couple last minute questions :)

[kailuagirl]

We are now in San Diego and having fun. Heading to Disneyland early early on Saturday (9/29) and I have a couple of questions, if anyone can help. We are in DL 9/29 (DH's b'day) to Thursday. Going to Halloween party on 10/2

1. We are leaving SD early Sat., hopefully around 6am. Do you think we'll have traffic issues with the road closures?

2. I figure it's going to be crowded Sat. and Sun right? So our main priorities these days are fireworks, F and Mad Tea Party. Should we go to the parks early and then enjoy the pool (we are staying at GCH) one of these days?

3. What night should we see WOC, Mon. or Wed? I don't want to do it our last night, nor on the weekend.

4. We have EE to CAP on Sat., Sun, Mon. and Wed. Should we even attempt to go to Carsland on Sat. or Sunday in the morning or is it going to be crazy crowded?

5. For EE to CAP should we line up at GCH entrance or go to main gates for ee? I know I've read that if the GCH line is passed around the corner then go to the main gates, is this right?

6. Once we get into CAP do the wide right technique when walking to Cars land. correct?

7. We are going to try to do Grizzy (it's our first time, DD is finally tall enough, yah!). I recall people saying that they go from the GCH pool to the ride, so they are already wet and don't care. I have a sun shirt and board shorts to wear, DH can wear board shorts and shirt, not sure what to do with DD5, she has a sun shirt, but no board shorts. Is it okay for her to ride or even enter parks in bathing suit bottoms with a shirt, or will she need more bottoms? We will just go to ride, then back to hotel. Not sure what to do for this part.

8. Where is the closest bathroom in the GCH to the lobby or easiest to get to. DD will be arriving in her PJ's early am, and I'll need to dress her and brush teeth etc. there incase our room isn't ready.

9. DH's b''day is Sat. the day we are arriving. I'm trying to figure out what I can do special for him as a surprise. I'm going to bring candles and do something there, and get some deco's for the room so when he takes a nap Sat. I'll put them up for him. We don't want to waste one of our 2 weekend nights eating a long meal, so at the most maybe we'll do cafe orleans for his dinner, any other suggestions.



If you made it this far, thank you!!! This is our 4th family trip, and I'm so excited!!! DD5 has no idea we are going to DL. It's still a secret. She thinks we just came to visit my dad in SD. Going to put her in the car sleeping Sat. morning and she'll wake up at Disneyland!! We always stay at the GCH so she'll know where we are when she wakes up. Can't wait!! So excited, but really not excited about the food at DL. We only have a small handfull of things we really like to eat (besides all the yummy sweets of course).

 

[llump41]

1. At 6AM you shouldn't hit any traffic. From downtown SD to the DLR shouldn't take more than 1.5 hours. But you could always come upon an accident and get bogged down
2. Sunday may be busier than Sat. My advice is to get to the park at opening. My DW and I can usually ride most of the E-ticket rides by noon on a Sun. Then go back to the pools, enjoy the afternoon break and then back to the parks.

 

[poohj80]

I'm interested in the answers as well since we are doing a similar trip in just over a week starting in SD then heading to DL (although we decided to get a room close to DL the night before instead of driving early early on our check-in day).

 

[Mel522]

We are now in San Diego and having fun. Heading to Disneyland early early on Saturday (9/29) and I have a couple of questions, if anyone can help. We are in DL 9/29 (DH's b'day) to Thursday. Going to Halloween party on 10/2

1. We are leaving SD early Sat., hopefully around 6am. Do you think we'll have traffic issues with the road closures?

You shouldn't run into too much traffic that early.

2. I figure it's going to be crowded Sat. and Sun right? So our main priorities these days are fireworks, F and Mad Tea Party. Should we go to the parks early and then enjoy the pool (we are staying at GCH) one of these days?

It was hot last week on our trip (like the high 90s,) so we spent the hottest part of the day at the pool. It helped break up the day and gave us a break from the heat. It also gave us a change to take a nap since we got up early and planned on staying late.

3. What night should we see WOC, Mon. or Wed? I don't want to do it our last night, nor on the weekend.

I would do it on Monday in case it gets cancelled (which is unlikely) due to bad weather or something.

4. We have EE to CAP on Sat., Sun, Mon. and Wed. Should we even attempt to go to Carsland on Sat. or Sunday in the morning or is it going to be crazy crowded?

We were there last week and Sat. was busier than Sun. If you get there at opening to shouldn't be too bad on either day. On weekdays the park opens later, so it seemed busier at opening on the weekdays. On Friday we got in the park for EE at 9:00 and it was slightly busier that Saturday's EE at 7:00.

5. For EE to CAP should we line up at GCH entrance or go to main gates for ee? I know I've read that if the GCH line is passed around the corner then go to the main gates, is this right?

Main Gate is faster. It is easier to get to Carsland from the main gate and has more turnstiles to get people through faster.

6. Once we get into CAP do the wide right technique when walking to Cars land. correct?

I've heard it was faster, but we just walked over with no technique.

7. We are going to try to do Grizzy (it's our first time, DD is finally tall enough, yah!). I recall people saying that they go from the GCH pool to the ride, so they are already wet and don't care. I have a sun shirt and board shorts to wear, DH can wear board shorts and shirt, not sure what to do with DD5, she has a sun shirt, but no board shorts. Is it okay for her to ride or even enter parks in bathing suit bottoms with a shirt, or will she need more bottoms? We will just go to ride, then back to hotel. Not sure what to do for this part.

I don't think she can enter the park in swim bottoms. She would have to have shorts on over the swim bottoms.

8. Where is the closest bathroom in the GCH to the lobby or easiest to get to. DD will be arriving in her PJ's early am, and I'll need to dress her and brush teeth etc. there incase our room isn't ready.

9. DH's b''day is Sat. the day we are arriving. I'm trying to figure out what I can do special for him as a surprise. I'm going to bring candles and do something there, and get some deco's for the room so when he takes a nap Sat. I'll put them up for him. We don't want to waste one of our 2 weekend nights eating a long meal, so at the most maybe we'll do cafe orleans for his dinner, any other suggestions.

We only did counter service, so I can't recommend a table service restaurant. My favorite places that we ate were Plaza Inn (there chicken was delicious,) and Flo's V8 which was by far my favorite.

If you made it this far, thank you!!! This is our 4th family trip, and I'm so excited!!! DD5 has no idea we are going to DL. It's still a secret. She thinks we just came to visit my dad in SD. Going to put her in the car sleeping Sat. morning and she'll wake up at Disneyland!! We always stay at the GCH so she'll know where we are when she wakes up. Can't wait!! So excited, but really not excited about the food at DL. We only have a small handfull of things we really like to eat (besides all the yummy sweets of course).

My responses are in bold.

 

[Cats2]

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4. We have EE to CAP on Sat., Sun, Mon. and Wed. Should we even attempt to go to Carsland on Sat. or Sunday in the morning or is it going to be crazy crowded?
Are you sure you even have an option of Sat. EMH to DCA.? The Early Entry super thread mentioned EMH to both parks daily ends on 9/29, and after that, DCA EMH for hotel guests will be Sun, Mon, Wed, Fri.

5. For EE to CAP should we line up at GCH entrance or go to main gates for ee? I know I've read that if the GCH line is passed around the corner then go to the main gates, is this right?
Agree, the main gates is easier to do...there are more turnstiles

8. Where is the closest bathroom in the GCH to the lobby or easiest to get to. DD will be arriving in her PJ's early am, and I'll need to dress her and brush teeth etc. there incase our room isn't ready.
There's a restroom just off the lobby as you're heading down the hallway from the lobby to DTD. If you go to the GCH Superthread, you'll find a map of the hotel (sorry, I can't post a link because I have a low post count)

Replies in bold to what questions I could answer.