***April 2016 Thread***

[tammytam]

We fly out tomorrow!!!! Land in LAX at 5:30pm.. first day in the parks will be Sunday.. bright and early to Disneyland! I have not told my DD yet... tomorrow morning is going to be full of surprises!

 

[ej119]

Just got back today from a great 3-day DL trip and had a great time (minus the 2-hour flight delay on Friday)! The DCA Food & Wine Festival was excellent! I hope it comes back next year. Saturday after noon was certainly crowded, but I have to say -- nothing like Sunday! Maybe because there were not blackout dates for APs? I did get to DL at opening this morning for my first solo day in the parks and was able to do 10 attractions in 3 hours! Can't wait for my June trip!

 

[squeezle]

I get to see Mickey today!!!!!

 

[tammytam]

Hi everyone! We're here right now and having a blast (even though it's way more crowded than I expected!).

Fireworks were cancelled both Sunday and Monday nights. We weren't in the park tonight... Does anyone know if they happened?? (We went to the LA Angels game... lots of fun!)

We're having a rest day tomorrow, and then back to the parks Thursday and Friday. I really hope the fireworks happen at least one of those nights! We still need to see WOC as well.

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

Fireworks happened last night. I heard/saw them as I was leaving DCA after World of Color.

It is, indeed, super crowded. I don't think all the ride closures help with that feeling either. Oh well, it is what it is, I suppose.

 

[amyg1975]

The weather for this weekend keeps changing on us! Two days ago they for called for upper 80's on Sunday, but now it has dropped to 77! I prefer the 70's though.

 

[xApril]

Just got back and had a great time! Unfortunately, all 4 of our park days (Thurs 4/21, Fri 4/22, Sun 4/24, and Mon 4/25) the fireworks were cancelled. One of the days they did start them, but they cancelled them part way through. I did get to see them on my last trip, but was really hoping to catch them again.

It was crazy how windy and cold it was at some points! Our Florida blood couldn't take it. The parks had bottleneck crowds at some points, but nothing we couldn't handle. I think the longest line we waited in was about 45 minutes for Peter Pan. Everything else was FP or come back later. As always, the food was delicious everywhere we went and made us sad to have to return to the boring options of WDW. Number one complaint was the lack of service. It was a little bit better this trip than when I went in May, but we still spent most of the time searching for signal. We utilized our low power mode to make our batteries last, but it was difficult not being able to be in contact with our families back home.

We are looking at coming back in December since my friends haven't seen the holiday overlay for HM and Small World.

Hope everyone else going in April has a great time!

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

No fireworks tonight. I sure hope they can run them tomorrow or I won't get to see them properly.

 

[tammytam]

No fireworks tonight. I sure hope they can run them tomorrow or I won't get to see them properly.

Oh darn. I was wondering if they happened tonight. Today was our rest day and we were in the hotel room before fireworks time (not sure we can see from here anyways). I am hoping and praying that they happen tomorrow. We've planned to get a spot to watch the parade properly (which we've just caught bits of from afar so far) and hopefully (!!!!) the fireworks. If they don't happen tomorrow night, we have Friday as well.. but we still need to see WOC... which we'll do Friday. I'm thinking there likely isn't time to hop over to DL after WOC ends in time to see the fireworks.. ?! Anyone know?

 

[ravenclawtrekkie]

I'm camping out tonight super early to see PTN again as well - I had the BB dining package last night and it was amazing.

 

[xApril]

Oh darn. I was wondering if they happened tonight. Today was our rest day and we were in the hotel room before fireworks time (not sure we can see from here anyways). I am hoping and praying that they happen tomorrow. We've planned to get a spot to watch the parade properly (which we've just caught bits of from afar so far) and hopefully (!!!!) the fireworks. If they don't happen tomorrow night, we have Friday as well.. but we still need to see WOC... which we'll do Friday. I'm thinking there likely isn't time to hop over to DL after WOC ends in time to see the fireworks.. ?! Anyone know?

I've hopped before. You may miss a few minutes of it, but it's doable.

 

[ElenaJane]

Just got back and had an amazing time! We were DL newbies. The journey from the East Coast though was really exhausting! I felt that the crowds at DL were way more intense than WDW, and we were there during the weekdays during a "slower" time of year! There were times in both Adventureland and Tomorrowland that we felt like sardines! I was the FP runner though and loved having the paper FPs. My goal was to have 4 pairs of FPs in hand at all time!

 

[tammytam]

We got home on Saturday! We were there all last week (in the parks on Sunday-Tuesday, (rest day Wednesday), and Thursday & Friday. I agree @ElenaJane, it was much more crowded than I anticipated. I knew we would encounter crowds... but it was packed solid! I honestly can't really imagine it being more crowded.. not something I expected for the end of April.

We still had a fabulous time.. made use of fast passes and chose not to wait if it was longer than about 30 minutes. I think the longest we probably waited was about 30 minutes or so for Toy Story and about the same for Autopia. Ohh.. and about 35 minutes for Peter Pan (lesson learned.. don't waste your magic morning on PP if it's already very crowded - even though we were there half an hour early.. not early enough apparently!). RSR was down when we went to use our fast pass (happened twice), so we probably waited about 20-30 minutes in the past pass line when the ride re-opened. No big deal though.. DD and I both loved it. We managed to ride it 3 times during our 5 days. For rope drop at DCA one morning, we went straight to Toy Story only to find out it wasn't running.. so that started us out on the wrong foot that morning (California Screamin was also down for a one-day refurb (which I didn't know about). Along with Grizzly River and the swings down for refurb.. DCA was packed and had long lines that day).

I was a bit scared we would miss out on seeing the fireworks, as they were cancelled quite a bit last week. Everything fell into place and we saw them on Thursday (yay.. so magical!). We also staked out a spot for the parade that night and watched from the 'curb' near Small World (spent about 90 minutes waiting and got one of the last 'front row' spots). People were sitting on the benches around the Hub and on the curb on Main Street as early as 5:00-5:30. So crazy! We then followed the end of the parade into the hub area and watched the fireworks from the left side of the hub. Not a perfect spot, as the big tree blocked parts of our view.. but I was just happy the fireworks happened that night.

I had a great time with my daughter (who is almost 8). I can't wait for a chance to go back!

 

[JenEMT]

We just got back also. We also felt it was packed. I knew it would be busy, but didn't expect it to be that crowded. We went in December and I expected it to be much the same. I'm wondering if it wasn't that it was more crowded, just more condensed. With the railroad, monorail, everything on the rivers, Matterhorn, and autopia down, it just means other attractions were more flooded I think.
We also still had a blast, but had to tweak our plans often.
Oh, and the Disneyland app was wrong most of the time. It was incredibly frustrating to head to a ride because the app said it was a 30 minute wait, only to get there and it be double that, and that happened to us A LOT. When we went in December, the app was spot on 100% of the time. It made for cranky kids, sore feet and wasted time. Lol.

 

[kyrkea333]

We got home on Saturday! We were there all last week (in the parks on Sunday-Tuesday, (rest day Wednesday), and Thursday & Friday. I agree @ElenaJane, it was much more crowded than I anticipated. I knew we would encounter crowds... but it was packed solid! I honestly can't really imagine it being more crowded.. not something I expected for the end of April.

We still had a fabulous time.. made use of fast passes and chose not to wait if it was longer than about 30 minutes. I think the longest we probably waited was about 30 minutes or so for Toy Story and about the same for Autopia. Ohh.. and about 35 minutes for Peter Pan (lesson learned.. don't waste your magic morning on PP if it's already very crowded - even though we were there half an hour early.. not early enough apparently!). RSR was down when we went to use our fast pass (happened twice), so we probably waited about 20-30 minutes in the past pass line when the ride re-opened. No big deal though.. DD and I both loved it. We managed to ride it 3 times during our 5 days. For rope drop at DCA one morning, we went straight to Toy Story only to find out it wasn't running.. so that started us out on the wrong foot that morning (California Screamin was also down for a one-day refurb (which I didn't know about). Along with Grizzly River and the swings down for refurb.. DCA was packed and had long lines that day).

I was a bit scared we would miss out on seeing the fireworks, as they were cancelled quite a bit last week. Everything fell into place and we saw them on Thursday (yay.. so magical!). We also staked out a spot for the parade that night and watched from the 'curb' near Small World (spent about 90 minutes waiting and got one of the last 'front row' spots). People were sitting on the benches around the Hub and on the curb on Main Street as early as 5:00-5:30. So crazy! We then followed the end of the parade into the hub area and watched the fireworks from the left side of the hub. Not a perfect spot, as the big tree blocked parts of our view.. but I was just happy the fireworks happened that night.

I had a great time with my daughter (who is almost 8). I can't wait for a chance to go back!

Oh my goodness! That's the same place and night we watched them too! It's too funny how similar our schedules were. I bet I even saw you at some point. LOL.
It was so crazy busy. I was amazed. Busier than Spring Break when we were there two years ago. Still we had a great couple of hours each morning, especially over in New Orleans Square and critter country, and then just used FPs as much as possible and were very selective about what we'd ride. Also no more than 30 minutes waiting time for us. And we discovered a new tradition for us -- getting in line for Big Thunder at five minutes before park close and being the last ones to ride. It was wonderful.
This might be our last opportunity for a family trip to Disneyland as our daughter is going away to university so we had the most fun we possibly could. Good memories.