Pluto468
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2020
- Messages
- 4,304
We finally went on our trip! I started planning in November 2019, we were supposed to go March 2020. After many cancellations and rebooking, we went last week.
We arrived on a Monday afternoon and stayed through Saturday. We had hoppers, our starting parks were DL-DL-DCA-DL-DL. I won't bother listing all of our rides because that would probably be boring, but we did everything we wanted to, and some things twice. We did all the major rides and used LL, which was amazingly helpful. On our rope drop mornings we rode everything by 10:30. I was worried about mobile ordering and using Genie+ but they were both very helpful. We wouldn't have been able to do half as much without them.
Most days we were there were rated a 9 but it didn't feel like it, since we didn't really have to wait in lines with LL. The heat was much more bothersome than the crowds. We went to the park opening until around 11 or 12 most days and took a huge break in the afternoon to get out of the heat. It was tempting to stay all day long, but we would all have been cranky monsters and wouldn't have enjoyed the parks as much. We went for quality not quantity. By the 2nd day I vowed never to go in June again lol. I'll find the coolest month of the year for our next trip. Luckily we had our neck fans, sun hats, sunbrella, refillable bottles and Bombas that I learned about from people here.
California Adventure is so much fun! Way better than the last time I was there (2016). We spent lots of time in Avengers Campus and had great interactions with Loki. We also saw Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange and Black Widow. I walked along beside Falcon for like 3 minutes before realizing he was there! Pym's was a great spot for breakfast and lunch.
Carsland was amazing. We went there after World Of Color on our first night and were able to see the Disneyland Fireworks, which was really neat. Carsland is so cool at night. A few days later we went back and had lunch at Flo's. My kids used a LL for radiator Springs racers and loved it.
I don't even know what to say about Disneyland. We lived in Socal for 8 years and had annual passports for 5 years so walking through those gates really is like going home. The MSEP was awesome, Fantasmic was as great as always and we ended up seeing the fireworks from a different spot every night. I think my favorite was when we watched them in Galaxy's edge. We saw the "Bruno" projections on Small World, which was so much fun.
I ended up cancelling most of my hard-won dining reservations! Once we were there I wanted to be a bit more relaxed and not have time constraints. We did keep our 2 Oga's reservations. Oga's was even more fun than I thought it would be but...we had no idea that we would be sharing a table with other people! I thought the reservation meant we would have a table to ourselves. That part was a bit off-putting the first time we went there. We got used to it, but it felt very strange to sit and eat with people at the same table, especially after avoiding indoor dining for 2 years. On the last day I lucked out and got a Goofy's reservation for lunch right before we left for the airport. I liked having the characters just wave to use instead of coming over for hugs and autographs.
One of our days had a ton of ride closures, which was really frustrating. I'd been trying to get on Peter Pan for a few days but kept running into issues. Once I was almost at the ships when the ride closed down. On our last day it was down at opening, so I went on a couple other Fantasyland rides. I was about to get into the cart on Snow White when Peter Pan opened. I left through the exit and walked with purpose to Peter Pan, where I had just a 9 minute wait. I went on again with dd around 10:30 pm.
I was so happy to get on Pirates! We rope dropped specifically to ride it the day it opened, but it was down a ton that morning. In the end we were able to use a ME LL pass to get on around 7:30 pm. It was totally worth changing our trip to be there.
Rise Of The Resistance is every bit as amazing as I'd heard. It's unlike any other ride. We used ILL twice to ride it.
We did a split stay with Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn and Disneyland Hotel. BW was surprisingly really nice. Clean, very comfortable, super convenient 2 minute walk to crosswalk, really nice breakfast. That will probably be our go-to Harbor hotel from now on. I've never stayed that close before. It made such a huge difference in our days, especially at night after walking all day.
The Disneyland Hotel... Some of it was as wonderful as our last stay in 2019, but we ran into some issues this time. We booked a 2 bedroom suite. We were in Frontier tower and basically had a construction site right outside our window. Like literally right outside. I felt like I could have tossed the construction workers a drink. They were out there all the time, so we had to keep the curtains closed the whole time. It was just too weird having people right outside the window. We couldn't use the balconies at all because the workers were just right there. The construction was also very loud. All of our windows faced construction except one which faced the parking lot. It was a major disappointment. I knew of course that there was construction, but had no idea how close it would be to the rooms. Our room was also dusty, but I don't know if that's related to the construction or not. We had club level and would have much preferred to be in Adventure tower the whole time. We had a fantastic room with a view of Downtown Disney our first night, but had to switch to Frontier for the last 2.
All of the CMs were friendly and helpful at the hotel. Club level was really nice, especially for the time we were in limbo between rooms. I probably would only do it for 1 or 2 nights next time. The food got repetitious after a few days, and most nights dd couldn't find anything she liked for dinner.
We went to Tangoroa terrace for breakfast on our last day. The food was good, and mobile ordering was easy. I'd tried the previous day for lunch and there were no times available.
On our DCA day we used the Paradise Pier exit to go back to Disneyland Hotel. It was SO close! I timed it at 8 minutes from exiting the park to the DLH lobby. I had asked a CM about it and he said DLH guests can't use it to enter DCA, but using the exit is fine. Aside from being convenient, it was such a relaxed, pleasant walk. The path was so quiet, we didn't see anyone else. Much nicer than walking through crowded Downtown Disney.
It was so wonderful to be back! So much has changed since our June 2019 trip, but that special Disneyland magic was definitely still there. All of the CMs we dealt with were friendly.
Thanks for all the great advice over my months (years) of planning! It really helped alot and added to the quality of our trip
We arrived on a Monday afternoon and stayed through Saturday. We had hoppers, our starting parks were DL-DL-DCA-DL-DL. I won't bother listing all of our rides because that would probably be boring, but we did everything we wanted to, and some things twice. We did all the major rides and used LL, which was amazingly helpful. On our rope drop mornings we rode everything by 10:30. I was worried about mobile ordering and using Genie+ but they were both very helpful. We wouldn't have been able to do half as much without them.
Most days we were there were rated a 9 but it didn't feel like it, since we didn't really have to wait in lines with LL. The heat was much more bothersome than the crowds. We went to the park opening until around 11 or 12 most days and took a huge break in the afternoon to get out of the heat. It was tempting to stay all day long, but we would all have been cranky monsters and wouldn't have enjoyed the parks as much. We went for quality not quantity. By the 2nd day I vowed never to go in June again lol. I'll find the coolest month of the year for our next trip. Luckily we had our neck fans, sun hats, sunbrella, refillable bottles and Bombas that I learned about from people here.
California Adventure is so much fun! Way better than the last time I was there (2016). We spent lots of time in Avengers Campus and had great interactions with Loki. We also saw Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Dr. Strange and Black Widow. I walked along beside Falcon for like 3 minutes before realizing he was there! Pym's was a great spot for breakfast and lunch.
Carsland was amazing. We went there after World Of Color on our first night and were able to see the Disneyland Fireworks, which was really neat. Carsland is so cool at night. A few days later we went back and had lunch at Flo's. My kids used a LL for radiator Springs racers and loved it.
I don't even know what to say about Disneyland. We lived in Socal for 8 years and had annual passports for 5 years so walking through those gates really is like going home. The MSEP was awesome, Fantasmic was as great as always and we ended up seeing the fireworks from a different spot every night. I think my favorite was when we watched them in Galaxy's edge. We saw the "Bruno" projections on Small World, which was so much fun.
I ended up cancelling most of my hard-won dining reservations! Once we were there I wanted to be a bit more relaxed and not have time constraints. We did keep our 2 Oga's reservations. Oga's was even more fun than I thought it would be but...we had no idea that we would be sharing a table with other people! I thought the reservation meant we would have a table to ourselves. That part was a bit off-putting the first time we went there. We got used to it, but it felt very strange to sit and eat with people at the same table, especially after avoiding indoor dining for 2 years. On the last day I lucked out and got a Goofy's reservation for lunch right before we left for the airport. I liked having the characters just wave to use instead of coming over for hugs and autographs.
One of our days had a ton of ride closures, which was really frustrating. I'd been trying to get on Peter Pan for a few days but kept running into issues. Once I was almost at the ships when the ride closed down. On our last day it was down at opening, so I went on a couple other Fantasyland rides. I was about to get into the cart on Snow White when Peter Pan opened. I left through the exit and walked with purpose to Peter Pan, where I had just a 9 minute wait. I went on again with dd around 10:30 pm.
I was so happy to get on Pirates! We rope dropped specifically to ride it the day it opened, but it was down a ton that morning. In the end we were able to use a ME LL pass to get on around 7:30 pm. It was totally worth changing our trip to be there.
Rise Of The Resistance is every bit as amazing as I'd heard. It's unlike any other ride. We used ILL twice to ride it.
We did a split stay with Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn and Disneyland Hotel. BW was surprisingly really nice. Clean, very comfortable, super convenient 2 minute walk to crosswalk, really nice breakfast. That will probably be our go-to Harbor hotel from now on. I've never stayed that close before. It made such a huge difference in our days, especially at night after walking all day.
The Disneyland Hotel... Some of it was as wonderful as our last stay in 2019, but we ran into some issues this time. We booked a 2 bedroom suite. We were in Frontier tower and basically had a construction site right outside our window. Like literally right outside. I felt like I could have tossed the construction workers a drink. They were out there all the time, so we had to keep the curtains closed the whole time. It was just too weird having people right outside the window. We couldn't use the balconies at all because the workers were just right there. The construction was also very loud. All of our windows faced construction except one which faced the parking lot. It was a major disappointment. I knew of course that there was construction, but had no idea how close it would be to the rooms. Our room was also dusty, but I don't know if that's related to the construction or not. We had club level and would have much preferred to be in Adventure tower the whole time. We had a fantastic room with a view of Downtown Disney our first night, but had to switch to Frontier for the last 2.
All of the CMs were friendly and helpful at the hotel. Club level was really nice, especially for the time we were in limbo between rooms. I probably would only do it for 1 or 2 nights next time. The food got repetitious after a few days, and most nights dd couldn't find anything she liked for dinner.
We went to Tangoroa terrace for breakfast on our last day. The food was good, and mobile ordering was easy. I'd tried the previous day for lunch and there were no times available.
On our DCA day we used the Paradise Pier exit to go back to Disneyland Hotel. It was SO close! I timed it at 8 minutes from exiting the park to the DLH lobby. I had asked a CM about it and he said DLH guests can't use it to enter DCA, but using the exit is fine. Aside from being convenient, it was such a relaxed, pleasant walk. The path was so quiet, we didn't see anyone else. Much nicer than walking through crowded Downtown Disney.
It was so wonderful to be back! So much has changed since our June 2019 trip, but that special Disneyland magic was definitely still there. All of the CMs we dealt with were friendly.
Thanks for all the great advice over my months (years) of planning! It really helped alot and added to the quality of our trip
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