Disneyland 2: The Day Family Strikes Back

[avalon451]

Really enjoying your TR! The pictures are wonderful.

 

[mt mommy]

Love your straightforward TR!! Can't wait to hear more. The pics are wonderful!

 

[LVdisneyChick]

Love the TR. pics are great. keep em coming

 

[bigskyernurse]

Your report and pics are so wonderful! I just can't wait for our trip! Thanks for sharing...

 

[KCmike]

Can't get enough of Sleeping B's Castle can you?

Waiting for the parade on a little bench down the right side of main street. The only bad part about this was the sun goes down and hits you on this side.

The plaza is our favorite "meat and potatoes" restaurant.

Is this the spot where people can come out of Club 33 and look out from the balcony?

Can't see this in WDW!

Don't recall any detailing like this at WDW as well. Don't mean to be bashing WDW because I love it as well..just found a new and better Disney.

See you next time with another installment....putting together my favorite moments and secrets that our family came up with in our short time here.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I definitely can't get enough of the castle(or the film that named it). Which brings me to my next point. One of the great things about the detail on the forest animals around the castle is that they're from Sleeping Beauty the film instead of being just random cute forest creatures. As far as the detailing goes, WDW definitely is missing the detail in Fantasyland. I really think it's too bad because so many people don't realize what they're missing out on.

 

[Disneygrl36]

Glad I found this. We are doing San Diego before our Adventures by Disney trip in December so it's nice to see a SD/Disneyland trip. I am off to find your report about the Del. I soooo want to stay there, but I am afraid I am going to have to settle for somewhere else as the rest of the trip is pretty expensive.

 

[Dory's Squishy]

It feels as if I was there with you.

 

[tinkermell]

Waiting for your next installment and secrets!

 

[tofubeast]

Sitting here and ready for the next posting from u!!

Love the pics. Such gorgeous detailing..and a good eye by the photographer!

 

[Disneygrl36]

Ready for more.
PS I couldn't find your thread about the Del.....could you post the link?

 

[KCmike]

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1836716


Hope this works.

 

[KCmike]

Hints:

1. If arriving late for the park you can sneak thru the shops on mainstreet and walk thru them to get past most of the crowd waiting for the ropes to drop. The nice thing about the shops is that they are all connected.

2. There is free water at the Rancho Zocalo (think that is the name) mexican restaurant. It is right in the middle of the seating. They even provided cups when we were there. They also had free refills of coke too. I ended up eating there a couple of times.

3. If staying at HOJO's you can walk across the street at the light there next to the hotel and bypass all those people walking on the same side as the McDonalds. Only good though if your bypassing McDonalds each morning for that quick and cheap breakfast. Also don't use the ART. Waste of money in my opinion.

4. Fast pass as many rides in the morning as you can then save them for later when it gets very busy. This has been stated so many times but I thought I would point it out again for first timers. Also if you leave DL and head towards CA then your card starts fresh again and you can get fast passes there as well. (Thanks to hyrdo guy and hound for that advice.) When we went I also went back into DL again and was able to get fastpasses yet again. Almost like a redo.

5. We are a family of five and my two daughter's don't like to ride some of the big rides. We would fast pass all five for each ride and then have two fastpasses left over for either my wife or I to ride with my son a second time right after we got off the ride. I wish my girls would ride though

6. At rope drop we head straight to Fantasyland and ride in this order : Peter Pan's Flight, Mr. Toad's, Snow White Scary Adv, Pinnochio, Teacups, and Matterhorn all without waiting. You can knock out six rides before anyone else knows what is going on. The seventh ride is usually when a line, even though a short one, starts to build up. We usually try to head over to Pirates, HM, and then onto Winnie the Pooh and stop for lunch at hungry bear. Don't forget to pick up Fastpass for Splash before you ride Haunted Mansion then you should be able to ride it right after Hungry Bear. Hope that full tummy stays strong!

That's a few things that I can think of right now. Stay tuned as I'm sure I can think of more.

 

[Dory's Squishy]

for all your helpful hints.

 

[Mickey714]

We stayed at the Del on a discounted last minute reservation. It was great. Loved SD.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

KCMike, I thought you'd like to know that Disneyland has announced that they are re-opening the Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough since I think you'd asked about that a while back.

http://www.disneylandnews.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=308

 

[mommaU4]

KCMike, I thought you'd like to know that Disneyland has announced that they are re-opening the Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough since I think you'd asked about that a while back.

http://www.disneylandnews.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=308

Oh wow, that sounds great. That used to be one of my favorite things to do. Can't wait to see it. Thanks for the link.

 

[Mugglemama]

The pics you posted are great! They made me realize that when I'm at DL next time I need to take some similar ones. I have tons of pics of the family at DL, but none of just areas of the parks.

 

[KCmike]

On the last day of our trip we dedicated it to DL only. It was a Saturday and we went late into the park around 11am I believe because we wanted to stay as long as possible and close it down. We allowed ourselves not to get angry about trying to commando all the rides this day. We just wanted to relax and soak up the atmosphere. Our plan was to watch the parade and do Fantasmic and the fireworks that night. We ended up riding Jungle Cruise, Buzz, Railroad, Pirates, HM, all of fantasyland except Dumbo, and a few others. We got to see the Dapper Dans, The guys that play the trash cans in tommorowland, and ride some mainstreet vehicles. We browsed all the shops. At the end of the night as we sat in a bench around the hub for the fireworks I told my wife that I would be back and I went and surprised her with a mickey/minnie in a teacup figurine that she really wanted. It was perfect as I gave it to her she started to cry as it was our last night. The fireworks started and we remembered that Dreams do Come true. After the fireworks we headed for Fantasmic but were so tired. We saw it the night before and as much as I wanted to stay up for the late version I decided to call it quits with the rest of the family. We had a super early flight back home and we had to get to LAX at 4:30am. Why do we do this to ourselves? Just to save a few extra bucks. So we walked out and savored the front entrance with that great lighting effect on the lawn. I was fortunate to bring my camcorder this time and we taped about six hours of our whole vacation...from San Diego and the Hotel Del Coronado to SeaWorld to Disneyland. I have to say that I love Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows movie maker. It's time to say goodbye yet again and let others share their trip reports. My wish is to return soon. We really wanted to stay at Yosemite this year but the Hotel Del made it one of our top two best vacations ever. The kids still talk about the Del. They want to go back so bad. The gas prices have just fallen to $3.91 here.
Maybe things will get back to normal.

So the research begins on Yosemite...and maybe talking the wife into another Disney trip.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Nice report and great pics. Sounds like your wife really liked the "finishing touch" to the trip. And while I like Fantasmic, I think RDCT is a better final touch to finish off a visit. Disney is going to be very hard pressed to top that when it moves to Yesterdayland.

And Yosemite is really quite close to Disneyland when you stop and think about how far you're traveling to get to Yosemite. Disneyland's just a few hours away. In fact last August, I went to Yosemite for a day and then headed down to Disneyland for a day.