A Very Merry Unbirthday April 2014 Trip Report COMPLETED 6/23

[MotoWifey185]

Hellooooo! Welcome to my April 2014 Trip Report.

Allow me to briefly introduce the characters of this adventure. My name is Ashley and I am now 24 years old. My favorite rides at DLR are BTMRR and Tower of Terror, but this changes often. Except for BTMRR, it's been a favorite of mine since as long as I can remember going to DLR. I am a former Premium AP holder and I miss holding that little card of awesome-ness dearly!

This handsome fellow here is my husband Matt. He is 26 years old and about as big of a Disney fan as I am! I took him for his first time ever in 2008 and it's been our top vacation destination ever since. He is a former Deluxe AP holder. His favorite rides are Indiana Jones and California Screamin'.

Our trip was April 5-9 with three days in the parks. Our hotel was through priceline, Holiday Inn Express in Garden Grove. The hotel was very nice and clean but next time I know we will want to just stay within walking distance. The driving back and forth and paying for parking added up and the convenience of leaving the truck behind at the hotel is so worth it!

This trip was to celebrate my 24th birthday and it was our first time going to DLR in over a year and a half! On top of that, I came down with a mild pneumonia during our last time there, so I wasn't able to really enjoy it. I thought it was just bad allergies at first but after that I was sick for a good 2 months! So this trip definitely was needed and we were determined to make it AMAZING!

Well, let's get started! I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I will like reliving the memories and hopefully help a few people out with their planning! Did I mention there will be pictures of food? YES THERE WILL BE PICTURES OF THE FOOD!

 

[MotoWifey185]

Chapter Links!

Day 1.
-Life is a Highwayyyyy... Part 1
-Life is a Highwayyyyy... Part 2

Day 2.
-Saved by the queen of Magic Morning.. or lack thereof...
-Flying with Luigi and Spinning in the Junkyard
-That one time we almost rode Tuck n Roll...
-Lunch in Condor Flats and then a show in Agrabah.
-A Dimension of Sound, A Dimension of Sight... a Dimension of Mind.
-"Lil Blue came through for us!" And it's time for a Margarita.
-Did everyone see that because I will not be doing it again!

Day 3.
-Finally reunited with a long-time favorite... the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness!
-Dead men tell no tales...
-Yummy Dole Whips and a Splashin' good time!
-"Too all to come to this happy place... welcome!"

Day 4. My birthdayyy!
-A free drink from Starbucks and "Everybody and their grandma has a magic morning!"
-Warning: These ducks are not too afraid to steal your Tigger Tails.
-We meet the wise Mr. Lincoln for the first time.
-"Shipwreck on the Rockkkkksss!" and "UH OHAAAA!" Fun at Trader Sams!
-We have been unavoidably detained by pranky spirits... kindly remain seated in your doooooom buggy.
-All good things must come to and end! Part 1 Part 2

 

[MotoWifey185]

Saturday April 5th my DH and I woke up at about 7 to start getting all ready. We had to finish packing for ourselves and also our two dogs Sophie and Hallie who were going to stay at my dads house while we were gone. Before I got started, I was in need of some caffeine so I made myself some coffee! Love this mug!

I took Sophie (the black lab mix below) for a walk to get the mail and DH loaded up the truck with our other dog Hallie (doberman mix puppy) who was very nervous. He did say that she jumped on top of the suitcase as he was rolling it!

Soon we were off to my dads house to drop them off. I was already starting to miss them!! I took this picture of Hallie and I.

Soon we were at my dads house and dropped them off and we also delivered a thank you present we got for them for watching the dogs. We were back on the road at about noon which meant we'd be getting to Anaheim around 5:30 or so.

The drive was pretty uneventful. Just lots of desert. We did notice that a lot more has been developed around Palm Springs and a few other areas, so it doesn't look so much like the middle of nowhere! I love when we get to these windmills along the way, they are fun to watch.

About halfway there, I was looking for some hand sanitizer so I could eat a snack. I looked in the back seat of the truck and noticed something was missing! We forgot the bag full of all of our bathroom products! We laughed and knew there was nothing we could do now but go to Target to buy it all again. Including a straightener for me because there was no way I was going to look homeless for my birthday vacation.

We turned down Harbor and I got my first glimpse of Disney! Yay Monorail!

We decided to stop at Target first to pick up all of our stuff. It ended up costing us about $50 total for everything. Oh well. Next time we will make sure we double check! From there we went to our hotel, which is basically on Harbor and Garden Grove Blvd. Here are some pics of the room.

This hotel was actually pretty nice for being only $90 something a night. Like I said we would just rather be walking distance but if you don't mind driving this isn't a bad choice!

We got all cleaned up and unpacked and headed to Downtown Disney for dinner! I was loving this arrival day without going to the park. I didn't feel like I needed to rush anything and get into the parks right away. We just went to DTD and were able to relax and enjoy being in Cali!

Once we got to DTD, we headed over to the DLH to go eat at Trader Sams! PrincessCaitlyn here on the boards had mentioned going to this bar with her family so I decided we should try it out too. We were so glad we did!

Love this pool!!!

And here we are!

I just loved the atmosphere of this bar. It is based on the Jungle Cruise but also feels like being in Hawaii. Whenever people order certain drinks they have different events. DH got "Shipwrecked on the Rocks" and was surprised (and probably a little mortified ) when they yelled out his drink name and brought it to him, with lights going off and someone squirting a water bottle. I am laughing just thinking about it. He's not a fan of attention!

Here is me with my drink. I got the Pirahna Pool and there was no shouting involved.

For dinner I got the Fish tacos, grilled mahi mahi in corn tortillas. They were soo good! I would definitely get them again.

DH got the Kalua Pork Flatbread and he liked it very much as well! Not the best picture but I had forgotten my camera that night.

Continued in Next Post

 

[MotoWifey185]

When we were done there, we took some pictures of the hotel and pool. I was seriously loving this hotel! I can see why so many people prefer it to PPH, which I thought was better at first because it had the DCA view. Now I can see why the PPH is inferior. DLH is definitely on my bucket list and we are looking into staying here for our 2 year wedding anniversary coming up!

After this, we went for a nice stroll down DTD. DH said his drink was strong and I was feeling pretty buzzed myself. We laughed at how the crowds didn't seem so bad with some alcohol in our system!

We stopped into World of Disney and looked around, but it was PACKED. We didn't stay long and started walking back up the other way. We were craving a desert and were trying to find a place to stop. When I saw the Jazz Kitchen I suggested Beignets and DH was all for it. We got the small order (4 for $4.99 I believe) and went searching for a spot to sit. We weren't too far from the DLH again so I said we should go sit in there! We found a nice sitting area along the walkway.

The pictures get better, I promise!

This was a moment that I remember just smiling and thinking how lucky I was to be there with my hubby. The DLH is gorgeous and those beignets were delicious! It was the perfect start to our vacation!

From there we went back to our hotel and get ready for bed. We had a Magic Morning to get up early for.... or so we thought! Dun dun dunnnnnn.

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

Ashley, I'm very impressed so far!!

 

[MotoWifey185]

Ashley, I'm very impressed so far!!

Thank you, and welcome!! More to come soon!

 

[MotoWifey185]

When I left off we were finishing up our first night with some amazing beignets and a view to match. We got to bed pretty early so we could wake up early enough to get to the parks! Today was our DCA day and the "Magic Morning" was for today at 7am so we left our hotel by about 6:15, and stopped at McDonalds on the way. I had an apple for breakfast so I just got an iced coffee, and DH got a sausage egg and cheese McMuffin. We drove to the parking garage and got there by 6:28, and there were about 5 cars waiting in line, which had me pretty surprised, because we were used to long lines this close to opening. The garage opened and started letting people through at 6:30, perfect timing!

Soon we got to our first ride of the whole trip... the trams!

Once we got to the esplande, we were really surprised to see it so empty. I had a weird feeling that I had misread something, but there WERE other people around so I wasn't sure.

We were very close to the front of the line.

Soon enough the line started to move forward, and we were up. That's when we were asked for our room key. I guess we had read something wrong, but it was Early Entry, NOT Magic Morning. -EE is for on-site hotel guests only if you did not know that already- Actually another part of it may be that in a last minute change of plans we decided to do DCA today instead of DLR, so I may have read something quickly on my phone. Either way, it was not Magic Morning that day.

However, being the awesome CM this girl was, she said "well there's hardly anybody here anyway so I will let you through!” So my dumb error ended up working out okay for us anyway. I was so relieved! I mean sure, it is only an hour, but I would have felt bad if we would have had to wait that long. We thanked her and went on in, ready to start our first day!

It was so nice to see it this empty! Our last time was October 2012 and there was nothing but a crowd of people pretty much anywhere we went.

Our first stop? Radiator Springs Racers!

We sure love this ride! Even more so that we didn't have to wait 3 hours for it this time around!

After we were done riding it we still had probably 15-20 minutes left of EE, so we headed over to TSMM, taking a few pictures along the way.

Paradise Pier!

TSMM was a walk on. I've never seen that before!

So this ride is not my favorite, the 3D and spinning makes me a little dizzy. However, this happens to be one of DH's top favorite rides so it is still a must-do. When the ride started I was actually beating him by a lot for a while! He was so frustrated. Soon enough though he caught up and this was our final result. He won, so he was happy!

Up next was California Screamin', also a walk-on.

By the time we got off Screamin' the park officially opened, so we knew we should head back over to Carsland to pick up some FP's to ride RSR later on. The line was pretty short, way better than we had seen the first time we came to see Carsland. It was about 8:15 by this time, and we got passes for 10:30.

Continued in Next Post.

 

[MotoWifey185]

After we got the FP's, we figured we should check out the rest of Carsland that we hadn't seen yet.

We decided to ride Luigi's Flying Tires, it was less than a 5 minute wait.

Darn that sun ruining all my good pictures.

We really liked this ride! We ended up going back on it again later on that day.

From there we decided to try another new one for us, Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.

This ride was fun, but had my head spinning for a bit afterward, so we left Carsland to walk around the park a bit.

Buena Vista Street was another place I didn't really check out last time I was there. I really love how much they did with this area! It looks a lot more Disney-esque.

I liked this picture minus the sun.

So I hid behind the tree this time.

Then we headed over to Soarin'! This is another ride that gets me a little dizzy but I go on it because DH loves it. Don't worry, I make him ride Tower of Terror with me to make up for it.

After we were done there, I decided to give myself more of a break from rides and we went walking around GRR, I just love this area!

Can't you tell? This pic is one I get on every single trip. It never changes much, but I always do anyway.

At this point we were a little hungry, so we sat by the water and ate a Nutrigrain Bar we brought to try and hold us over until lunch, and this is where I took an annoying amount of pictures. (I'll spare you... it's all pretty much the same thing. )

Continued in Next Post.

 

[MotoWifey185]

At this point it was 9:45 and we had some time to kill before we could use our RSR Fast Passes. So after our break, we walked back over to the other side of the park to check out the Hollywood Backlot.

We never went inside that area. We both don't like the Muppets and Monsters Inc wasn't a big priority for us this time around.

I liked positioning the camera so it looked like the painted sky was real.

There's Aladdin! We planned on seeing that show later today for the first time.

We went down Tower of Terror way and I knew we were going to ride that, but I wanted to save my one allowed time for later on in the day. I like riding it at dusk, but I didn't end up waiting that long. Then we went through Bugsland, and almost rode Tuc n Roll, but the line was a little longer than we wanted to wait, so we left from there.

Soon we ended up in front of the Golden Zephyr. This was yet another ride we had never been on before!

It was now almost 10:30 so we made our way back over to Carsland, except we had the idea to see if there were still FP's left first for another ride later on. I was rooting for dusk, the best time to ride pretty much anything!

I was surprised to see there were still passes left and the return time was only 6:15. I read somewhere that even recently the passes were selling out at 10-11, and there were still plenty left before 10:30 on this day, and on a Sunday! It was still not quite 10:30 so we waited outside the distribution and I took some pictures of wine country.

Anddd finally we grabbed our FP's! 6:30-7:30, I was getting my dusk ride after all.

So that was going to be 3 rides on RSR!!

Next we had to use our current FP's, so off to the races we went!

After getting some fresh new Fettucini Alfredo Tires, it was time to race the most glorious race of our lives!

We won! Lightning and Mater were there to congratulate us.

Haha, my hair!

Up next, lunch time and some more awesome California Adventures.... see what I did there?

 

[MotoWifey185]

Awww, no readers?? It's a good thing I am having so much fun writing this or I would be pretty sad about this! Hopefully my report helps someone plan their trip eventually!

When I left off we were finishing up a great morning around the park. By this time we were hungry! I knew that I wanted to eat at Taste Pilots Grill because I love the topping bar there and have always had a good meal there. But I offered the choices to Matt for lunch and he at first wanted to eat at Paradise Pizza & Pasta, but then since he knew I wanted TPG he changed his mind just in case we didn't make it there later in the day. Good idea, left our options open for tonight!

So off to Condor Flats we went!

I was trying to decide between the garden veggie burger and the grilled chicken sandwich, but the chipotle aioli is what swayed me towards the chicken sandwich. My DH got a good ol' classic cheese burger. We loaded our trays with our favorite toppings and found a table outside right by Soarin'.

Here is my sandwich..

And his burger!

Overall the sandwich was good but I found myself wishing I had gotten the veggie burger instead. The chipotle ailoi wasn't very prominent so it was a pretty basic chicken sandwich. However, DH liked his burger. We do like TPG and would still eat there on our future trips.

From there we decided to walk around and see what caught our eye next. We headed over toward Paradise Pier (or Bay I guess, now!) and saw Goofy conducting his own little show so we stopped to watch. I have never seen this before.

It was pretty cute. DH said he thought maybe it is a way of testing out the pipes for WOC later in the day, and then said he really wanted to see the show now. I pulled out the map as we were walking and tried looking for the distribution center, but I got distracted and put it away before I even looked. I get sidetracked easily! At first, we had not planned to see the show because I had heard some less-than-favorable reviews and figured it would be better to not try to squeeze it in on our only day there, so I didn't do any research on it.

Anyway, we found ourselves on another round of Screamin'.

The crowds were so much better than I had anticipated, specially being a Sunday. It was so nice! The only downside was it was starting to get pretty hot. The high for today was 85 degrees. It was actually nicer in AZ then it was here in CA today! So we decided to head over to find an air conditioned building to escape, and wound up here at Off the Page.

DH thought this picture was pretty cool! It's only $1200!

The models they make of all the different rides/areas of the park are so neat! Here is Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

That could only keep us inside for a few minutes, so after we looked around DH suggested we ride Grizzly River Run. He's not usually one to volunteer to ride GRR so I was happily surprised. He just doesn't like the feeling of walking around after getting his shoes wet. I don't blame him, but it was pretty hot so we were up for anything!

The wait was 25 minutes, but it's in the shade so it's pretty nice! I took some pictures in the queue.

Soon it was our turn to get soaked. I love this ride, it's so much fun and the details are so cool to look at, I see something new every time we ride. I didn't get very wet at all, but DH got pretty soaked. I was happy that I didn't have to deal with my hair being frizzy and DH was happy to be cooled off.

After that, I had to take some more pictures of the area!

Look at that blue water! Made me thirsty!

Speaking of thirsty, another thing that we did to keep us cooled off and hydrated on this hot day, is go in and get the free cups of water often from all the CS restaurants. For our lunch they gave us bigger cups and we ended up refilling them with water from the fountains. I don't think we had any soft drinks the whole time we were here, just all water. I drank that water even when I felt like I couldn't have another gulp! But it was such a big help for the hot weather we were having, and kept my headaches at bay as well!

At this time, we made our way over to the Pacific Wharf area and we had some time before we had to go over to the Hyperion Theater for the 2:20 showing of Aladdin. We headed in to the bakery to check out the tour, but after a few minutes of waiting inside we weren't sure if we would have enough time to do it. So we headed back out and headed to the theater.

On the way, I stopped and saw this sign for Animation Academy to draw the characters, and suggested we come back at 4pm to draw Jack Skellington. We hadn't done this before so it sounded like fun. DH agreed and I was looking forward to it! I was pretty happy we decided to get the 3 day 1 park tickets. We were slowing down and enjoying ourselves and doing the different things we never really would have thought to do in our past trips. We definitely do our vacations differently than we used to!

We got in line for Aladdin about 2pm I believe. We didn't wait too long before they started to let us in the theater. It turned out we waited in line to go upstairs, we didn't really look when we walked in. I liked this though because I had read that it was a better view upstairs.

This was our view of the show.

I obviously didn't take any of the show, but I took one of them bowing at the end.

I liked the show a lot, but IMHO there were just a few too many "modern" touches. I was expecting more classic Aladdin I guess so hearing about the Kardashians and Justin Beiber through me off a little. Don't get me wrong though, I would definitely see it again! I thought the "Prince Ali" entrance with the elephant was so awesome!

Annnnd that is it for now. I'll be back soon with another update of our first Animation Academy experience and lots more rides and foooood!

 

[Daisybelle]

Love your reoprt! How awesome that the CM let you in for EE!! ITs fun to reaed along as I'm planning our summer trip.

 

[chirurgeon]

I'm reading. great so far. Wonderful pictures.

 

[MotoWifey185]

Love your reoprt! How awesome that the CM let you in for EE!! ITs fun to reaed along as I'm planning our summer trip.

Welcome, thanks for reading. And yay how fun, I hope my report can help you in any way like so many others on here helped me!

I wrote in a comment about this CM just saying that she made my trip magical because I didn't want her to get in trouble for making an exception for us, and I finally got a call from someone at Disneyland today saying thank you for writing in and they are going to get a hold of her management team and relay the message to her! I bet that will make her pretty happy!

I'm reading. great so far. Wonderful pictures.

Glad to have you along. Thank you!

 

[MotoWifey185]

After we saw the Aladdin, it took us a while to get out of the theater and down the stairs. I got this picture of the Tower of Terror on the way down.

By this time we had about 30 minutes before we should get to Animation Academy for the 4pm class to draw Jack Skellington. Out of all of the characters listed he was the one that sounded most interesting, and a 4pm class would get us out of the heat so that was a bonus.

We walked around the Pacific Wharf some more, through Bugsland, but I didn't have my camera for this. Finally we decided to go get in line and we knew we'd be pretty early. I believe we got there around 3:35 or so. It was pretty nice though because the video they were playing inside showed sketches of all the Disney characters them coming to life and eventually making the final product. It was a great video! I wish I had gotten a few pictures of it but I was so busy watching.

Took this on the way in.

And this one standing in the line.

Finally it was time for us to be let in to the room!

Our instructor was very good, I liked her! I felt pretty rushed but that was totally my fault for wanting to try perfecting my drawing haha! I know they are limited on time.

This was my finished product. I thought we were drawing him with his mouth open so that is why the line for his mouth is so far up!

And here is my DH's drawing.

I know I said I wanted to wait to ride Tower of Terror at dusk, but it was *right* there so I decided I would cash in my one "allowed" time at this point. DH always says I can ride it as much as I want but it's not as fun going by myself!

So off to Tower of Terror we went! The wait time was 23 minutes, not bad, and I don't even think it took that long.

While in the queue I didn't have much time at all to take any good pictures. The line was moving quickly and I had to hold my camera pretty still because of the lighting, so this is the best of what I got. I told DH that I learned the cowebs are made from a hot glue gun, he thought that was pretty cool!

Soon we boarded our elevator and narrowly avoided falling to our deaths. I can't say I am the biggest fan of drops but the story along with it makes it more interesting to me!

Afterward I had to get a pic with it in the background!

By this time it was about 5pm and we were getting hungry, but not so much for dinner. One big item on our to-do list was to get a sundae from Ghiardelli. We debated on if we wanted that now, or if we wanted a margarita from Rita's, which was also another must-do. We decided on the sundae because we like to save our alcoholic beverages for night for some reason, lol.

Yay, I was looking forward to getting a sundae! I liked this mural on the wall.

We decided to split one because neither of us was hungry enough for our own. We both agreed the Gold Rush sounded really good! Peanut butter hot fudge sundae with a sweet view of the water... ah this is the life!

There are so many others on the list I would want to try. I am a huge fan of sundaes but never get them, so it was a great vacation splurge for me.

After we finished eating our sundae, we got some water cups from the cafe and decided to walk around and explore some more! We found ourselves back by Grizzly River Run.

This one was risky. I was holding my camera in pure soak zone and pulled it away in the nick of time. I wish it looked a bit cooler so the risk would be worth it but it does not appear so.

Took a pic of this truck for DH. I didn't remember it always being there, but looking back through old Disney trip pics I noticed I have a pic with him standing in front of it, lol.

Soon after this we decided to make our way back over to Screamin' again for another ride! In line I told DH that I was going to take a pic looking out at the view on the lift hill, and he volunteered to do it instead. Here is what he got, I think he did a great job.

What a view!

Continued in Next Post

 

[MotoWifey185]

After we were done Screamin' with Neil Patrick Harris, we headed over to Carsland as we were approaching our 6:30 RSR FP time. While we were waiting we decided to get back in line for Luigi's Flying Tires.

Again, such a fun ride. Lots of laughs. It's one of those memories I look back at and appreciate time with my husband and just being goofs!

After a stop in to one of the shops nearby, it was time to use our Fast Passes!

Love this color blue! It's the same color of my truck. It gave me some hope that we would win the race. We call my truck "lil blue" because we have no creativity for naming our vehicles and so that was what we also dubbed this car.

It all started out great. Just cruisin' around, slowing down for a good view of the bridge and what not.

Annnnnd then we got stuck. Next to this dude.

The lights came on and we also saw this dude.

We sat there for a good 10 minutes or so, and then finally they turned the lights off and we were on our way again. But then we stopped here!

And we were stuck for maybe another 5 minutes or so! I joked with DH saying "lil blue has failed us!"

Finally we were ready to go again and finished the race. We were a little disappointed that it was like that, specially being our last ride, but we weren't complaining. But when we got back up to the loading zone they told us to stay in, we were going again!! What a nice surprise! The people behind us got out, the woman said they "had enough" to the CM which I thought was rude because it wasn't that CM's fault and they were making it up to us by letting us go again right away. I made sure to tell the CM "thank you so much!" before we took off again! So "lil blue" didn't fail us after all. We got to go around twice!

When we walked out of there Carsland was all lit up, it is so pretty!

It was after 7 now and we decided we were hungry for dinner, but decided to stop and get some margarita's from Rita's first! We both got the original. It was so good, but pretty mild on the alcohol and that is coming from a light weight!

As DH was taking this picture, a kind CM (janitor) came over and offered to take our picture together. After we thanked him, he told us "Yeah! Any time you see a janitor or any cast member just ask and we will take a picture for you!" So many awesome CM experiences for us this trip. He took one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip!

For dinner I decided I wanted to get a pizza, so we made our way over to Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta. I chose to get the portobello mushroom and spinach flatbread. I had yet another nice experience with a CM, when the total came out to just 3 cents less than the next dollar and we were paying with cash. She said "I found a few pennies on the ground I will pay the 3 cents for you" so we didn't have to break another dollar and carry around a ton of change. It's a small thing but it just felt like so much was going right for us! DH was craving a corn dog, so he went over to Corn Dog Castle and I went to get us a table.

While I was waiting, a little boy about 4-5 years old ran up behind chair and when I turned to look at him and his dad laughed said "hey, bud that's not momma!" His mom was sitting at a table just across the walk way so I thought that was pretty funny! Soon enough, DH arrived with his food!

Here is my pizza. I liked it, it was pretty good and light since I wasn't incredibly hungry at that point. It was just a bit cold since I waited for DH before I started eating but that was my own fault.

And DH's corn dog, he got the original. They are one of his favorite foods at DL!

I'll wrap it up there for now. Next up we check out the Mad Tea Party and eventually head over to see World of Color for the first time!

 

[Briarrose1306]

Loving your TR so far! I can totally relate to lack of readers, as soon as I started actually posting about my trip, no comments.

 

[WDWJonasGirl]

I love it Ashley!!

 

[Cali Girl At Heart]

I'm really enjoying your trip report! Please keep going! We're going in July and your DCA information has been so helpful this far. It's been four years since our last trip, and we haven't spent a ton of time in this park.

 

[Briarmom]

Enjoying your report!

 

[MotoWifey185]

Loving your TR so far! I can totally relate to lack of readers, as soon as I started actually posting about my trip, no comments.

Thank you! Yeah, sometimes I tend to forget to comment as well but I do try to comment on the few that I follow on a regular basis!

I love it Ashley!!

Thank you!

Enjoying your report!

Thank you for joining, glad you enjoy it!

I'm really enjoying your trip report! Please keep going! We're going in July and your DCA information has been so helpful this far. It's been four years since our last trip, and we haven't spent a ton of time in this park.

Glad to hear! There really is so much more to do here now. We spent a whole day and didn't even get everything done. We probably could have but we took it easy! Before this trip we would have never considered not getting park hoppers, but decided to try something different this year and we were not disappointed!! How exciting you get to go back for the first time in four years!! I can't wait to hear about your trip.