This was our (my wife and our two boys ages 16 and 13) third trip to the DLR (prior visits in 2016 and 2022 all at the DLH). We decided to fly in a couple days early so we could visit Knotts Berry Farm. We arrived at LAX at 7:15am from Dallas last Friday 7/18. Southwest flight was on time and we only had about a five minute wait for our Midwilshiluttle driver outside baggage claim. This was our second time using them and we were pleased with the service and price ($130 one way to the Knotts Hotel).
Checked into the Knotts Hotel and got our park tickets. Was very happy with the Knotts Hotel location as the walk to the parks is about equal to the walk from the GCH to DL. I was hesitant about paying $119 per fast pass but so glad we did. We never waited more than 10 minutes on rides where the stand by lane was between an hour to two hours. We hit every ride we wanted and rode several more than once. My boys loved the thrill rides and were glad we added Knotts to this trip. The only thing I would do different is possibly do Knotts after DLR as the thrill rides at DLR felt so much slower after riding Knotts for a full day.
We spent all of Friday in the park at Knott’s with a midday hotel break to nap. Saturday we just hung out in our room until 4pm when we were able to return to Knotts (part of our hotel package included one free evening at Knott’s) to enjoy some of the standby only rides, play some games and enjoyed Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies (formerly at DL).
Sunday morning we checked out at Knott’s and had an Uber pick us up at 6:15am to take us to the DLH. Dropped off our bags, checked in where I politely asked for a pool view room if possible (we booked standard), grabbed the boys snacks and us coffee from the coffee house and walked to the gates at DCA. We arrived at the gates around 7:05am and the lines never got too long. This was a clue that this day would end up being one of the slowest days of the summer.
Our EE plan was to book Soarin upon entry and head to GOTG and then sprint it to RSR before the rope drop crowd arrived. However due to the shortage of lifts we didn’t get out of GOTG until 7:57 and as we made the turn towards Cars land the rope drop crowd had just beaten us and that wave of people caused us to pivot to Webslingers instead. After walking on Webslingers, we walked on Incredicoaster and then just went clockwise around the park and literally walked onto everything. It litterally felt like we had the park to ourselves all the way until 11am when we hopped over to DL. The only rides with substantial waits all day were RSR and GoTG. It was incredible!
Once we rode Soarin around 10am using our LL (standby wait was only 15 minutes but I had to use it in order to start my stacking and we weren’t planing on returning to DCA later that day). My focus was strictly on stacking LL’s for the early evening at DL. After Soarin I booked IJ at approx 10am for a 4pm return time. I then kept refreshing the “modify” button until I was able to push it out to a 7-8pm return window. I kept a mental note to be sure and select my next LL every two hours and thus at Noon I booked SM, at 2pm I booked BTM, at 4pm I booked Tiana and at 6pm I booked HM. I also made sure to modify my times on each until I was able to coordinate a stack where we could return to the park in the early evening and ride SM, IJ, BTM, HM and Tiana’s in succession. This was my plan and it ended up working to perfection!
We left DCA having rode everything we wanted except RSR right after 11am and hopped over to DL. We had an 11:50 reservation at Blue Bayou and checked in at 11:10 where I asked the CM if we could get a waterside table. She said we would probably have to wait an hour which was fine since we arrived nearly 40 minutes early anyway. Sure enough we were seated at a perfect waterside table at 12:10. My wife and I split the 70th pre fix menu. The salad was ok (very light on the dressing) and the ribeye and shrimp were good (though not obviously what you would get at a high end steakhouse) but we were there for the ambiance anyway. The little Space Mountain dessert was cute but mostly just a meringue shell over a very small lava cake. I was happy to find out that the mint julip refills were free. Overall it was a great lunch in a most memorable setting.
After lunch we had to ride POTC of course and the wait was only 10 minutes at 1pm. We then decided to head back towards the monorail for our afternoon break but also decided to hit up Jungle Cruise since it was also a 10 minute wait. The sun finally came out around the time we got out of BB and it was a perfect afternoon with a high around 77. Fortunately for us that meant the monorail was working the entirety of our trip (except the following evening when we tried to take it home but it closed due to a mechanical issue). Other than that we were able to use the monorail for all of our trips back to the DLH in the early afternoon as well as the return to the park in the early evening. This is the main reason I value the DLH despite the costly price point.
We had received our text that our room was ready during lunch. We were in room 2100 which was a corner room on the third floor of the fantasy tower facing the pool. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the pool as it was blocked by a tree so our view was primarily the coffee house right below us. Having booked a premium DTD view our previous two visits, I was totally fine with our view and probably wouldn’t pay the difference for future trips to have a better view as the standard suffices. I would recommend ensuring that you are in the adventure tower or fantasy but not the frontier as their walk is almost on par with being at the Pixar Place.
While resting in bed, I was easily able to move my LL times around so that we could return to DL at 6pm and ride SM, IJ, BTM, HM and Tiana’s in succession without rushing or waiting. It worked to absolute perfection. After a four hour break we rode the monorail back to DL and hit up the four LL’s I had stacked in succession. HM went down briefly which gave us a MEP which we used to ride BTM a second time. All told we returned to the DLH that evening around 10pm and rode 22 rides between both parks. The longest wait was GoTG at 15 minutes at EE. The day went better than I could have hoped.
More to come on the next two park days…
Checked into the Knotts Hotel and got our park tickets. Was very happy with the Knotts Hotel location as the walk to the parks is about equal to the walk from the GCH to DL. I was hesitant about paying $119 per fast pass but so glad we did. We never waited more than 10 minutes on rides where the stand by lane was between an hour to two hours. We hit every ride we wanted and rode several more than once. My boys loved the thrill rides and were glad we added Knotts to this trip. The only thing I would do different is possibly do Knotts after DLR as the thrill rides at DLR felt so much slower after riding Knotts for a full day.
We spent all of Friday in the park at Knott’s with a midday hotel break to nap. Saturday we just hung out in our room until 4pm when we were able to return to Knotts (part of our hotel package included one free evening at Knott’s) to enjoy some of the standby only rides, play some games and enjoyed Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies (formerly at DL).
Sunday morning we checked out at Knott’s and had an Uber pick us up at 6:15am to take us to the DLH. Dropped off our bags, checked in where I politely asked for a pool view room if possible (we booked standard), grabbed the boys snacks and us coffee from the coffee house and walked to the gates at DCA. We arrived at the gates around 7:05am and the lines never got too long. This was a clue that this day would end up being one of the slowest days of the summer.
Our EE plan was to book Soarin upon entry and head to GOTG and then sprint it to RSR before the rope drop crowd arrived. However due to the shortage of lifts we didn’t get out of GOTG until 7:57 and as we made the turn towards Cars land the rope drop crowd had just beaten us and that wave of people caused us to pivot to Webslingers instead. After walking on Webslingers, we walked on Incredicoaster and then just went clockwise around the park and literally walked onto everything. It litterally felt like we had the park to ourselves all the way until 11am when we hopped over to DL. The only rides with substantial waits all day were RSR and GoTG. It was incredible!
Once we rode Soarin around 10am using our LL (standby wait was only 15 minutes but I had to use it in order to start my stacking and we weren’t planing on returning to DCA later that day). My focus was strictly on stacking LL’s for the early evening at DL. After Soarin I booked IJ at approx 10am for a 4pm return time. I then kept refreshing the “modify” button until I was able to push it out to a 7-8pm return window. I kept a mental note to be sure and select my next LL every two hours and thus at Noon I booked SM, at 2pm I booked BTM, at 4pm I booked Tiana and at 6pm I booked HM. I also made sure to modify my times on each until I was able to coordinate a stack where we could return to the park in the early evening and ride SM, IJ, BTM, HM and Tiana’s in succession. This was my plan and it ended up working to perfection!
We left DCA having rode everything we wanted except RSR right after 11am and hopped over to DL. We had an 11:50 reservation at Blue Bayou and checked in at 11:10 where I asked the CM if we could get a waterside table. She said we would probably have to wait an hour which was fine since we arrived nearly 40 minutes early anyway. Sure enough we were seated at a perfect waterside table at 12:10. My wife and I split the 70th pre fix menu. The salad was ok (very light on the dressing) and the ribeye and shrimp were good (though not obviously what you would get at a high end steakhouse) but we were there for the ambiance anyway. The little Space Mountain dessert was cute but mostly just a meringue shell over a very small lava cake. I was happy to find out that the mint julip refills were free. Overall it was a great lunch in a most memorable setting.
After lunch we had to ride POTC of course and the wait was only 10 minutes at 1pm. We then decided to head back towards the monorail for our afternoon break but also decided to hit up Jungle Cruise since it was also a 10 minute wait. The sun finally came out around the time we got out of BB and it was a perfect afternoon with a high around 77. Fortunately for us that meant the monorail was working the entirety of our trip (except the following evening when we tried to take it home but it closed due to a mechanical issue). Other than that we were able to use the monorail for all of our trips back to the DLH in the early afternoon as well as the return to the park in the early evening. This is the main reason I value the DLH despite the costly price point.
We had received our text that our room was ready during lunch. We were in room 2100 which was a corner room on the third floor of the fantasy tower facing the pool. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the pool as it was blocked by a tree so our view was primarily the coffee house right below us. Having booked a premium DTD view our previous two visits, I was totally fine with our view and probably wouldn’t pay the difference for future trips to have a better view as the standard suffices. I would recommend ensuring that you are in the adventure tower or fantasy but not the frontier as their walk is almost on par with being at the Pixar Place.
While resting in bed, I was easily able to move my LL times around so that we could return to DL at 6pm and ride SM, IJ, BTM, HM and Tiana’s in succession without rushing or waiting. It worked to absolute perfection. After a four hour break we rode the monorail back to DL and hit up the four LL’s I had stacked in succession. HM went down briefly which gave us a MEP which we used to ride BTM a second time. All told we returned to the DLH that evening around 10pm and rode 22 rides between both parks. The longest wait was GoTG at 15 minutes at EE. The day went better than I could have hoped.
More to come on the next two park days…
). And then of course, the payoff of going from ride to ride is totally worth it.
