Vexorg
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2006
- Messages
- 620
Just got home from five days in the parks (plus an extra "chill out" day in the middle) with a couple of friends, and I'm currently in the obligatory crashing-back-to-reality phase of the whole process. I'm actually surprised how much we got done on this trip, but it was not without its challenges. Here's a few quick thoughts (I might add some more later):
-Since I was traveling with a couple of friends who love coming up with silly ideas for ride photos I decided to spring for the Photopass Plus so we could actually keep all of them instead of just taking pictures of the screen like we usually do. We didn't end up putting hundreds of photos on it like I hear some people do, but I think we hit all the highlights pretty well. I'd definitely do it again when traveling with this group. The one bummer on this was that they lost the photo (it just never showed up) for the only time we were all able to ride RSR together.
-The parks were crowded, but for the most part manageable. Thanks to a strategy of collecting FPs early and sending a runner (usually me) to get FPs later on, I don't think we had to wait in any excessively long lines.
-The single rider line on the Matterhorn is a huge time-saver. Since riding together on Matterhorn doesn't matter anywhere near as much as it does on other rides, if you're in a small group of 2 or 3 that doesn't include any kids, the single-rider line is definitely the way to go on this one.
-Biggest challenge of the trip? Dealing with the heat. Every day we were there was somewhere in the high 80s to mid 90s during the day. Especially in the afternoons, it had a pretty significant effect on energy levels. We didn't have a hotel near the parks to go back to for breaks (we were staying at a private condo roughly 25 miles away) so we ended up going back to the car to take 1-hour breaks/naps in the afternoon. Since we weren't running on a lot of sleep most days (when one of my friends had a flight delayed several hours I ended up needing to make a 50-mile drive to LAX to pick them up at 1am then drive back, then we had to be up at 6 to get to the parks in time to get RSR FPs) this was probably one of the better ideas we had. Although having access to the condo saved us a bunch of money over what we'd spend on a hotel room, the distance definitely complicates the logistics a bit. I suspect we'd continue to use the condo for as long as we have it available, but I'm not sure I'd be able to convince my friends to go in July or August again.
-The main thing I need to improve on for the next trip (probably next September) is putting together a better strategy for the evening shows, especially the fireworks.
-For quite a while, I've felt that three days seems to be just about right for a Disneyland trip (at least if you live within reasonable distance of the parks) and after doing a five-day trip, I still believe this is true. Naturally, your mileage may vary on this one.
Ultimately there were things that went well and other things that didn't go well, but overall it was a pretty good trip. I went into this not expecting to buy another AP when my current one expires in a few weeks (especially with the huge price increase on the Premium AP,) but I think I managed to inadvertently convince my friends to get deluxe APs on their next trip, which means I'll probably break down and just get another AP the next time I head over. I'd have to say that between all of us we probably saved at least $50 on AP discounts alone on this trip, and when you add parking and blackouts to that I've easily covered the extra cost of the premium AP over the Deluxe twice over.
-Since I was traveling with a couple of friends who love coming up with silly ideas for ride photos I decided to spring for the Photopass Plus so we could actually keep all of them instead of just taking pictures of the screen like we usually do. We didn't end up putting hundreds of photos on it like I hear some people do, but I think we hit all the highlights pretty well. I'd definitely do it again when traveling with this group. The one bummer on this was that they lost the photo (it just never showed up) for the only time we were all able to ride RSR together.
-The parks were crowded, but for the most part manageable. Thanks to a strategy of collecting FPs early and sending a runner (usually me) to get FPs later on, I don't think we had to wait in any excessively long lines.
-The single rider line on the Matterhorn is a huge time-saver. Since riding together on Matterhorn doesn't matter anywhere near as much as it does on other rides, if you're in a small group of 2 or 3 that doesn't include any kids, the single-rider line is definitely the way to go on this one.
-Biggest challenge of the trip? Dealing with the heat. Every day we were there was somewhere in the high 80s to mid 90s during the day. Especially in the afternoons, it had a pretty significant effect on energy levels. We didn't have a hotel near the parks to go back to for breaks (we were staying at a private condo roughly 25 miles away) so we ended up going back to the car to take 1-hour breaks/naps in the afternoon. Since we weren't running on a lot of sleep most days (when one of my friends had a flight delayed several hours I ended up needing to make a 50-mile drive to LAX to pick them up at 1am then drive back, then we had to be up at 6 to get to the parks in time to get RSR FPs) this was probably one of the better ideas we had. Although having access to the condo saved us a bunch of money over what we'd spend on a hotel room, the distance definitely complicates the logistics a bit. I suspect we'd continue to use the condo for as long as we have it available, but I'm not sure I'd be able to convince my friends to go in July or August again.
-The main thing I need to improve on for the next trip (probably next September) is putting together a better strategy for the evening shows, especially the fireworks.
-For quite a while, I've felt that three days seems to be just about right for a Disneyland trip (at least if you live within reasonable distance of the parks) and after doing a five-day trip, I still believe this is true. Naturally, your mileage may vary on this one.
Ultimately there were things that went well and other things that didn't go well, but overall it was a pretty good trip. I went into this not expecting to buy another AP when my current one expires in a few weeks (especially with the huge price increase on the Premium AP,) but I think I managed to inadvertently convince my friends to get deluxe APs on their next trip, which means I'll probably break down and just get another AP the next time I head over. I'd have to say that between all of us we probably saved at least $50 on AP discounts alone on this trip, and when you add parking and blackouts to that I've easily covered the extra cost of the premium AP over the Deluxe twice over.