DumboLover111
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2022
Hello from Massachusetts! We are just back from a quick trip to Disneyland over Labor Day weekend, and I am so happy to say it was magical despite the brutal heatwave. I figured I'd share some tips/highlights in case they are useful to anyone else.
The players: me, my husband, my 13 y.o. daughter and my parents. Growing up, my brother and I used to beg my parents to take us to Disney. They always said if they were spending that kind of money, we were going to Europe to look at a real castle. So we went to France, Germany, Switzerland, England, etc...never Disneyland! Then when I was in graduate school, I ended up at Irvine, CA for a stint. My parents came to visit and we spent a week driving either up to LA or down to San Diego for amusement. On the last day, they said, "What can we do that is here?" I said, "Well, there's the Mouse." They reluctantly agreed and we set off for Disneyland. An hour later, my mom staggered off of Star Tours, her hair askew, her eyes wild, and she said, "That was so FUN! Why didn't you tell me it was FUN??" For the record, "fun" was at the top of the list of reasons my brother and I wanted to go. Heh. Anyway, they have been back a bunch of times since then, but not in 10 years, and they are in their late 70s now. We were concerned that maybe all the physical activity would be too much for them this time around.
The plan: to accomplish as much as possible in one day while minimizing walking for my parents' sake.
The wildcard: The HEAT. OMG the heat. It was 100F degrees for our first day, 104F the second day, and an eye-popping 109F for the third day.
TLDR: We did twelve miles and 22 rides in one day! It's a new record for us. We did use Genie+ and individual LL, but surprisingly not often.
We stayed in the Frontier Tower of DLH in a two-room suite. Last year when we stayed at DLH they had not returned Mousekeeping, but they had daily cleanings this time. The staff did cute arrangements with my daughter's stuffed animals, which she enjoyed. Views were lovely!
We decided to try the AM monorail to reduce walking. I was leery of this because it seemed like it might eat up all of the half hour of early entry. It did not! We lined up about 6:55AM outside of DtD. There were approx 100 people already waiting! Most did not do the monorail, though, so we were able to get on the first train, which left at 7:25AM. This meant we were in Tomorrowland right at 7:30AM, beating the crowds the main entrance. Super good win! My husband and daughter were able to walk right onto Space twice in a row, while my parents and I did Alice & Peter Pan. Next we all did Dumbo. Love that elephant!
Ride count: 5 (no LL used)
Once the park opened properly, we headed to Big Thunder (my daughter's fave) and rode that with maybe a five-minute wait. Haunted Mansion was supposed to have reopened with its Halloween skin, but it was down most of the morning. Instead, we rode Indy, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, and Winnie the Pooh. We also stopped for our first Mickey-shaped food, beignets in New Orleans square. The mint juleps were super refreshing as it was already over 90 degrees. We combated the heat by drinking something cold all day long and staying in the shade as much as possible.
Ride count: 10 (still no LL)
At this point we headed to Galaxy's Edge, where we did have an ILL for Rise. Wait was maybe 5 minutes. As my mom had enjoyed Star Tours so much back in the day, I was curious what she would think of Rise. She loved it! My favorite part of having Genie+ was the photopass, as I usually am taking the pics and then am not in the photos. Here's our Magic Shot in front of the Falcon!
We did Smuggler's Run while we were there too. At this point, HM was back up but the standby line quickly jumped to 100 minutes and the LL looked to be about 50 minutes, so we decided to try it later in the day. We wanted to get bao from the Tropical Hideaway and were disappointed to find they were not operating. Boo! We got Bengel BBQ instead (reviews on this board have not been kind lately so my expectations were low). It was just okay.
My parents opted to walk back to the hotel at this point. I was a bit worried because it was so hot, but the monorail had shut down at about 9:30 due to the excessive heat. They made it okay! Husband, daughter and I hopped to DCA. We had two new-to-us rides to try out: Radiator Springs Racers (ILL) and Grizzly Run (LL). Both fabulous! We also hit Little Mermaid (no wait) and Jumping Jellyfish (same).
Our RsR pic is hilarious. My husband looks cool as a cucumber in his shades and white T-shirt while my daughter and I were just blurs of hair next to him.
Ride count: 17 (only one G+ LL, two ILLs)
This was the hottest part of the day so we went back to the hotel for a bit. To be continued...
The players: me, my husband, my 13 y.o. daughter and my parents. Growing up, my brother and I used to beg my parents to take us to Disney. They always said if they were spending that kind of money, we were going to Europe to look at a real castle. So we went to France, Germany, Switzerland, England, etc...never Disneyland! Then when I was in graduate school, I ended up at Irvine, CA for a stint. My parents came to visit and we spent a week driving either up to LA or down to San Diego for amusement. On the last day, they said, "What can we do that is here?" I said, "Well, there's the Mouse." They reluctantly agreed and we set off for Disneyland. An hour later, my mom staggered off of Star Tours, her hair askew, her eyes wild, and she said, "That was so FUN! Why didn't you tell me it was FUN??" For the record, "fun" was at the top of the list of reasons my brother and I wanted to go. Heh. Anyway, they have been back a bunch of times since then, but not in 10 years, and they are in their late 70s now. We were concerned that maybe all the physical activity would be too much for them this time around.
The plan: to accomplish as much as possible in one day while minimizing walking for my parents' sake.
The wildcard: The HEAT. OMG the heat. It was 100F degrees for our first day, 104F the second day, and an eye-popping 109F for the third day.
TLDR: We did twelve miles and 22 rides in one day! It's a new record for us. We did use Genie+ and individual LL, but surprisingly not often.
We stayed in the Frontier Tower of DLH in a two-room suite. Last year when we stayed at DLH they had not returned Mousekeeping, but they had daily cleanings this time. The staff did cute arrangements with my daughter's stuffed animals, which she enjoyed. Views were lovely!
We decided to try the AM monorail to reduce walking. I was leery of this because it seemed like it might eat up all of the half hour of early entry. It did not! We lined up about 6:55AM outside of DtD. There were approx 100 people already waiting! Most did not do the monorail, though, so we were able to get on the first train, which left at 7:25AM. This meant we were in Tomorrowland right at 7:30AM, beating the crowds the main entrance. Super good win! My husband and daughter were able to walk right onto Space twice in a row, while my parents and I did Alice & Peter Pan. Next we all did Dumbo. Love that elephant!
Ride count: 5 (no LL used)
Once the park opened properly, we headed to Big Thunder (my daughter's fave) and rode that with maybe a five-minute wait. Haunted Mansion was supposed to have reopened with its Halloween skin, but it was down most of the morning. Instead, we rode Indy, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, and Winnie the Pooh. We also stopped for our first Mickey-shaped food, beignets in New Orleans square. The mint juleps were super refreshing as it was already over 90 degrees. We combated the heat by drinking something cold all day long and staying in the shade as much as possible.
Ride count: 10 (still no LL)
At this point we headed to Galaxy's Edge, where we did have an ILL for Rise. Wait was maybe 5 minutes. As my mom had enjoyed Star Tours so much back in the day, I was curious what she would think of Rise. She loved it! My favorite part of having Genie+ was the photopass, as I usually am taking the pics and then am not in the photos. Here's our Magic Shot in front of the Falcon!
We did Smuggler's Run while we were there too. At this point, HM was back up but the standby line quickly jumped to 100 minutes and the LL looked to be about 50 minutes, so we decided to try it later in the day. We wanted to get bao from the Tropical Hideaway and were disappointed to find they were not operating. Boo! We got Bengel BBQ instead (reviews on this board have not been kind lately so my expectations were low). It was just okay.
My parents opted to walk back to the hotel at this point. I was a bit worried because it was so hot, but the monorail had shut down at about 9:30 due to the excessive heat. They made it okay! Husband, daughter and I hopped to DCA. We had two new-to-us rides to try out: Radiator Springs Racers (ILL) and Grizzly Run (LL). Both fabulous! We also hit Little Mermaid (no wait) and Jumping Jellyfish (same).
Our RsR pic is hilarious. My husband looks cool as a cucumber in his shades and white T-shirt while my daughter and I were just blurs of hair next to him.
Ride count: 17 (only one G+ LL, two ILLs)
This was the hottest part of the day so we went back to the hotel for a bit. To be continued...
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