..

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I'm going to WDW at the end of next month. I'm still in shock that they only let you get 3 rides a day with fastpsss+...and the advice to get more after you used the 3 is to obsessively stalk the app and refresh..

I know! And it’s so hard to get more than one headliner. Good luck and have fun! We really enjoy wdw but save our rides for DL.

 

[midnight star]

I know! And it’s so hard to get more than one headliner. Good luck and have fun! We really enjoy wdw but save our rides for DL.

We are lucky and got all the headliners via Fastpass+ (yes we got Flight of Passage!!). But still kind of stinks knowing that at DL there isn't a limit to how many fastpasses you can hold at a time. And there aren't tiers.

 

[Aurora0427]

I'm going to WDW at the end of next month. I'm still in shock that they only let you get 3 rides a day with fastpsss+...and the advice to get more after you used the 3 is to obsessively stalk the app and refresh..

The system has also increased the wait times at every single attraction. We were shocked when we went for the first time with FP+ and Journey Into Imagination (Figment ride at Epcot) had a 25 minute wait. Before FP+ Figment was literally a walk on attraction. And don’t get me started on the rope dropping system at Epcot so you can try and ride Frozen, Test Track and Soarin without waiting 60 plus minutes for two attractions because of their tier system.

Max pass for the win

 

[Aurora0427]

So I was under the impression that the holidays ended January 5, but from the calendar it appears the refurbishments of IASW and Snow White don’t start until January 7. So now I’m thinking of letting the kids play hooky one more day or even better going by myself (terrible mom alert ) for one last fix before the refurbishments and the holiday stuff comes down.

How crowded do y’all think it will be on Monday January 6?

 

[midnight star]

So I was under the impression that the holidays ended January 5, but from the calendar it appears the refurbishments of IASW and Snow White don’t start until January 7. So now I’m thinking of letting the kids play hooky one more day or even better going by myself (terrible mom alert ) for one last fix before the refurbishments and the holiday stuff comes down.

How crowded do y’all think it will be on Monday January 6?

I would say expect typical Monday crowds PLUS the wave of all passholders being able to come back. Even though school will start, I know of some parents who are sending their kids to school, then they will do solo trips to the parks themselves thats day without the kids lol. And isn't that the last day for Holiday stuff? So that can add to crowds.

 

[VandVsmama]

LOL, so glad I'm not alone. I was so happy when they brought Soarin over CA back this summer and was really hoping they'd keep it. People seemed to love it. I think it's better to have different ones at different parks. The one at Tokyo Disney is completely different--completely. We happened to be there last summer when it opened and caught it a few times.

It's amazing how different the mentality is at WDW. WDW people think that three rides (and only one of those max a headliner) with FP+ that must be planned 30-60 days in advance is a good thing. With Maxpass on 12/23, we must have done over a dozen rides, including all the headliners with a late start and long break in the afternoon. Vast difference. I've been going to WDW pretty frequently the past few years for RunDisney races, and DL is *so* much better for rides. I also forgot how much I like the longer park hours at DL.

I completely agree re: Soarin at WDW & DL. I really wish that they'd make Soarin Over CA a permanent thing at DL. Soarin' Over The World is a lesser quality attraction.

And I am totally on board with you re: Max Pass at DL vs FP+ at WDW!