August 2025 trip report, possibly last one for a good while

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Finally have some time to go over the great trip we had this August. We had a fantastic vacation. 4.5 park days, 1 rest day where we got to spend extended time in Downtown Disney, and a final morning before our flight to end the trip on a high.

We left Dallas on the morning of Friday, August 1st. We flew into Orange County which was great. Got in our Lyft and headed to the Courtyard Theme Park Entrance hotel. We had planned to just change into shorts at the hotel so we could go to Knott's Berry Farm for the day and leave our bags with the luggage service at the hotel since we're weren't able to check in until 4pm. The valet was very nice and told me to go inside and speak with the front desk to see if a room was ready for us. I went in and spoke with the front desk letting them know what we wanted to do. They let us check in to a room on the 2nd floor which was great for multiple reasons. This is one of many reasons why I'll consistently stay at this hotel. We always have an enjoyable stay. We got to the room, everyone changed out of their airplane clothes, and we called a Lyft to take us to Knott's Berry.

We had a decent time at Knott's Berry. We got there around 11am and it already felt very crowded and hot. There were lots of summer camp kids there in large groups so we knew some of the rides would have really long waits. We didn't buy the fastpass because it's an obscene amount of money for one day. We started off at the Camp Snoopy area as DD15 is a huge fan of Peanuts and specifically Snoopy. She really loved it. Got pictures with Snoopy and we rode a few of the rides that weren't just for really young kids. We got a boysenberry ICEE that was very tasty. DD17 and I rode the Xcelerator which was the fastest ride I think I've ridden before. That initial launch was fantastic. Some other rides we enjoyed were the Silver Bullet and the Jaguar. They are very similar to rides at Six Flags here in DFW but a lot longer or more intense. I really like the Old Missions area and the cave ride was really fun. We were going to ride Pony Express but the heat was really getting to all of us combined with long wait times. We ended the day with a ride on the Snoopy train and a stop off at the Camp Snoopy gift shop. I think we left around 4pm. We went back to the hotel and two of us crashed into bed while the other two went to the pool. I think I went to bed around 9pm only to be woken up the concussive blasts of the nearby fireworks. Then it was back to bed to start our first morning at Disneyland.

 

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Day 1 Disneyland
We started our morning on Saturday at rope drop. Security was pretty easy. We got up to the Hub and got our place in line for going towards Space Mountain. It's always interesting watching people try to jockey for position in front of us. Lots of people who come later who just try to move even more forward. It was amusing. The last time I rope dropped was in Florida and the differences could not be more stark. I love California mornings and evenings. Just so much more pleasant than Florida heat and sweat. We rode Space Mountain as a walk on and then were planning to ride Matterhorn next but it didn't open on time, a consistent theme of the trip.

My wife is a breakfast person. I can grab and go with something like a muffin or a scone and be fine. Our hotel is great in that they have a Starbucks in the lobby. Since I wake up before everyone else, I went down after I was ready and everyone else was up and going to grab us coffees and morning snacks. My wife needs protein with her breakfasts. The kids love to tease her about "her protein" that she needs for breakfast. We made up a joke which was "Momma needs her protein". My wife doesn't plan our trips, except for food. She had a whole handwritten spreadsheet of breakfast places she wanted to hit and it was my job to figure out how to work them in. We landed on getting the Cheesy Pretzel Sandwich at Maurice's Treats. The kids could eat a cookie croissant and we would share the sandwich. Pretty good. We ate it as we walked towards Indiana Jones.

I tried to work in a way to not need a fastpass before 9am but Indiana Jones goes so quickly in the morning that I had to grab it as soon as we got scanned in. So we got a 9:15 time which worked fine. We walked on Big Thunder which was under 15 minutes. We then rode Pirates as it was a 5 minute wait. I told the kids to sit on the ends so they could see more. This was a mistake. DD17 is, how should I put this, our special one. She does not enjoy getting wet. And of course, she sat on the side that splashed her a little bit which made her not enjoy the ride. She recovered when we went on Haunted Mansion, also a walk through. We try to switch off who rides with who on each ride so I had her sit with me as we both really enjoy HM.

We rode Indy and then made our way over to Fantasyland. Rode most of the rides except Alice as it was a longer wait. We did our one ride of Peter Pan for the trip as the wait was under 30 minutes. We ate lunch at Hungry Bear which had maybe the best item we ate in the parks the whole week, the barbeque salads. It was so good and I'm a harsh judge of BBQ being from Texas. Wife got the pulled pork salad and I went with the brisket salad. It felt like the best option on a hot day.

The big thing we hadn't done at DLR yet was Tiana's. We all enjoyed Splash Mountain but it wasn't a favorite so we were really interested in riding. We all didn't want to get soaked so we figured out a good option. We brought my large backpack and put all our shoes in it and switched out for flip flops. We also had panchos for everyone and I asked to not be up front which worked out well for us. We all really enjoyed the ride. It felt a lot more colorful and alive than Splash. The story isn't as good but the visuals were great.

It started getting hot so we headed back to the room to swim and relax. We returned in the evening to ride Space Mountain again and to watch the Star Wars projections and fireworks which were great. We also walked on the Millenium Falcon and got paired with some good pilots. It was a fun day.

 

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Day 2 Even More Disneyland, but with one kid at a time

I love Sundays at DLR. We probably should've gone to CA but I just couldn't pass up a Sunday morning at DLR. One thing I did last summer with the kids was taking each to Six Flags while the other brought a friend. That allowed me to ride rides with just one of them at a time which was some great father daughter bonding time. I decided that we should try that with each kid during our Disney trip. Each of them would get to do whatever they wanted to do with each parent.

I took DD17 first and my wife went with DD15. We planned to do 8-12 with one kid, eat lunch in the middle, and then switch for the afternoon. My youngest brought up that she got short changed with me as we would go back to the hotel at 2pm for swimming and then had a dinner package for Fantasmic. We then decided to do the same thing on the final morning so each kid got the afternoon parent on that final morning. Oldest and I just redid the same plan from the day before minus Tiana's while my wife and DD15 went to Fantasyland. She loves beignets so we stopped off a Mint Julip to get some. The pineapple ones were really good. We later got the 70th Churro which was way too chalky for our liking.

I switched off with my wife and the youngest and I went on the Monorail which was something she wanted to do. We then rode the Autopia and Finding Nemo subs. It was getting hot so we decided to have share a banana split from Gibson's Girl which was a great treat. It was a fun time for all.

We went back in the evening to have our 6pm Cafe Orleans Fantasmic dinner. It was a really good meal with way too much food. It was a lot more enjoyable than the previous River Belle Terrace meal we had back in 2022. We rode Haunted Mansion again and then headed for our spot right in front for Fantasmic. That is still such a fun show to watch even without the Dragon. After the show, we stayed to watch the fireworks from our Fantasmic viewing spot which was great. We then headed back to the hotel.

 

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Day 3, California Adventure or I should've just bought single day tickets

We got to CA at 7:30 because we wanted to make sure we could book Guardians. Since Incredicoaster was down while we were there, a big attraction that we normally rope drop was eliminated from our plans. We got scanned in and immediately, the only time we could get was after 9am. This was fine because I had planned to rope drop Guardians and then walk on the Spider-man ride. We mobile ordered a smoothie and Mickey waffle for the kids from Schmoozies and coffees for ourselves. At 8am the cast members calmly walked us to Guardians which was great. I detest the mad rush to get around people at rope drop at DLR. It was nice how organized it was.

Guardians is such a fun ride. We love Tower of Terror but Guardians is a great fit as far as a fun ride that puts a smile on your face. We then grabbed a breakfast sandwich at the Shawarma cart while we waited for our Spider-man LL to come up. I saw a really cool thing which was the Sam Captain America chatting with small kids at their level. That put a smile on my face. I don't think Avengers Campus is all that great but I could only imagine how fun it is for kids of that age to meet your heroes. My youngest loves Spiderman so she enjoyed waving at him as we walked by to head to Pixar Pier.

Monday was pretty busy at CA so we got a bit stacked up on wait times. I tried to make it so we could LL most of the rides but the times were starting to get too far away. I booked Soarin' which we did after a few Pixar Pier rides. We decided to eat at Boardwalk Cafe which was decent. Wife enjoyed her wedge salad. I had a slice of summer sausage pizza which was okay. It's serviceable. We then decided to do the LL for Radiator Racers and ride Luigi's ride. We then headed for the exit as we wanted to see if we could catch Oswald near the exit at 1:30 but he sadly did not come out that day because it was too hot.

We went back to swim and returned in the evening to ride the rest of the Pixar Pier rides that were getting too hot earlier in the day. We ran out of time to eat dinner before World of Color so we just ate treats at the Cozy Cone after it was over. My wife wasn't impressed with the WOC show. I guess it had too much Pixar for her. We walked through Cars Land at night which is always a treat and then rode Monster's Inc one last time since it would not be there the next time we came back.

The reason for my statement in the title was we only went to CA this one day. Since Oswald never came back out, Guardians LLs were already gone earlier in the day, and no Incredicoaster, I had the sad realization that I could've saved us a good amount of money by only buying single park tickets instead of park hoppers. Back when I bought them in the beginning of the year, I didn't have any idea that Incredicoaster would be gone.

 

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Day 4, kids have LLs, adults have a day date, dad starts to hate DLR with a phone

We did this the last time we went. I gave the kids my log in for the app and showed them how to book LLs for only two people. My thought was only book for 2 and then they would have 2 more to book later. They could use our LLs in addition to theirs. So that means up to 3 Space Mountain rides, which they did. I went over a plan with them before we said goodbye to them as we stood in the walk up line to have breakfast at Carnation Cafe. The kids then went on their day of riding all the rides they like.

After breakfast, we rode a couple of the Main Street vehicles and then waited to ride the train to New Orleans Square. We then rode the Riverboat before getting some beignets and getting back on the train to ride the rest of the way. I realized that the phone and trying to help my kids have a good, seamless experience made it difficult to be in the moment with my wife. A few times I caught her looking a bit annoyed so I finally decided to just put it away and let the kids just do their thing without advice which worked out fine. We gave them some gift cards for food and snacks. We had a lunch at Trader Sam's at 1:05 so we walked that way but watched the Dapper Dans perform and talked with them briefly.

Trader Sam's is such a great experience that I wished we had done many times before but I didn't know about it. We got a table inside and ordered two Tiki drinks and a few of the platters. It was about 2:15 and we really didn't want to make the long walk across Downtown Disney towards our hotel. So we took a Lyft from the Disneyland Hotel entrance to our hotel and we did not mind that at all. The kids came back around 2:45 to swim and rest.

We returned that evening to watch Paint The Night and ride Rise of the Resistance. I know it's expensive but since I'm only doing it once, I was fine with paying to ride it. We got excited as the app was showing 35 minutes so I thought maybe we could save $125 but then as we got there, the wait was back up to over an hour. So we paid up.

Paint the Night was great. We found a spot on the rail right by It's a Small World. We had seen it the first time we went to DLR in 2016 for the 60th and it was just as enjoyable this time. After that was over we rode the Teacups at night because that's always so cool, the Matterhorn since we've never done it at night, and Haunted Mansion since it was nighttime and it had a low wait. My oldest and I have a tradition of staying till the park closes so we did that as my wife and DD 15 went back to the hotel. We got a bunch of rides in before heading back after 12.

 

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Day 5: rest day, a trip to UC-Irvine, and Downtown Disney for dinner

My oldest just begun her senior year. We've been looking at different colleges as she would like to go out of state if she can't get into the University of Texas where her mom and I went. That's not as easy since everyone wants to go there and the state sets aside automatic admission for the top 5% of all high school seniors. So we've visited schools in Colorado, San Antonio, and plan on going to San Diego next month for UCSD and San Diego State. She'll probably stay in state but it's fun to take these trips with her. We thought why not check out UC-Irvine since it's 25 minutes from Disneyland and we did a virtual tour that we both thought a real trip would be worthwhile. We took a Lyft out to UCI while the wife and DD15 slept in.

UC-Irvine is a great campus. There's a wonderful park in the middle and then the campus rings around it. It's a very walkable campus and we had a good time. She would like to be a therapist and they offer a psych degree with a specialization in counseling. It reminded me a bit of UTSA here in Texas but way more walkable and pretty. She loved the Anteater mascot so we got her a shirt with it. She would like to apply but it is probably down the list of ones she would like. We walked over to the In-n-Out across the pedestrian bridge from the campus and got some shakes. This gave me an idea which was my youngest really wanted In-n-Out. The oldest needed to do some summer coursework so we went back to the hotel and I grabbed my wife and youngest to head over to the In-N-Out that's under 10 minutes from the hotel. It made my daughter happy and we grabbed to go for the oldest to eat at the hotel.

We did some swimming and then headed to our dinner reservation at Naples. That was a great meal. My eggplant parmigiana was so delicious. While we waited for our reservation to come up, we went into World of Disney and some of the other shops. We went to Wonderground Gallery after and bought a few postcards for the kids and a cool hoodie for me that had the Disneyland welcome plaque on it.

My youngest had a great idea which was to sit in the hotel hot tub and watch the fireworks before going to bed. We all did that and it was fun to watch it from there in comfort. I then packed us all up while the kids slept. We needed to be ready to leave the room when we headed out the next morning. I got done around 11:30.

 

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Day 6, final morning and heading back home

We got there at rope drop again but this time my wife went with the oldest and I went with the youngest since each were short changed the last time. They went to Space Mountain and we decided to rope drop Big Thunder which was fun. We all got a LL for Indy at 9:30 so we agreed to meet up then. We then rode Big Thunder again since the wait was low and then went over to Haunted Mansion for one final ride. We also rode Pirates and had beignets for breakfast before our Indy time came up. We next rode Winnie the Pooh, got a picture with Pooh, and then got a stale Mickey pretzel before walking towards Toon Town to ride Mickey & Minnie's ride. The queue is so much better than the WDW version. We then rode Roger Rabbit with a LL and headed to Dumbo which is another favorite of hers. We rode Matterhorn one final time since we didn't get to the other day and then met my wife and DD17 at the carousel for our final ride. We waved goodbye to DLR around 1pm and then headed back to the hotel to grab our bags and change. We then headed to the Orange County airport around 2pm and flew home.

It was a great trip and the only thing we really didn't get to do was meet Oswald which was a bummer. We may return in a few years but it might be after all the CA stuff gets built. My oldest said she might ask to go to WDW for her graduation but I have a better idea in mind. She's taken 4 years of French and we may decide to go to Paris with a day or so at Disneyland Paris. My wife and I went back when she turned 40 as part of just a one day add on since it didn't interfere with any of our other plans. It was such a beautiful park and a fun thing we had never previously gotten to do as a couple. We've only gone to Disney with our kids. It might be a toss up as to which trip would be cheaper, WDW or Paris + DLP?

 

[bjscheel]

Thanks for the report! Our trip begins early tomorrow morning!

 

[bakofarmgirl]

love your report and how you try to balance rides with each daughter!

 

[LKing]

Paris! How exciting.

UCI is a very nice campus but it has a reputation for being a suitcase school. I would be curious to hear what she thinks of UCSD and SDSU. Has she visited UCLA? Something to keep in mind is that the UCs give little to no aid to out of state students.