. I'm on the fence about the park hopper since it bumps up the cost more, but will do the three day pass for sure.
I'm also on the fence about buying the fast pass thing. It hurts me to pay for something that is free at WDW. But it might come in handy since I don't know where any rides are and I can just book the fast pass on my phone. Am I correct you can only have one fast pass at a time? Are all the rides on it? Also can I buy it for one or two days instead of the whole trip?
I've been looking into the restaurants to book while there. I think I'll do Blue Bayou because that seems pretty cool to see the pirates ride while dining. I want to do a nice meal too to celebrate his birthday there so was thinking Napa Rose or Steakhouse 55. I noticed these can't be booked until 60 days out so I have to wait a while. Are restaurants as hard to book there as it is for WDW?
We were there a couple of weeks ago and Max Pass started on our last day. Basically, it runs just like what you know of as the old fast pass system, with the difference being that you can book your one at a time on the phone rather than having to go to the machines. There are some perks to it that others have discussed that have used it as to timing/getting that first FP of the day/once you have scanned in being able to book another even after you have left the park. That said, it is very new, so there could be changes before February. Not all the rides have FP at DLR, like they do since FP+ at WDW, but they have added some before going to Max Pass. If you are a photo person, especially with just 2 of you, one benefit to MAX pass is it includes all your photopass/ride/meal photos for that day. At
Disneyland for photopass+ which has all those photos it is $39 per day, or you can pay $78 for a weekly version which would include all photos on consecutive days up to a week. So with just 2 of you at $20 a day for max pass, you get 3 days of photos for $60 and the FP ability. This is cheaper than what all 3 days of photos would otherwise cost you. So, if you care about photopass/ride/meal photos and want them for all 3 days- maxpass might be a decent deal for you. Max Pass is currently a daily purchase at $10 per person/per day-- of course that could change by February.
Blue Bayou is nice. It is along the same lines atmosphere wise as San Angel Inn-- you are "outside" while you are indoors with a boat ride passing by. The atmosphere is great- some people love the food, in our opinion it is so so. A fun birthday splurge if you are interested in World of Color would be the dessert package. For WOC even if you do a dining package watching the show is standing room only and you have to wait a long time for the best position. The dessert party is further back, but with a great view. You get a table to sit at during the show and before the show they bring you a basket of bread; a plate of desserts and cheeses and if you drink- alcoholic beverages (or non-alcoholic if you do not).
Speaking of drinking as far as hoppers- DH likes them for the sole purpose that the Karl Strauss beer truck is on the wharf at CA. He has been known to disappear from DL, to hop over to CA and get a beer. He has left DD and I at Small World, gone over to do that while we got in a 10 minute line to ride, and by the time we were done with the ride and called to see where he was, he had already drank his beer as he took a leisurely walk through CA back towards DL, and then exited CA and was in the DL gate and by Town Square-- that gives you an idea of how easy hopping is.
I'm high jacking this thread a little here. It sounds as if we are of the same mind set about the Disneyland Resort Hotels. To that, I am trying to plan a Disneyworld trip next year and talk about overwhelming. If I wanted to stay somewhere most like the Disneyland Hotel where would you suggest?
There really is no where "like" the Disneyland Hotel at WDW, which is why we like the DLH. I would say that any of the Deluxe hotels will probably be to your liking. I have heard people say that the Contemporary is most similar to DLH, but we aren't big contemporary fans and we love DLH. If you like Trader Sams at DLH, then the Poly has Trader Sams there. The Poly also is walking distance from the monorail at the TTC that has an express line to both MK and EPCOT, so it is great in terms of transportation. GF, POLY, and Contemporary are Magic Kingdom resorts, meaning that they are on the resort monorail line and are easy access to Magic Kingdom by boat or monorail. You can walk to Magic Kingdom from the contemporary. WL, is very similar to GC, but it is bigger (to us GC is the scaled down version of WL). It is also in the Magic Kingdom area, but you have to take a boat or bus to Magic Kingdom from there. The rooms are smaller than the other MK resorts (think the difference between GC and DLH), but it typically is cheaper. If you are interested in EPCOT, Yacht Club, Beach Club and Boardwalk are all walking distance to EPCOT, and also you can walk to DHS, but it is a little farther. If you are going during something like Food and Wine at EPCOT, they are fun places to be. If the pool is important, in our opinion BC/YC have the best pool area (they share- the hotels are actually connected). Animal Kingdom Lodge is nice ( I think I forgot it in my above post, but we have stayed there). It is fun to get a Savannah room and look out your window or stand on your balcony and see giraffes, but it is farther away from the other parks. It is buses everywhere from there. The rooms are also around WL size- so a little smaller than the others. It really is a matter of what you prefer. If you ever want to pm me with questions, I'm happy to help.
That's interesting about security! So it's before you get to DTD? Then you just wait to scan your ticket to the park when you ge there?
That is correct. They moved the security sometime last year. The security on Harbor is still in the same place, but now you have to go through security before you get into DTD. Which is actually really nice, because then you can park hop or go into DTD throughout the day without having to go through security again.
It is so great coming from DLH!!!! You no longer go through with all the people getting off the tram from the parking lot, so the lines were much shorter. It is mostly people from DLH, and they have several lines going, so it was really fast. We loved it. Also, you don't have to go through security at the monorail because you have already done it to get to the monorail which made the line shorter there - you just have to scan park ticket there. We were very pleased. The only thing, which was no big deal for us, is that if you went into the Grand Californian for something, you had to go through security to get back to DTD, or through their park entrance. We just didn't feel the need to got to GC anyway. We usually went through there to go to the CA entrance to avoid the long security lines for the parks-- but now they were short and we were already through them coming from DLH.
