April/May 2019: Seven Kinds of Crazy

[Jaina]

That website for strategies mentions using Rider Swap along with FP. It is the exact strategy I thought of when first planning. But then I saw in some threads that ALL people whether in group 1 or 2 need FPs for the ride RS is wanted for. I’m not sure if this is a WDW or DL thing specifically. Have you (or anyone else reading) had any experience with this at DL and DCA? I wrote to the Disney email to see if they have an official stance on it since it’s not covered in their policy online. I wouldn’t want to start off booking different FPs splitting the group to find out we can’t get Rider Swap.

I am curious about this too. I would ask it on the main page and you're more likely to get someone who knows for sure.

 

[disneymouse16]

I love the shirt! I actually have it "favorited" on Etsy

Touring plans has a really neat tool you can use to write a plan for the day! You can schedule breaks, meals, shows, etc. I have been enjoying playing with it way too much! I have two possibilities for our DCA day one of which might have us done by 4:30! And a couple of Disneyland ones but I really don't feel the need to plan Disneyland as much.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

That website for strategies mentions using Rider Swap along with FP. It is the exact strategy I thought of when first planning. But then I saw in some threads that ALL people whether in group 1 or 2 need FPs for the ride RS is wanted for. I’m not sure if this is a WDW or DL thing specifically. Have you (or anyone else reading) had any experience with this at DL and DCA?..

I am curious about this too. I would ask it on the main page and you're more likely to get someone who knows for sure.

Yes, definitely ask about this in the Disneyland (California) forum. We have moms there who go to DLR every week, so they are up to date on Rider Swap and FP/MP. You'll get the most accurate information for DLR there.

 

[momtohms]

Hello! Following along for sure, I love reading family trip reports

That is such a cute Etsy shirt! I have several saved for my trip this summer and that’s one of them. Deciding on which one I am going to get is going to be hard, I may need to splurge and get two

 

[Jaina]

Hello! Following along for sure, I love reading family trip reports

That is such a cute Etsy shirt! I have several saved for my trip this summer and that’s one of them. Deciding on which one I am going to get is going to be hard, I may need to splurge and get two

Thanks for joining! We're getting so excited!!!! And I know! There are so many cute shirts! I'm sure I'll be ordering more sometime in the future, since this one worked out well.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I love the shirts and I am so excited for you guys! The rides are almost all back up, entertainment is going, its getting REAL!

RSR was definitely going fast - our first day, I skipped it initially, because I wanted an evening ride anyway - by 11:30am it was already to the 8:30-9:30pm window. Unfortunately, it then rained and the ride was closed that night. The next two days it was completely gone by 11:30am! I was a little shocked! Our last day in park, I initially grabbed it immediately upon entering DCA right around park open, but took a chance, dumped it, grabbed something much sooner (Toy story I think), and when it came up again at 8:45am it was already after 5pm (and we had to be in DL for dinner at 5). Luckily, someone canceled a 9:30am slot and I was able to grab it! We had quite a race across the park from TSMM to RSR, especially since we had to grab breakfast on the way, but mobile food ordering and determination made it work

Can't wait to read more of your plans and to hear about all your preparations!

 

[Jaina]

I love the shirts and I am so excited for you guys! The rides are almost all back up, entertainment is going, its getting REAL!

RSR was definitely going fast - our first day, I skipped it initially, because I wanted an evening ride anyway - by 11:30am it was already to the 8:30-9:30pm window. Unfortunately, it then rained and the ride was closed that night. The next two days it was completely gone by 11:30am! I was a little shocked! Our last day in park, I initially grabbed it immediately upon entering DCA right around park open, but took a chance, dumped it, grabbed something much sooner (Toy story I think), and when it came up again at 8:45am it was already after 5pm (and we had to be in DL for dinner at 5). Luckily, someone canceled a 9:30am slot and I was able to grab it! We had quite a race across the park from TSMM to RSR, especially since we had to grab breakfast on the way, but mobile food ordering and determination made it work

Can't wait to read more of your plans and to hear about all your preparations!

That's crazy about RSR, though not unexpected. I am trying to figure out the best strategy for that one... It's what my 5-year-old is most excited about, I think, but if we do a rider switch with him, he'll be sure to get to ride it twice, and the older 3 can do it single rider (because they're all over 7) another time during the day. It's kind of crazy only having one shot at California Adventure, but I'm confident that with MaxPass, we should be able to do everything we want.

 

[Jaina]

I love the shirt! I actually have it "favorited" on Etsy

Touring plans has a really neat tool you can use to write a plan for the day! You can schedule breaks, meals, shows, etc. I have been enjoying playing with it way too much! I have two possibilities for our DCA day one of which might have us done by 4:30! And a couple of Disneyland ones but I really don't feel the need to plan Disneyland as much.

Whoops, I thought I responded to you! It is such a cute design, and Disney in an understated way. If I was going to WDW, I would totally do Touring Plans! (Especially since I'd be a little lost there, even though I've read a lot about it, and been once <20 years ago, haha!>) With Disneyland, I feel like my firsthand/Disboards-obsessed knowledge is probably enough to help me have a good idea on planning myself. But it's still crazy to try to figure it out when crowds are so unpredictable!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

That's crazy about RSR, though not unexpected. I am trying to figure out the best strategy for that one... It's what my 5-year-old is most excited about, I think, but if we do a rider switch with him, he'll be sure to get to ride it twice, and the older 3 can do it single rider (because they're all over 7) another time during the day. It's kind of crazy only having one shot at California Adventure, but I'm confident that with MaxPass, we should be able to do everything we want.

Definitely max pass will help you out there. The day I finally rode-herd and got us to the park by 8ish, my 5 yr old managed to do 10 rides in DCA before lunch. Since she was the bday girl, she was the kid for every RS and got to pick her companion. If we hadn't of had Fantasmic that night, we could have done RSR again at night I think. Have you decided if WoC is in or out yet? We enjoyed it, but we all love F! even more this trip - maybe because we hadn't seen it in longer, and so maybe ya'll can just focus on rides and stuff and skip WoC since you'll be doing F! a different night anyway. RSR was really the only one that I got nervous about for FP. IC and GotG were popular, but it would have been easy to go 2 or maybe even 3 times on those. TSMM also was popular but easy enough to get good FP for that we could have repeated it that day. So whichever rides your fam loves most in the morning, you should be able to repeat them in the evening with RSR being the only risk. And it still leaves you time to fit in any shows or nonFP rides you want to do.

 

[Jaina]

Definitely max pass will help you out there. The day I finally rode-herd and got us to the park by 8ish, my 5 yr old managed to do 10 rides in DCA before lunch. Since she was the bday girl, she was the kid for every RS and got to pick her companion. If we hadn't of had Fantasmic that night, we could have done RSR again at night I think. Have you decided if WoC is in or out yet? We enjoyed it, but we all love F! even more this trip - maybe because we hadn't seen it in longer, and so maybe ya'll can just focus on rides and stuff and skip WoC since you'll be doing F! a different night anyway. RSR was really the only one that I got nervous about for FP. IC and GotG were popular, but it would have been easy to go 2 or maybe even 3 times on those. TSMM also was popular but easy enough to get good FP for that we could have repeated it that day. So whichever rides your fam loves most in the morning, you should be able to repeat them in the evening with RSR being the only risk. And it still leaves you time to fit in any shows or nonFP rides you want to do.

On my last trip with my sister we hit Guardians 4 times in a day (on a Monday just after Thanksgiving) and doubled up on most of our other favorites, all in one day when we were park hopping, so even with a bunch of us, I would anticipate we can get at least two rides on all the favorites if we want. RSR is a bit of a wild card though. Thanks for the info on Toontown; I'm going to have to watch that one closely!

 

[Jaina]

Friends, I have opened this window to try to type my next planning entry seriously 10 times in the last several days, and I get distracted, or some small person needs something, and it just won't happen! And right now, I should be sleeping. But I'm going to power through and catch up. Because our trip starts 2 weeks from tomorrow!!! I'm getting so excited. My kids are all getting excited, too! My husband has been in Hawaii (visiting my parents, haha, after sending me for like 9 days last summer!) the last 4 days, so I don't know if he's excited or not, but I feel way less guilty if this upcoming trip wears him out a little again.

I have been gathering some of the last minute "wants." I made another trip to the Disney Outlet at Arizona Mills and actually found some new arrivals from the Parks that I was excited about! I got these silver Minnie ears, which will go with pretty much anything! I think I'll wear them the last day with my white and grey shirt. A big bonus is that they're a little looser than most of the Minnie ears I've tried on. I get headaches from pressure pretty easily, so that's awesome for me. I also got this cute Moana cup for my 2-year-old because she's obsessed with cups and straws, and some oh-so-affordable pins to add to their pin lanyards. (Which I won't get out until the last day, for two reasons: They're distracting from my carefully constructed plans when we're trying to get. stuff. done. and they also don't match anything we're wearing. I'm so weird. But seriously, at those prices, it took some self control to not buy a bunch of them. Because we really don't need them. Each of the kids has about 10 pins between the new ones and ones from previous trips. Some are probably scrappers, but I can't tell the difference most of the time, and we got most of what we had by trading with cast members, so we choose not to worry about it, and just let them trade for fun.

I also finally found a jacket for DD2. She only has one cute Minnie hoodie, and it's bright pink, which isn't ideal for coordination most days. It's cute on her though. But I got this one on a local consign site, quite close by, for $5. It is older and faded though, so the main decal had a lot of cracking. I decided if I messed it up, it was only $5, so I got out my craft paints and gave Minnie a facelift, haha. And this little darlin' is super excited for our upcoming trip and to wear her Minnie jacket.
(before)

(after - if you can even see the difference in pictures, haha)

Oh, and my amazingly cute Groot backpack also arrived last week, and my kids are all obsessed with it too. DS5 asked if I would please take his picture with it. I love this picture, because he's at an age where it's very hard to get him to actually look at the camera, much less give a halfway-authentic smile, and this really shows some of his personality.

And just today I picked up this Disney Parks jacket for DH. I hope it fits him and that he likes it. (He can be picky about what he wears, and is a bit of a jacket snob, haha) I drove like 25 minutes to get it, but it goes well with our other colors, and it is super soft. I think he'll like it. I like it. I'm going to lose 10-15 lbs and then steal it! He's slim and likes his clothes fitted, so I'm always excited when I can actually fit into anything that's his!

I'm not going to be able to get into my actual "possible play-by-play plan" for our days, because I need to get to bed. BUT I just obsessively checked our days on the Disneyland calendar again, and they just -added- two things to the refurbishment list. Disney likes to give me heart attacks! (Storybookland Canal Boats, and the Casey Jr. Train) Is this going to happen any more? I thought we were more or less safe from surprise refurbishments, but apparently not! Neither of those are super sad, but I was actually planning to ride Casey Jr., because I'm really not sure if I've ever been on it, which is weird for me. The only things I'm sure I've never been on are actually riding on the Mark Twain or Columbia, and the Davy Crockett Canoes. One of these days... Hoping nothing else gets added!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Sounds like things are coming together! Minnie's facelift on your daughter's jacket looks great! If you need a relaxing ride-that-works-as-a-break on this trip, ride the Mark Twain. Try to coordinate that ride with the DLRR because, since the big 2017 refurb, those two rides go together with the scenery on the ROA. For example, you can hear the waterfalls on the DLRR as you go over the trestle bridge, but you can't see what you're missing under the bridge (let's just say we've named him, "the murderous beaver") until you ride the Mark Twain. Sometimes there are M&Gs on deck while you ride. We had a M&G and photos with Tiana during a ride last fall. That was great because the crowds were limited to the guests on board -- and not all guests wanted a M&G. And once you've ridden the MT, it just makes the finale of F! that much more special.

 

[Jaina]

Sounds like things are coming together! Minnie's facelift on your daughter's jacket looks great! If you need a relaxing ride-that-works-as-a-break on this trip, ride the Mark Twain. Try to coordinate that ride with the DLRR because, since the big 2017 refurb, those two rides go together with the scenery on the ROA. For example, you can hear the waterfalls on the DLRR as you go over the trestle bridge, but you can't see what you're missing under the bridge (let's just say we've named him, "the murderous beaver") until you ride the Mark Twain. Sometimes there are M&Gs on deck while you ride. We had a M&G and photos with Tiana during a ride last fall. That was great because the crowds were limited to the guests on board -- and not all guests wanted a M&G. And once you've ridden the MT, it just makes the finale of F! that much more special.

I'll have to watch departure times and keep that in mind. It would be fun, though I'm kicking myself for never doing it before they had to redo the RoA. Thinking of it as a "break" would be helpful.

 

[AJA55]

You did a wonderful job on that Minnie shirt!

Got short timers disease?

 

[Jaina]

You did a wonderful job on that Minnie shirt!

Got short timers disease?

Thanks! But what is short timers disease?

 

[AJA55]

Only a short time until you leave! So you have the disease...haha

I'm still thinking of doing a trip report. As it would be a real different perspective. Can't believe the it's been a week and a half that we've been back.

 

[Jaina]

Only a short time until you leave! So you have the disease...haha

I'm still thinking of doing a trip report. As it would be a real different perspective. Can't believe the it's been a week and a half that we've been back.

You really should! I would love to read it!!!

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Fantastic work on the Minnie jacket, and the happiness in both pix of the kids is so heart warming!

All of your outfits look to be amazing - can't wait to see them in action in the parks

 

[RedHotMama]

Hi!! I'm so excited about your trip! I hope it is wonderful. I hope it makes up for the last family trip. Lol. (I know it was still a good trip, but you know what I mean.) I'll be praying for you and your family to truly enjoy each other, have patience, experience the magic, and make amazing memories!

 

[RedHotMama]

Also, I love how crafty you've been. I *loved* the Santa ears you did for you and your sister, and how you remade them for this trip! Absolute genius to use clips to be able to change them up! And I'm impressed by all the shirts you've made.
So much fun!