indimom3
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2009
- Messages
- 429
We just wrapped up our Southern California trip and thought I would share my thoughts on our 4/day, 3/night stay at the DLH.
DL - It was CROWDED! Not really a surprise, given the season. The weather was PERFECT. A bit cool in the mornings, but just nice walking weather. My personal observation on crowds WDW vs DL - DL feels more crowded, but the ride lines are nowhere near as long. I've been in WDW right before Christmas and on very crowded weekends - and the park never felt as packed as DL felt. But the ride lines were much much shorter at DL, even during peak times. So that was nice. The park is smaller, more compact, which made it easier on the kids walking - but there's more to do.
I haven't been to DL in 10 years, so it was great to see some new things this trip. The kids loved the Nemo sub ride. And the adults loved Indy and Star Tours (we hadn't been on the new one yet). We finally broke through my 8yo's 'fear' barrier and she was brave enough to try Splash and BTMRR, which she rode probably 10 times over our 4 days there. No Space yet, but she'll get there.
A question - why the heck do so many adults and bigger kids wait in the 30-40 minute long line for the kidde coaster in Toon Town?! The ride is 20 seconds long, and I would never wait for that if it weren't for the kids wanting to ride it.
Toontown Morning Madness - so this was okay, but something I don't need to do again. It was nice to let the kids ride that coaster 16 times, but the lines for the characters were all still pretty long, and you're blowing that first hour in the parks when you could be riding a bunch of other, better rides. I was underwhelmed.
Magic Mornings - worth their weight in gold. We planned our days so that we could have 2 and it was awesome. Just walking down main street with so few people was a great experience. We debated staying onsite and the biggest factor was having that second magic morning - I'm glad we did it. BUT - our kids were too tired to stay up late after getting up that early and swimming all afternoon, so we missed WOC. Trade offs.
Autopia - I don't know if Hydroguy's comparison thread mentioned this, but I need to comment. The DL version of this ride beats the WDW version hands-down. It's so much better. This was my son's favorite thing to do at WDW, and he was in LOVE with the DL version. And it's awesome that the ride uses FP, because that line is slloooowww. We rode it easily a dozen times. Get off the monorail, ride the Autopia. Leaving in the afternoon, ride the Autopia, get on the monorail. That was us. The monorail was great too, btw. You can still ride in the front and in the back, which we did a lot.
DCA - I agree with the other 'just back' post that DCA was a total disappointment. Soarin was the girls favorite ride in either park, though, so we wouldn't have wanted to miss that. They really, really need Carsland.
DLH - We had a larger room because there are 5 of us. 2 queen beds and a couch that folded down into a daybed. We were in the Frontier Tower facing the pool. Nice view - I had just paid for a parking lot view so I was happy we ended up on that side of the building.
The room was still on the small side when you compare it to something like the Contemporary at WDW. The biggest difference being the bathroom. Which was very well furnished (loved the sink cabinet, the mickey themed hardware, and the light fixtures! wanted to take those with me!), but teeny tiny. And the towels were ragged. I was surprised about that, since the toiletries were nice and the bed linens were new looking.
We paid $290/night for our room. When I ask myself if it was worth it, the room by itself was not. The pool was great, and Trader Sams was like my second home - holy cow did I love that bar! We saw Goofy so often in the lobby that the kids got bored with it. The grounds were gorgeous. And, we did get 2 Magic Mornings... Between the pool and Trader Sams (and that terrific outdoor fireplace), we spent a lot of time on the grounds. So overall, I feel like it was money well spent. We might stay somewhere cheaper next time, and just stop in at Sam's.
FOOD - We had lunch at the Jazz Kitchen, and sat outside to enjoy the sunny afternoon. We loved this place. Our server was great, and his recommendation of shrimp and grits was YUM. Would definitely do this again. We also had dinner at Via Napoli, which was not as good. I'm sorry to compare again, but the Epcot version had better pizza when we ate there last June - much better. And the manager (who came out to apologize to us after a minor issue we had with one of our kids meals) was ... off. She would not leave us alone and kept calling my oldest daughter too skinny and telling her to eat more. We finally had to ask her to knock it off. It was a very strange experience, and our waiter ended up apologizing for her - I wonder now if she was drunk.
We also ate at the French Market (is that what it's called? the counter service place that serves the Jambalaya over in New Orleans Square? They are all bunched up together, I get confused). I enjoyed the jambalaya there. Not spicy enough, but the tabasco fixed that.
Tangaroa Terrace/Trader Sams - the kids ate at TT and seemed to like their nuggets. We ordered from TS and really loved the panko crusted long beans and flat breads, ahi poke and ceviche. We ate at TS twice, actually. Really enjoyed everything. There were 4 adults in our party at different times, and between the 4 of us we ordered almost everything on the special drink menu - I recommend all of it. Just not at once.
This shall forever be known as the Beignet Trip, though. We had beignets every day. We made it most of the way through Day 4 without having any, but decided not to spoil the streak and bought some at the Mint Julep place. We preferred the Jazz Kitchen version, but both were delicious. Do NOT miss the beignets!
Loved it! Fantastic trip. All of the kids vote for DL over WDW next time around. I think being able to easily get to the beach (we bookended our Disney days with beach days) was a factor in that.
Thanks for all your help planning - it wouldn't have been half as good without the Dis.
Next time I'll let them sleep in at least one morning so they can stay up for WOC!
DL - It was CROWDED! Not really a surprise, given the season. The weather was PERFECT. A bit cool in the mornings, but just nice walking weather. My personal observation on crowds WDW vs DL - DL feels more crowded, but the ride lines are nowhere near as long. I've been in WDW right before Christmas and on very crowded weekends - and the park never felt as packed as DL felt. But the ride lines were much much shorter at DL, even during peak times. So that was nice. The park is smaller, more compact, which made it easier on the kids walking - but there's more to do.
I haven't been to DL in 10 years, so it was great to see some new things this trip. The kids loved the Nemo sub ride. And the adults loved Indy and Star Tours (we hadn't been on the new one yet). We finally broke through my 8yo's 'fear' barrier and she was brave enough to try Splash and BTMRR, which she rode probably 10 times over our 4 days there. No Space yet, but she'll get there.
A question - why the heck do so many adults and bigger kids wait in the 30-40 minute long line for the kidde coaster in Toon Town?! The ride is 20 seconds long, and I would never wait for that if it weren't for the kids wanting to ride it.
Toontown Morning Madness - so this was okay, but something I don't need to do again. It was nice to let the kids ride that coaster 16 times, but the lines for the characters were all still pretty long, and you're blowing that first hour in the parks when you could be riding a bunch of other, better rides. I was underwhelmed.
Magic Mornings - worth their weight in gold. We planned our days so that we could have 2 and it was awesome. Just walking down main street with so few people was a great experience. We debated staying onsite and the biggest factor was having that second magic morning - I'm glad we did it. BUT - our kids were too tired to stay up late after getting up that early and swimming all afternoon, so we missed WOC. Trade offs.
Autopia - I don't know if Hydroguy's comparison thread mentioned this, but I need to comment. The DL version of this ride beats the WDW version hands-down. It's so much better. This was my son's favorite thing to do at WDW, and he was in LOVE with the DL version. And it's awesome that the ride uses FP, because that line is slloooowww. We rode it easily a dozen times. Get off the monorail, ride the Autopia. Leaving in the afternoon, ride the Autopia, get on the monorail. That was us. The monorail was great too, btw. You can still ride in the front and in the back, which we did a lot.
DCA - I agree with the other 'just back' post that DCA was a total disappointment. Soarin was the girls favorite ride in either park, though, so we wouldn't have wanted to miss that. They really, really need Carsland.
DLH - We had a larger room because there are 5 of us. 2 queen beds and a couch that folded down into a daybed. We were in the Frontier Tower facing the pool. Nice view - I had just paid for a parking lot view so I was happy we ended up on that side of the building.
The room was still on the small side when you compare it to something like the Contemporary at WDW. The biggest difference being the bathroom. Which was very well furnished (loved the sink cabinet, the mickey themed hardware, and the light fixtures! wanted to take those with me!), but teeny tiny. And the towels were ragged. I was surprised about that, since the toiletries were nice and the bed linens were new looking.
We paid $290/night for our room. When I ask myself if it was worth it, the room by itself was not. The pool was great, and Trader Sams was like my second home - holy cow did I love that bar! We saw Goofy so often in the lobby that the kids got bored with it. The grounds were gorgeous. And, we did get 2 Magic Mornings... Between the pool and Trader Sams (and that terrific outdoor fireplace), we spent a lot of time on the grounds. So overall, I feel like it was money well spent. We might stay somewhere cheaper next time, and just stop in at Sam's.
FOOD - We had lunch at the Jazz Kitchen, and sat outside to enjoy the sunny afternoon. We loved this place. Our server was great, and his recommendation of shrimp and grits was YUM. Would definitely do this again. We also had dinner at Via Napoli, which was not as good. I'm sorry to compare again, but the Epcot version had better pizza when we ate there last June - much better. And the manager (who came out to apologize to us after a minor issue we had with one of our kids meals) was ... off. She would not leave us alone and kept calling my oldest daughter too skinny and telling her to eat more. We finally had to ask her to knock it off. It was a very strange experience, and our waiter ended up apologizing for her - I wonder now if she was drunk.
We also ate at the French Market (is that what it's called? the counter service place that serves the Jambalaya over in New Orleans Square? They are all bunched up together, I get confused). I enjoyed the jambalaya there. Not spicy enough, but the tabasco fixed that.
Tangaroa Terrace/Trader Sams - the kids ate at TT and seemed to like their nuggets. We ordered from TS and really loved the panko crusted long beans and flat breads, ahi poke and ceviche. We ate at TS twice, actually. Really enjoyed everything. There were 4 adults in our party at different times, and between the 4 of us we ordered almost everything on the special drink menu - I recommend all of it. Just not at once.
This shall forever be known as the Beignet Trip, though. We had beignets every day. We made it most of the way through Day 4 without having any, but decided not to spoil the streak and bought some at the Mint Julep place. We preferred the Jazz Kitchen version, but both were delicious. Do NOT miss the beignets!
Loved it! Fantastic trip. All of the kids vote for DL over WDW next time around. I think being able to easily get to the beach (we bookended our Disney days with beach days) was a factor in that.
Thanks for all your help planning - it wouldn't have been half as good without the Dis.
Next time I'll let them sleep in at least one morning so they can stay up for WOC!
