We spent 3 nights at Paradise Pier 8/1-8/4. 2 days at Disneyland and 1 at CA Adventure. It was just myself and my neice (12). We loved Paradise Pier although have not stayed at any other Disneyland Resort hotels. The new room design was nice and the beach theme was perfect for the hotel. Was surprised to see that the new slide was not attached to the pool. It was still fun anyway! We had a 9th floor theme park view where we could see both CA Adventure and Disneyland. Was really surprised because I had gotten a pretty good last minute deal.
I liked the downtown Disney area and the close access to the hotels. We cut through Grand CA to walk to Disneyland. The new entrance to CA Adventure for hotel guests made it easy to take a quick break from the park.
We loved CA Adventure more then I thought we would. Since Space Mountain and Big Thunder Montain are both down (we were told BTM would be back in 2 weeks) it is the place for thrill ride junkies. We loved CA Screamin even though the ride went down for an hour during our fastpass time. I had heard from several people that this is a regular occurance. We did not like ToT as much as DW. And thought the theming and the entire ride was not as good as it's FL counterpart. We loved Alladin - this is a not to be missed attraction as well as Soarin Over CA.
We were in the park at the 10 am opening and until closing at 9. Did not have enough time to do it all. Can't figure out why people call this a half-day park.
We didn't try the single rider line at CS but took advantage of the single rider line at GRR. This allowed us to ride without any wait time at all. On the Sun Wheel, my niece rode the swinging cars with another family while I rode one of the stationery cars with the mom from that family and another woman and her young daughter. I liked that they offered both types of cars on the ride. Saw lots of Disney characters in the park - probably more than we saw a Disneyland.
We got lucky our first day at DL and ran into the Parade of Stars bus and were able to be guest performers in the Parade. We saw the bus in Fantasyland. They start picking up people about an hour before the parade. You also need to have sturdy shoes on like sneakers - no flip flops. We had a blast doing this and it was our most favorite memory of our visit. We also were given a special pin of the Blue Fairy float which is only given to parade performers.
On our last day I wanted it to be special so I made late lunch reservations for Blue Bayou and Fantasmic Desert Buffet reservations. At Blue Bayou I asked for a waterside table and was told it would be a 30-40 minute wait so I asked them to get us as close as possible. We ended up with a waterside table for two in 10 minutes. The hostess wrote "close to H2O" on our card. I was glad we got the Fantasmic tickets as the park seemed more crowded on Tuesday than it had been on Sunday.
We were able to ride Splash Mtn 3 times - one with fast pass and twice using single rider line. One thing that bothered me in SM was 2 out of the 3 times I rode we had annoying and inconsiderate people in the car with us. The first time we both rode together on fast pass two of the guys in front of the car rocked the log back and forth through the entire ride exept for the drops. For those of us who get a little sea sick it was NOT a pleasant ride. Then once when I rode as a single rider someone in the front of the log tried to stand up and I guess he was seen on a security monitor and they stopped the ride and told everyone to stay in there seats. When the ride continued he DID stand up again and this time started to rock the boat back and forth while he was standing. I finally yelled something not too nice to him (I was so angry that I forgot where I was for a minute) and he sat down. After the incident a few years ago where someone was crushed trying to move from one log to another you would think that these idiots wouldn't try a stunt like that. I wonder how common place this is since it happend 2 out of 3 times I rode SM. I never saw this happen at WDW.
One thing about fast pass that I didn't know is how soon you can get your next pass. If we had a 10am-11am window we could get our next fast pass shortly after 10 even before we rode the ride. I will have to test this again the next time we are at WDW.
Another nice bonus that we encountered on the trip was during our 4 days in Hollywood. We were approached by someone in front of Mann's Chinese Theater and asked if we would be interested in attending a private screening at the El Capitan Theater on Saturday night for Princess Diaries II. My niece loved the first movie so we quickly said yes. It was a special press preview and most of the center section of the orchestra in the theater was reserved for the press. We sat off to the side and really enjoyed the movie. My niece was excited and I think next to the being in the parade it was her favorite memory from the trip.
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.
Pat
I liked the downtown Disney area and the close access to the hotels. We cut through Grand CA to walk to Disneyland. The new entrance to CA Adventure for hotel guests made it easy to take a quick break from the park.
We loved CA Adventure more then I thought we would. Since Space Mountain and Big Thunder Montain are both down (we were told BTM would be back in 2 weeks) it is the place for thrill ride junkies. We loved CA Screamin even though the ride went down for an hour during our fastpass time. I had heard from several people that this is a regular occurance. We did not like ToT as much as DW. And thought the theming and the entire ride was not as good as it's FL counterpart. We loved Alladin - this is a not to be missed attraction as well as Soarin Over CA.
We were in the park at the 10 am opening and until closing at 9. Did not have enough time to do it all. Can't figure out why people call this a half-day park.
We didn't try the single rider line at CS but took advantage of the single rider line at GRR. This allowed us to ride without any wait time at all. On the Sun Wheel, my niece rode the swinging cars with another family while I rode one of the stationery cars with the mom from that family and another woman and her young daughter. I liked that they offered both types of cars on the ride. Saw lots of Disney characters in the park - probably more than we saw a Disneyland.
We got lucky our first day at DL and ran into the Parade of Stars bus and were able to be guest performers in the Parade. We saw the bus in Fantasyland. They start picking up people about an hour before the parade. You also need to have sturdy shoes on like sneakers - no flip flops. We had a blast doing this and it was our most favorite memory of our visit. We also were given a special pin of the Blue Fairy float which is only given to parade performers.
On our last day I wanted it to be special so I made late lunch reservations for Blue Bayou and Fantasmic Desert Buffet reservations. At Blue Bayou I asked for a waterside table and was told it would be a 30-40 minute wait so I asked them to get us as close as possible. We ended up with a waterside table for two in 10 minutes. The hostess wrote "close to H2O" on our card. I was glad we got the Fantasmic tickets as the park seemed more crowded on Tuesday than it had been on Sunday.
We were able to ride Splash Mtn 3 times - one with fast pass and twice using single rider line. One thing that bothered me in SM was 2 out of the 3 times I rode we had annoying and inconsiderate people in the car with us. The first time we both rode together on fast pass two of the guys in front of the car rocked the log back and forth through the entire ride exept for the drops. For those of us who get a little sea sick it was NOT a pleasant ride. Then once when I rode as a single rider someone in the front of the log tried to stand up and I guess he was seen on a security monitor and they stopped the ride and told everyone to stay in there seats. When the ride continued he DID stand up again and this time started to rock the boat back and forth while he was standing. I finally yelled something not too nice to him (I was so angry that I forgot where I was for a minute) and he sat down. After the incident a few years ago where someone was crushed trying to move from one log to another you would think that these idiots wouldn't try a stunt like that. I wonder how common place this is since it happend 2 out of 3 times I rode SM. I never saw this happen at WDW.
One thing about fast pass that I didn't know is how soon you can get your next pass. If we had a 10am-11am window we could get our next fast pass shortly after 10 even before we rode the ride. I will have to test this again the next time we are at WDW.
Another nice bonus that we encountered on the trip was during our 4 days in Hollywood. We were approached by someone in front of Mann's Chinese Theater and asked if we would be interested in attending a private screening at the El Capitan Theater on Saturday night for Princess Diaries II. My niece loved the first movie so we quickly said yes. It was a special press preview and most of the center section of the orchestra in the theater was reserved for the press. We sat off to the side and really enjoyed the movie. My niece was excited and I think next to the being in the parade it was her favorite memory from the trip.
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.
Pat
