DL & DCA - Memorial Day Weekend Short

[LuvTheMouse]

LODGING:
Off-site at BW Anaheim Inn. Room was nice (although it smelled of smoke). Very convenient to the parks 6-8 minute walk tops.

DL:
Crowds weren't bad. Matterhorn was down and will stay down until end of June (or July). Saw one parade, it seemed kind of weak compared to Mulan and past parades. (Must be due to the cost cutting.)

Rude Guests:
Couples who had loud boring conversations at start of POC (twice). (I would say very loudly "This would be nicer if it were quieter!" it seemed to work.)

A jerk (who only spoke spanish) in the POC, that had one of the older Video cams with a light like a 10000W searchlight. My wife kindly asked him to turn the light off and he just ignored her. I turned around and put my hand over the light. He kept saying "Holla! Holla!". We wrestled for a bit, and then the guy's wife said something and the guy turned off the light.

A young man and his girl who were trying to get through the crowd in front of Cinderalla's castle about 4 minutes before the fireworks (which were great by the way). The crowd was at a standstill and the guy's girlfriend said "Go ahead and bull your way through, you are good at that." He was a good-sized guy and started shoving me in the back. I shoved back and then elbowed him really hard and called him an a**hole. He then detoured around me and my DW and tried running over another guy. The other guy (who was bigger than me and the other guy put together), yelled at him and then the idiots gave up on their stupid plan to just "bull" through the crowd.

Other than that the rides at DL were fun as always. Splash Mountain seemed to go through the theming parts way too fast (compared to WDW). The drop seems more fun (I guess due to the narrow log and waterway).

DCA:
Nice, but kind of a disappointment. CA Soaring was fun for one ride, but it wasn't something I (or my DW) wanted to do again.

Likewise, Grizzley Rapids. It is more fun than Kali River Rapids in AK (WDW), but unless it is a really hot day, it's not worth getting wet over. (Like Kali River Rapids, you primarily get wet "leaking" pipes and other "wetting" spots rather than just being splashed by the action of the ride.

Tough To Be A Bug seemed to be even better than the one at WDW.

CA Screaming is the best. It is the only ride in DCA that my DW and I rode multiple times (8 times in fact). It starts off like the Rock-and-Roller Rollercoaster in MGM (WDW) and then continues through a very long and fast ride. They certainly got that one right.

As far as DCA theming, it is very interesting with a section like MGM (Hollywood Blvd or something) and a California version of Epcot (Let's face it, California IS NOT ALL THAT!)

Unfortunately there is not a lot of attractions within those neat look regions. However there is a lot of places to eat with a good variety of food.

Downtown Disney:
Lot's of stores and restaurants. All of them crowded and all of them expensive. Still it is nice to have the dining options.

Disney Club Card:
It was worthless on this trip. Everytime I tried to use it at a Downtown Disney restaurant (or even a Disneyland Resort restaurant), I was always told "We only provide discounts for Premium Annual Passes", or "We don't accept Disney Club Card discounts on Fri-Sun", etc.)

My guess is unless Disney gets their act together with this card, there will be a lot of people who don't renew.

All-in-all it was a nice 4-day trip. The next time I go, I will plan to visit Universal and a few other places not just Disneyland/DCA.

 

[lucky1]

I have to agree with you on the DC Card... It was worthless this last trip, I could not even get a room discount with it. We visited in Jan during the DCA previews and we got lots of discounts. We just showed the card and many of the resturants did not know what it was so they gave us a nice discounts (greater than 10%).

 

[Luv2Roam]

I'm surprised at your experiences with the DC card discount. I had just the opposite experiences. I thought the card was worthless in WDW and saved a lot in DL/DCA. But I did have coupons from the flyers to use with my card. And by buying $50+ anywhere in the park, I rec'd a 10% discount.

 

[LuvTheMouse]

I guess the arbitrator of what your DC Card is worth is the server.

LOL

 

[nickglover]

Sounds like you had fun, and only two near-fights (just kidding). How was the food at California Adventure?

 

[LuvTheMouse]

Well. To be perfectly honest, we only had one meal at DCA. We had lunch at the big cafeteria in Hollywood Blvd. (can't remember the name). My DW and I both had chinese food and it was pretty good and the cost was very reasonable for DL eateries. I believe that cafeteria also had a pizza section, a burger section, and maybe something else (barbecue?).

There is also a McDonalds on-site at DCA if you really want to cut some costs for lunch.

But there are lots of dining options at DCA. They are scattered all over the place. Make sure you check out the prices first though. There is an oriental food court that has chinese, dim sum, and japanese food, but my DW and I steered clear of it after we saw the prices. (To my mind 30 or 40 bucks for a fast-food lunch is not a good deal.)

Since downtown disney is only a 5 minute walk from DCA/DL, you can have a much nicer sit-down lunch at about the same cost.

 

[Marla Hellwig]

Thanks for posting!