ahhhshmatthew
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2019
- Messages
- 105
My wife, 5YO daughter and I took a trip to DLR on 09/15-16, 2024. We are frequent visitors to DLR and were going to get our Fall dose, including Oogie Boogie Bash (OBB). Apologies for any rambling throughout, but hey, what's a trip report for anyway?
We drove in from Long Beach on Sunday 9/15. We typically fly in from where we live, but had visited friends the night before. This trip we stayed at Hotel Indigo for the first time in an effort to try something new. We arrived in the morning (around 8:45). We dropped our luggage and headed off to breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen for their Halloween breakfast. My wife I had been once before ages ago, but overall, it's still not a place I would highly recommend. Service was good, but the food remained so-so at best, and after about 90 minutes we called it quits, still having not seen 1 of the characters and our visit with Minnie (really the main character at this event outside of Goofy) being rushed and moments before we left. We much prefer Storyteller's Cafe and Plaza Inn for character breakfasts (even though both have their flaws too).
After that, some quick shopping in Downtown Disney and back to the hotel. My wife has Platinum Elite status at IHG hotels (Hotel Indigo is an IHG hotel) and one of the perks is "Early Check-In." We were hopeful to get in a bit early so we can arrive at OBB pre-entry hours. While we did get in early, it was only by about 30 minutes (2:30) so we ended up sitting in their lounge area for 2+ hours with our luggage. Overall, I think it was the way the hotel staff communicated the situation that was most frustrating. We understand no rooms being ready, but they seemed to purposefully be evading our questions when asking about room status (around 12:00, 1 hour after check out and 3 hours before check-in, they told us "all" of the cleaning staff were at lunch so they didn't know room status; roughly 45 minutes after that, they told us the cleaning staff were "on their break" so they couldn't update us either). Clearly just seemed either unwilling or unable to check us in early, but would have appreciated honesty as opposed to what we got.
This was our daughter's first OBB and overall, this is probably the first time my wife and I thought paying the price of admission for a DLR Halloween party was more than worth it (this was our 4th OBB and we had been to Mickey's Halloween Party before that). We got in around 3:30 and were able to do Mickey's Philharmagic, Mickey's Trick & Treat Dance Party, and eat dinner / have a drink at Flo's/Cozy Cone before the party kicked off. Throughout the party, we did: treat trails (Hades, Ernesto De La Cruz, Sid, Dr. Doom, Oogie Boogie, and 1 of the non-character trails), character meets (Lotso, Captain Hook, and Prince Hans), watched the parade, Villains Grove, and many rides (Jumpin' Jellyfish, Goofy's Sky School (x2), Ariel, Midway Mania, Jessie's CC, Monsters Inc., Emotional Whirlwind, and more). We were ride heavy considering this was our only California Adventure day this trip and our kiddo LOVED every minute of it. We waited no longer than 5-8 minutes at the longest for any of those things. The party overall seemed very well run this year, with adequate staffing compared to year's past. We'll definitely be back next year.
Day 2 was all about Disneyland. We slept in from the late night and didn't get in the park until about 9:15-9:30. We had high hopes of our kiddo trying out some new rides and we couldn't have imagined how much she'd achieve. We got an incredible amount accomplished, but she took her first rides ever on Haunted Holiday Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain!! I'm clearly biased, but could not have been more proud of my 5YO. She has declared herself a "coaster girl" now. Parents can relate: it totally changes the tone/vibe of our Disney trips once your kiddo opts to ride essentially anything they are tall enough to ride. Still a few big ones to go, but this was an incredible occurrence for us
We rode a lot of other attractions, ate some pretty delicious food (did Rancho Del Zocalo for the first time, def. thought it was better than standard theme park Mexican food), and rode rides well into the night (left around 11:15). She was an absolute trooper. Crowds I'd give a 7/10 at peak times, but overall Lightning Lane worked well for us and we were able to snag some walk-ons between 8:00-11:00 at night (we happened to be near Mickey and Minnie's when it had been down for a few hours; saw the doors open and we walked straight onto the ride with no wait; great timing). I've read multiple posts about rides seeming to be down more than year's past. I will say - maybe it's just b/c it was in my head from reading about it, but rides seemed to be going down more frequently for us too. Winnie the Pooh was down most of the day (and it just finished a refurb) but eventually came back around 9:00 pm. Pirates was down for several hours; Mickey and Minnie's too as mentioned. Big Thunder was down for several hours, and Space went down for about 2 hours too. With Tiana's, Small World, and Jungle Cruise all still closed, it definitely made for some challenges.
Overall a wonderful trip. Won't stay at Hotel Indigo again, and not b/c of the check-in thing. I find myself more and more (not including the Westin, which we love) not finding "nicer" hotels that are farther away from the parks being worth the extra few blocks walk. We'll revert back to our usual hotels (or try another new one closer to the parks) next time. Will also look to revert back to our standard 3 night DLR trips, as 2 nights does feel quite a bit rushed, esp. with a party.
We drove in from Long Beach on Sunday 9/15. We typically fly in from where we live, but had visited friends the night before. This trip we stayed at Hotel Indigo for the first time in an effort to try something new. We arrived in the morning (around 8:45). We dropped our luggage and headed off to breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen for their Halloween breakfast. My wife I had been once before ages ago, but overall, it's still not a place I would highly recommend. Service was good, but the food remained so-so at best, and after about 90 minutes we called it quits, still having not seen 1 of the characters and our visit with Minnie (really the main character at this event outside of Goofy) being rushed and moments before we left. We much prefer Storyteller's Cafe and Plaza Inn for character breakfasts (even though both have their flaws too).
After that, some quick shopping in Downtown Disney and back to the hotel. My wife has Platinum Elite status at IHG hotels (Hotel Indigo is an IHG hotel) and one of the perks is "Early Check-In." We were hopeful to get in a bit early so we can arrive at OBB pre-entry hours. While we did get in early, it was only by about 30 minutes (2:30) so we ended up sitting in their lounge area for 2+ hours with our luggage. Overall, I think it was the way the hotel staff communicated the situation that was most frustrating. We understand no rooms being ready, but they seemed to purposefully be evading our questions when asking about room status (around 12:00, 1 hour after check out and 3 hours before check-in, they told us "all" of the cleaning staff were at lunch so they didn't know room status; roughly 45 minutes after that, they told us the cleaning staff were "on their break" so they couldn't update us either). Clearly just seemed either unwilling or unable to check us in early, but would have appreciated honesty as opposed to what we got.
This was our daughter's first OBB and overall, this is probably the first time my wife and I thought paying the price of admission for a DLR Halloween party was more than worth it (this was our 4th OBB and we had been to Mickey's Halloween Party before that). We got in around 3:30 and were able to do Mickey's Philharmagic, Mickey's Trick & Treat Dance Party, and eat dinner / have a drink at Flo's/Cozy Cone before the party kicked off. Throughout the party, we did: treat trails (Hades, Ernesto De La Cruz, Sid, Dr. Doom, Oogie Boogie, and 1 of the non-character trails), character meets (Lotso, Captain Hook, and Prince Hans), watched the parade, Villains Grove, and many rides (Jumpin' Jellyfish, Goofy's Sky School (x2), Ariel, Midway Mania, Jessie's CC, Monsters Inc., Emotional Whirlwind, and more). We were ride heavy considering this was our only California Adventure day this trip and our kiddo LOVED every minute of it. We waited no longer than 5-8 minutes at the longest for any of those things. The party overall seemed very well run this year, with adequate staffing compared to year's past. We'll definitely be back next year.
Day 2 was all about Disneyland. We slept in from the late night and didn't get in the park until about 9:15-9:30. We had high hopes of our kiddo trying out some new rides and we couldn't have imagined how much she'd achieve. We got an incredible amount accomplished, but she took her first rides ever on Haunted Holiday Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain!! I'm clearly biased, but could not have been more proud of my 5YO. She has declared herself a "coaster girl" now. Parents can relate: it totally changes the tone/vibe of our Disney trips once your kiddo opts to ride essentially anything they are tall enough to ride. Still a few big ones to go, but this was an incredible occurrence for us
We rode a lot of other attractions, ate some pretty delicious food (did Rancho Del Zocalo for the first time, def. thought it was better than standard theme park Mexican food), and rode rides well into the night (left around 11:15). She was an absolute trooper. Crowds I'd give a 7/10 at peak times, but overall Lightning Lane worked well for us and we were able to snag some walk-ons between 8:00-11:00 at night (we happened to be near Mickey and Minnie's when it had been down for a few hours; saw the doors open and we walked straight onto the ride with no wait; great timing). I've read multiple posts about rides seeming to be down more than year's past. I will say - maybe it's just b/c it was in my head from reading about it, but rides seemed to be going down more frequently for us too. Winnie the Pooh was down most of the day (and it just finished a refurb) but eventually came back around 9:00 pm. Pirates was down for several hours; Mickey and Minnie's too as mentioned. Big Thunder was down for several hours, and Space went down for about 2 hours too. With Tiana's, Small World, and Jungle Cruise all still closed, it definitely made for some challenges.Overall a wonderful trip. Won't stay at Hotel Indigo again, and not b/c of the check-in thing. I find myself more and more (not including the Westin, which we love) not finding "nicer" hotels that are farther away from the parks being worth the extra few blocks walk. We'll revert back to our usual hotels (or try another new one closer to the parks) next time. Will also look to revert back to our standard 3 night DLR trips, as 2 nights does feel quite a bit rushed, esp. with a party.
