4/19 - 4/21 Trip report...a good time, but something is missing

[ironband74]

Hi all,

As promised, here is my trip report for our 4/19-4/21 spring break trip.

Pre-Trip

The genesis of this trip actually began in January - my wife and I had returned from our Ireland trip for our 25th anniversary, and my DW suggested that maybe for Spring Break we would like to try Disneyland. Having canceled a spring break trip in 2020, I didn't have to be asked twice. My wife booked a room at the BWPPI, and at a family party for my son's 13th birthday I mentioned the planned trip in passing to his Godparents, who are good friends of ours and suggested that they might want to go with us when they remarked that 4/20 was their anniversary. Curious to see how my "system" worked (and warned that I am a little crazier at Disney than I am in "real life"), they enthusiastically agreed to join us on our grand adventure. And so it was that our party would consist of Me, my DW, DD (20), DDs BF (21), DS (13), and our two friends for a party of 7. We bought tickets with G+ attached and made reservations.

We discussed dining and decided to go all out, doing lunch at Carnation, drinks at Oga's, and dinner at Blue Bayou on Tuesday. Then we'd do lunch at Wine Country Trattoria, drinks at Lamplight, and dinner at Napa Rose on Wednesday. Thursday we'd do breakfast in the park - usually that would be at River Belle...but seeing that breakfast was off at that venue we decided we'd go with Carnation. I also decided to do a Trader Sam's reservation on our arrival day (Monday).

At the 60 day mark, I set up 3 computers across my dining room table and pre loaded tabs overnight. I was able to get all the reservations I desired except for Carnation, which didn't drop until about a week later. However, I set up a dining alert with a popular service so I was able to know when they came available and was able to secure our Tuesday Lunch and Thursday Breakfast.

With dining handled, I turned my attention to learning as much as I could about LL/G+ and started to put together a loose itinerary that I could A/B test as we got closer to our dates. Additionally, I decided to upgrade my park gear, as my old sling bag is pretty worn out and outdated.

I decided on the Waterfly Crossbody Sling Backpack for my day bag. I put all my favorite pins on it and loaded it with my park first aid kit (bandaids, moleskin, corn pads, callous pads, lip balm, eye drops, ibuprofen, and tums), a portable fan, a couple of cooling towels, wet wipes, facial tissue, portable charger, some packaged snacks, and a couple of 20 oz refillable water bottles. It was a little too small to fit my size 13 flip flops, and that's pretty much my only complaint - it was a good size to carry around and most of the things I brought got used at some point during the trip.


Also, being somewhat of a Star Wars nerd and having a Gold Spira from our trip in 2019, I pulled out my leatherworking tools and made a couple of spira holders - one for the Gold Spira I had, and one for the Silver Spira I would buy:




I had originally intended to clip these to my belt loops, but I found that they also clipped nicely to the zippers on my bag. The back is open to allow for scanning of the gift card. What you see here is Version 4 of the build. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out, and I got a few compliments from cast members when I used them throughout the resort.

I also picked up some mystery packs of pins from Pinderella to use for pin trading. I picked a few to keep (Spiderman, Captain America, and the Hatbox Ghost football pin) and put the rest on my lanyard for trading purposes.

In the final two weeks before our trip, I did dry runs of my intended itineraries for Tuesday and Wednesday on their respective days, factoring in Lightning lane returns, using the Lightning Lane refresh trick, and also practicing my fishing for MEP techniques. This was pretty useful and yielded the following intended guidelines:

Tuesday 4/19:
7:30 Enter
8:00 RD PPF**
8:05 Alice
8:15 Matterhorn
8:30 Snow White
8:43 Mr. Toad
8:52 Space(LL)**
9:07 BTMRR(LL)**
9:20 Jungle
9:50 BREAK
10:00 Indy(LL)**
10:25 Buzz(LL)**
10:40 S Tours(LL)**
11:00 padding(Tiki?IASW?)
11:30 Lunch at CC
12:30 Splash(LL)**
13:00 BREAK**,**
15:50 Oga’s **
16:30 MFSR
16:55 Break in GE
18:00 Dinner @ BB
19:00 Haunted
19:30 Pooh/Snack $$
20:00 ROTR %%
21:00 Clean up
IASW
Pooh, Tiki
Pinnochio
DCA Attraction

Wednesday 4/20
7:30 Enter
8:00 RD RSR**
8:24 Incredicoaster
8:39 TSMM(LL)**
8:58 Pal Around
9:30 GOTG/Soarin**
10:00 BREAK(Pym?)
10:30 GOTG/Soarin**
10:50 MI/Ariel
11:10 WS?
12:30 Lunch at WCT
1:30 GRR
2:00 BREAK
4:05 Lamplight
7:00 Napa Rose
8:00 WS?ROTR????

Satisfied, and knowing that we'd have Thursday to do any clean up we needed to do, I printed these cheat sheets on folded papers which would fit my bag's cell phone pouch and let everyone know that I had some plans I thought would work well.

My final purchase before we left for the parks was a minimalist wallet which would hold just my ID, 3 credit cards, and some cash. I intended to load a fair amount onto my Spira and use that wherever possible. I always hate sitting on my wallet in attractions, and this allowed me to either keep my wallet with my phone in the pouch on my pack or in my front pocket. It was last minute because I was thinking of making my own since I already had the leatherworking tools out...but I ran out of time.

As Easter Sunday approached, we watched the weather forecast become cooler and cooler, settling in at the low 70s and partly cloudy for our park days. I picked up our rental car on Saturday (our cars don't get great mileage, renting a car saves a fair amount on gas and peace of mind driving down from the SF Bay Area), and Sunday afternoon we packed and were ready to depart on Monday.

The drive was uneventful - My DD and her boyfriend opted to drive themselves, as did our friends, so it was just the 3 of us in the car heading down. We actually got to Anaheim about an hour ahead of our check-in time, so we dropped by Target to pick up some last minute medications/snacks/etc. We then checked into the BWPPI and ordered dinner from the Panera a few doors down.

My wife had a look at the Blue Bayou menu and was somewhat disappointed. After poking around the app for a while, she asked if it would be possible to eat at River Belle for dinner instead. The pared down menu, as well as the stripped down ambiance was not something she wanted to pay for. After confirming with our friends that a change in venue would be acceptable, I pulled up the app and just casually refreshed and refreshed and refreshed and by some miracle a 5:50 pm dinner reservation came available. I snagged it and canceled our BB plans. After this, we headed for Downtown Disney to make our way to the DLH for our Trader Sam's reservation, where we met our friends for drinks. They had arrived later than we had so they also ate dinner there. We enjoyed the ambiance, though our table was in a corner so we couldn't see some of the features. Even so, we enjoyed our drinks (I had a shipwreck on the rocks and a Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum) and went over our rope drop strategy for Tuesday morning.



Tuesday 4/19

Having talked to security at DTD the day before, I decided that just to be safe we'd head down to the park at 6:15am. This turned out to be a little earlier than necessary, but better safe than sorry! We were greeted by a closed gate at Harbor Blvd:


We waited here until about 6:30,when we walked to the cones set up before the canopies and split into four lines:



There was an annual passholder ahead of us with multiple empty shopping bags, first speaking loudly into his phone about shipping times and availability of items. Once he got off his phone, he continued to speak loudly and offer unsolicited comments on just about everything we said. The guy was the very definition of a passhole and having not had coffee yet I really couldn't wait to get away from him. Other than that, as we waited the crowds built behind us.

At 6:45, this was the situation:


By 7:03, it looked like this:


We could see folks entering the esplanade from the DTD side by the time they let us forward to security. We were at this point not aware that DTD Starbucks didn't open until 7:00 and was not doing mobile orders. When that became apparent from our friends who were staying at the GC and made it to Starbucks, my wife and daughter headed to Starbucks to help out (my DD is a Starbucks partner, so we could get a discount if she went) while we hopped in line at gate 27/28. Our counterpart on the other side was 5 back at the far left gate, while we were 2 back at ours, so I had him join us.

We got scanned in and at 7:30 we made for our rope drop position:



By 7:40 we were joined by the rest of the party and were ready to make the dash to Peter Pan to start the day.

See this thread for an attraction recap: Morning Report DL 4/19

We had to deviate a little from my initial plan due to the extra wait at PPF - we're usually pretty close to the front, but we wound up waiting around 10 minutes. This threw us off a little and we wound up skipping Toad and Snow White to stay on schedule. It was a small price to pay, and we were able to get on Small World before lunch, so it all worked out.

Dinner at River Belle was quite good. I had the Burnt Ends Grilled Cheese and it did not disappoint.

Highlight of the first day was definitely getting on Rise of the Resistance with a 25 minute wait.

The other highlight was my youngest son placing his popcorn bucket between his feet on Guardians. As the ride began, he gripped it a little too hard and the lid popped off. Suddenly as we were lifted and fell I felt something light hitting me in the head. I initially thought it was some new effect (rubble hitting us?) until I heard my son exclaim "Oh, my gosh! I'm SO SORRY!!!!" Everyone was laughing as we were pelted by popcorn, and a lady behind us yelled out "some landed in my mouth!" We were of course apologetic to the cast member and offered to clean it up, but he ushered us away and told us not to worry about it. We laughed about it for a good while. Note: I do not recommend opening a popcorn bucket on Guardians. But in the moment, it was one of the funniest things I've ever experienced on the ride.

The lowlight was the confusion at rope drop and the crazy dash to Peter Pan. I'll include musings on rope drop later as confusion and chaos at rope drop are a running theme of our trip. In retrospect, with the early morning looming for Wednesday I probably should have balked at my son's request to build the lightsaber at that time - it made for a later night than I really wanted to have. On the other hand, seeing him with it in front of the Millenium Falcon was priceless. Who needs sleep anyway?

Wednesday 4/20

After the previous day's experience, we decided to grab breakfast at Panera prior to heading to security at 6:30. This worked well for us.

Report on that day here:4/20 Report

I very much underestimated the length of time it takes to dine at Napa Rose. We were there for almost three hours. Not complaining, mind you. We sent the kids off to do their own thing in the evening, and they were fortunate enough to catch some of the Electrical Parade and Fireworks preview. If I had known that was going to happen, I might have planned differently, but how was I to know? The only clue was the early closing time of Disneyland at 10pm, which I thought meant they were going to dry run the parade after close.

Anyway, Napa Rose was really great. Our server, Mickey, has been with the restaurant since it opened. We saw Andrew Sutton in the kitchen and I pointed him out to our friends. Mickey is a master sommelier and helped us choose a champagne to celebrate our friends' 31st anniversary, and was just fantastic.

I had the Crudo of the day as an appetizer. I am not a foodie by any stretch, but this was a Ratatouille like experience in flavors and textures. I've never had anything like it and it defies any description I could give it:



The halibut was good but unremarkable. Dessert was wonderful as always.

To be continued...

 

[ironband74]

Real quick - on day one at Carnation Cafe I had the baked potato soup as I always do. There is now some roasted potato on top, which I think is new from previous years. In any case, delicious.


Also, I will note that for our cantina reservation, it took a while to get called back. When we were called in, they tried to put our party of 7 at the same table with another party of 6. It would have been a very tight fit. Fortunately the hostess decided that we couldn't really all fit there, so she sent us back outside until a table came available. That made us much more comfortable, but did eat up some time.

OK, back to 4/20:

Highlight: Dinner at Napa Rose, and for the kids preview of the MSEP and fireworks.

Lowlight: The rope drop fiasco with the park shooting a commercial at rope drop. This earned Disney a "Strongly Worded Email"(tm) feedback for creating a potentially dangerous situation. Fortunately it all worked out ok, but honestly, rope drop is stressful enough without them adding more stress to it.

4/21 - Cleanup day and Breakfast

Here's the basic report for 4/21: 4/21 Cleanup Day

Breakfast at Carnation was really good. My wife ordered the breakfast skillet and I ordered the pancakes. We did sharesies.



However, I did not share the spiced apples. Those were mine and no one else could have them.

Lunch at Flo's has never let me down. I enjoyed the fried chicken dinner immensely.

The day went well - the only sadness really was that we wasted so much time waiting for Web Slingers and missed out on Rise of the Resistance. Beyond that it was a successful day and we were able to close out the park as noted in the linked thread.

Thoughts on Rope Drop, Value, and being valued.

I used to enjoy the energy of rope drop. I am not sure if it is my age or the way that rope drop has become compulsory or just the way that it is handled, but it is really starting to stress me out.

My favorite rope drop memories are the ones where Disney has managed the rope drop queues ahead of time. I remember one time in particular when , at the front of the drawbridge to the castle, there was a cast member holding a sign that said "Peter Pan" After a very short walk across the hub, folks were able to fall in line behind this individual, who then walked us at a reasonable pace to the attraction. Those who ran ahead of this individual were not permitted access to the attraction. It was orderly, it was fair (those at the front of the rope pretty much were at the front of the line), and it cut down a lot on the running and madness we now see at rope drop.

Another time, shortly after Guardians opened, They had a rope drop near the Hyperion, where again, they had folks who wanted to ride Guardians line up on the left side of the street while folks who wanted to ride Radiator Springs lined up on the right side of the street. At rope drop, cast members with signs walked their respective lines to the attractions and there was no running, shoving, or craziness, just a well ordered march to the destination and a reward for those who got there early rather than those who break the rules by running ahead.

Disney knows which attractions are most popular at rope drop. As expected, at DCA, they are the ILL attractions because if you don't do them at rope drop, you will either wait a long time or have to pay for access. At DLP, its essentially Peter Pan, Rise, Space Mountain, and Indy. Would it be so hard to have dedicated cast members for each of these attractions set up queues at rope drop and walk the group to the attraction? I really don't understand why Disney abandoned the tactics which worked well in favor of a free for all which encourages running and rule breaking and punishes those who follow the rules and put in the effort to get there early.

Add to this the blatant disdain for the guests in favor of shooting a commercial at rope drop, and refusing to halt production for even a few minutes at 8:00 to let the crowds pass, instead funneling them into a less wide walkway, and my blood just starts to boil. As we watched that situation unfold, I could just hear Bob Chapek bragging in his shareholder meeting about how they were being more profitable than ever before, and feel his hand in my pocket as he whispered in my ear "you could avoid all this for another $24 per person, you know?"

The ILL thing really rubs me the wrong way. I am happy to spend money on my own terms when I'm at Disney, and I do so freely for sure. Disney is the one place where I'm not a tight-wad with my cash. However, I think I finally figured out what really was gnawing at me and sucking the magic out of my experience. In the past, when Fast-pass was free, I felt like purchasing MaxPass was a choice I was making. I was able to choose to get it to reduce my running around and have the ability to pick up cancellations and stuff, but I knew full well that if I didn't buy it, I could still have a fantastic day at the park, even if my legs would be a little more sore.

However, as an infrequent visitor with a limited amount of time in the park, I felt like my hand had been forced - Genie+ was an absolute necessity to "get my money's worth", and now rope drop, which again used to feel more like a choice I made because I was excited and wanted to make the most of my time, felt compulsory unless I wanted to spend on ILLs, at least at DCA. With folks in my party unwilling to go Single Rider, It felt like my choices were limited. And with the esplanade opening later, and disparities between the opening times of the different security lines...It just became more stressful than it needed to be.

I think what it all comes down to is that in the past, when I came, I felt I had the freedom to choose to spend on things because I wanted to, not because I needed to. And beyond that I used to feel that my family and I were valued guests of the park.

I got what I paid for, and don't get me wrong, I had a great time. I was able to game Genie + to get on everything I wanted to, my touring plans kept wait times low (except for Web Slingers), and I thoroughly enjoyed my food and the attractions and the park ambiance and all of that. I made memories with my family and my friends that I will cherish forever.

But I didn't feel like a guest.

For the first time in my life while at Disneyland, I felt like a customer.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I've been following your daily reports, and this overall report just puts it in great perspective what that little something missing is. I hadn't thought about the difference between guest and customer, but you describe it really well.

Thanks for the report and glad it was a great time even with the rope drop drama!

 

[disneyseniors]

Thanks for your detailed TR of DL. We hope to visit this year and have never been there.
Your comment about feeling like a "customer" rather than a valued guest hits home. That is what Chapek calls the guests now! We are called customers to him and his minions. Sad!

 

[Jason2015]

Sounds like an okay trip. One thing I've found with is that DLR is a much more go with the flow experience than WDW. My family never worries about Rope Drop at DLR as its a bit of a zoo and what you get for waking up early is just not worth it. We get Genie+ (Though liked MaxPass better) and the usually let the next ride available help us plan the day. We don't worry about meal reservations because there are tons of great restaurants in the area if all the Disney places are booked. When we go to WDW we have to make sure every little detail is planned (though haven't been there with Genie+-I hear it is a lot more difficult then the DLR version) including breaks, reservations, transportation. I'm more of a go the way the wind blows person so I like the relaxed approach DLR allows, however, I can see it taking a bit of the bloom off the rose for those that love to plan.

 

[ironband74]

Actually got a phone call from Disney today regarding my "Strongly Worded Email" (tm) feedback. The cast member I spoke with was very interested in getting details from me and assured me that my feedback would be heard. Will it? Hard to say. I told the CM that we love the CMs and that they are what make Disney awesome, not the management, and that I really appreciated the phone call and that I was sure it was a hard time to be in guest services making feedback calls. She was great and I could tell she understood where I was coming from.

So +1 to Disney for making me feel heard.