ellebeegee
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2006
- Messages
- 64
DISCLAIMER: The title of this post, "First/last trip to DL and DCA," reflects only the fact that we knew this was a trip we would only ever make once. It's not that we would NOT do it again, only that we only planned to do it once to begin with. 
Our trip to DL and DCA begins on Day 5 of our 8-day California trip. Please see http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1483135 for my trip report for Sea World and the San Diego Zoo.
This trip was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for our family: DH, DD 7 1/2, and me. As you can see in my siggy below, I never went to WDW as a child even though I have lived in GA and SC all my life. Just wasn't the kind of thing my parents ever thought about doing. My first trip was when my husband and I took our daughter just before she turned 3 years old. She is 7 1/2 now and we have been to WDW 7 times. Like many WDW devotees, we leave from one trip planning our next.
Having become big fans of anything Disney and developed an appreciation for Mr. Walt Disney's dreams and visions in the past 4 years, we decided we'd like to see where it all began. (Yes, we call him Mr. Walt Disney in our house 
). I have wanted to see the San Diego Zoo since I was a child and watched Joan Embery bring animals on The Tonight Show to crawl all over Johnny Carson 
so we added stops to the Zoo and Sea World, as well.
I am not one to make notes or remember what we did minute by minute or in order, so this report will be in no certain order. I had done much research on DL to prepare myself. Honestly I was a little hesitant about the trip, in some ways, because I didn't want to be disappointed after having built WDW up nearly as a part of my marrow the last few years. Thanks to posts from many of you here at the Dis, I knew what to expect, sort of. I read some detailed comparisons of MK and DL as well as some general impressions of those who had been to both. Of course, one's preference is always an individual thing. I'll reveal my preference at the end.
Our arrival was a little anticlimactic. We had seen Space Mountain, ToT and Maliboomer from the highway when we were headed to and from San Diego so that element of surprise was gone. And pulling into a parking deck, boarding a tram for a short ride to walk a couple of hundred feet to the plaza between the parks was different. We all really, really, REALLY missed the monorail ride to MK and all the heightened excitement entails -- parking in a character-named lot, taking the tram to the TTR, waiting for and getting on the monorail and finally! It's here! Then the seemingly eternal ride to the Polynesian, stop to let people on, trying to get a glimpse of MK as we head into the Contemporary, watching people eating below at Chef Mickey's, then coming out and -- oh! There it is! Cinderella Castle!
And the tears are coming from me, DD is jumping up and down in her seat, and DH is looking away because if he looks at either of us he's going to lose it, too. Honestly, that experience is such an ingrained part of our WDW trips that I didn't realize I had come to equate it with the Disney experience overall. I won't say that not having that ruined the DL trip for me, because it was a great trip, but I never really felt like I was "at Disney" until we saw the afternoon parade on our last day. Also, there were NO fireworks the days we were there and no nighttime parade. I had read that they only do those on weekends unless it’s a peak time, but good grief, sure seemed to me like there were enough people to warrant fireworks. We really missed fireworks at the castle and that also was a big detraction from our overall impression. (Ok, so maybe you’ll figure out my preference before the end, LOL 
)
Another thing that was different for us is that we always stay on property at WDW now. We didn’t at DL since we were able to use some of DH’s points to stay at a hotel in the vicinity for FREE, and free seemed to beat out $750 for three nights at DL Hotel. It was 7 miles away and took us about 15 minutes to get between the DLR parking deck and our hotel. It was close enough that DD and I went back to nap the first day, but we were still gone nearly 3 hours by the time you count getting to the tram to the parking lot to the car, driving, sleeping, coming back and doing it all in reverse. I missed Mickey or Stitch wakeup calls, Mickey soap, expensive food court breakfasts (LOL) and that good ole Disney theming but $750, well, I can’t really complain.
At WDW, our park days are always scheduled around eating, it seems, because we love character meals, the Yachtsman Steakhouse and Le Cellier, all of which involve getting advance dining reservations. Not the case at DL, and we only had two PS (they still use the priority seating method), one for our second day at Wine Country Trattoria at DCA and one for our last day for Blue Bayou. We actually grabbed breakfast at McD’s on the way to the park every day and we really missed starting our day with Lilo & Stitch or Pooh and friends.
We got there right at opening time and it wasn’t too crowded, so I kept my optimism that we may experience a light crowd level since we were there before schools were out in that area. That optimism turned out to be unfounded and overall crowds were as heavy as I have ever experienced at WDW. Now, I have never been to WDW during any holiday times so I haven’t experienced the shoulder-to-shoulder phenomenon there, but there were still more people at DL than I had hoped for. It does have more of a day-park sort of feel to it. I would liken the makeup of the crowds to be more like we experience at Six Flags – more teens and young adults on their own who appear to be just looking for a place to hang out, not really enjoying the Disney magic the way the families do at WDW. That’s just how it seemed to me, which seems to mesh with the comments I had read about it being a park inside a city where many people visit for a day and not for a vacation. Unfortunately the train was down at the time of our visit. We knew it was scheduled to be down but you always hope.
I had to swing by City Hall to get First Visit buttons for DD and me; DH had been a couple of times before, taking advantage of business trips to LA and San Diego, so I wouldn’t let him have one. He thought it would be a waste of time and he didn’t want to spend a second more than we had to in order to RIDE DUMBO FIRST!
That is part of our tradition at WDW and we had to uphold it here. I was hoping to see some of the YOAMD crew and have them notice our buttons and give us a night in Mickey’s Penthouse , but I only ever saw one person who I think was a Dream Team member and he was engaged in conversation with another family. 
Several cast members commented on this being our first visit and made polite conversation with us, but we never really hit pay dirt with the buttons.
Hard to tell what the topiary is, but it's Dumbo standing on his hind legs with his trunk in the air. Took me a while to figure it out in person but I love the topiaries!
We came out of City Hall and headed down Main Street toward the castle. Well, I knew Sleeping Beauty Castle was smaller Cinderella Castle. Had heard it was a good bit smaller, in fact, but wow! I wasn’t prepared for how much smaller it really is.
DD even said, “It looks like a doll house!” I always take a picture of her and her dad in front of the castle and this was no exception.
When we walked through the castle we were through to the other side before I even realized we had walked INSIDE. Well, that was quick! Off to Dumbo!! We didn’t have to wait too long and then we could head on. We had planned to hit Dumbo then head over to either ride or get FP for Space Mountain, but it seems it always happens – you step into Fantasyland and getting out becomes a fantasy, LOL! There’s always “one more thing” to do, see, or ride, so we spent more time there than we anticipated. We ended up at SM about an hour later. We still got FP for SM but waited in line to ride and wow! It was great! The Red Hot Chili Peppers soundtrack that DH had experienced a couple of months before was gone (he said he hated it) but the regular music is great and it really enhances the experience. The ride is much smoother than at WDW, hence I relaxed more and enjoyed it more. I have to give the overall ride experience to DL but the theming of the queue/exit areas goes to WDW hands down.
At some point later in the day we did ride the Matterhorn. Wow, was that a letdown for me.
It is a WAY rough ride. Can’t figure out why on earth there is no FP for that thing, as the line was typically wrapped halfway around the mountain all day. DH says that some people claim it would be akin to sacrilege to bring FP to the Matterhorn. I say, bring on the FP and let those die-hard Matterhorn purists wait in line as long as they want! 
DD and I didn’t even want to ride it again so we didn’t worry about having to work that into the schedule later.
At the time of our visit, the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage wasn’t scheduled to open for a few days. I had thought it might have a soft opening while we were there. Our first day, we did see a lot of people milling around but they all appeared to Disney “suits.” They were running submarines through but not with passengers. I asked the CM who was manning the KEEP OUT rope (LOL ) if there might be any chance to ride in our three days there and he said no . I knew our third day was a passholder preview for the ride so I didn’t see any hope in riding and no point in hanging around. The seagulls you see in the picture are animated. They turn, open their mouths and say -- can you guess? -- "Mine! Minemine! Mine mine!!" Too cute!
We like to look for Hidden Mickeys (well, dd and I, not so much DH -- it "slows us down" ). It was fun finding new ones -- I'm not sure if there aren't as many as at WDW or if I just was trying to take in so much that I missed them (probably the case) but DD found this one in her cherry icee. Cool!
I’ll stop here for the sake of not having a too-long post, and I’ll add part 2 of DL later. Thanks for reading!
Our trip to DL and DCA begins on Day 5 of our 8-day California trip. Please see http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1483135 for my trip report for Sea World and the San Diego Zoo.
This trip was a once-in-a-lifetime trip for our family: DH, DD 7 1/2, and me. As you can see in my siggy below, I never went to WDW as a child even though I have lived in GA and SC all my life. Just wasn't the kind of thing my parents ever thought about doing. My first trip was when my husband and I took our daughter just before she turned 3 years old. She is 7 1/2 now and we have been to WDW 7 times. Like many WDW devotees, we leave from one trip planning our next.
Having become big fans of anything Disney and developed an appreciation for Mr. Walt Disney's dreams and visions in the past 4 years, we decided we'd like to see where it all began. (Yes, we call him Mr. Walt Disney in our house ). I have wanted to see the San Diego Zoo since I was a child and watched Joan Embery bring animals on The Tonight Show to crawl all over Johnny Carson so we added stops to the Zoo and Sea World, as well. I am not one to make notes or remember what we did minute by minute or in order, so this report will be in no certain order. I had done much research on DL to prepare myself. Honestly I was a little hesitant about the trip, in some ways, because I didn't want to be disappointed after having built WDW up nearly as a part of my marrow the last few years. Thanks to posts from many of you here at the Dis, I knew what to expect, sort of. I read some detailed comparisons of MK and DL as well as some general impressions of those who had been to both. Of course, one's preference is always an individual thing. I'll reveal my preference at the end.
Our arrival was a little anticlimactic. We had seen Space Mountain, ToT and Maliboomer from the highway when we were headed to and from San Diego so that element of surprise was gone. And pulling into a parking deck, boarding a tram for a short ride to walk a couple of hundred feet to the plaza between the parks was different. We all really, really, REALLY missed the monorail ride to MK and all the heightened excitement entails -- parking in a character-named lot, taking the tram to the TTR, waiting for and getting on the monorail and finally! It's here! Then the seemingly eternal ride to the Polynesian, stop to let people on, trying to get a glimpse of MK as we head into the Contemporary, watching people eating below at Chef Mickey's, then coming out and -- oh! There it is! Cinderella Castle!
And the tears are coming from me, DD is jumping up and down in her seat, and DH is looking away because if he looks at either of us he's going to lose it, too. Honestly, that experience is such an ingrained part of our WDW trips that I didn't realize I had come to equate it with the Disney experience overall. I won't say that not having that ruined the DL trip for me, because it was a great trip, but I never really felt like I was "at Disney" until we saw the afternoon parade on our last day. Also, there were NO fireworks the days we were there and no nighttime parade. I had read that they only do those on weekends unless it’s a peak time, but good grief, sure seemed to me like there were enough people to warrant fireworks. We really missed fireworks at the castle and that also was a big detraction from our overall impression. (Ok, so maybe you’ll figure out my preference before the end, LOL )Another thing that was different for us is that we always stay on property at WDW now. We didn’t at DL since we were able to use some of DH’s points to stay at a hotel in the vicinity for FREE, and free seemed to beat out $750 for three nights at DL Hotel. It was 7 miles away and took us about 15 minutes to get between the DLR parking deck and our hotel. It was close enough that DD and I went back to nap the first day, but we were still gone nearly 3 hours by the time you count getting to the tram to the parking lot to the car, driving, sleeping, coming back and doing it all in reverse. I missed Mickey or Stitch wakeup calls, Mickey soap, expensive food court breakfasts (LOL) and that good ole Disney theming but $750, well, I can’t really complain.
At WDW, our park days are always scheduled around eating, it seems, because we love character meals, the Yachtsman Steakhouse and Le Cellier, all of which involve getting advance dining reservations. Not the case at DL, and we only had two PS (they still use the priority seating method), one for our second day at Wine Country Trattoria at DCA and one for our last day for Blue Bayou. We actually grabbed breakfast at McD’s on the way to the park every day and we really missed starting our day with Lilo & Stitch or Pooh and friends.
We got there right at opening time and it wasn’t too crowded, so I kept my optimism that we may experience a light crowd level since we were there before schools were out in that area. That optimism turned out to be unfounded and overall crowds were as heavy as I have ever experienced at WDW. Now, I have never been to WDW during any holiday times so I haven’t experienced the shoulder-to-shoulder phenomenon there, but there were still more people at DL than I had hoped for. It does have more of a day-park sort of feel to it. I would liken the makeup of the crowds to be more like we experience at Six Flags – more teens and young adults on their own who appear to be just looking for a place to hang out, not really enjoying the Disney magic the way the families do at WDW. That’s just how it seemed to me, which seems to mesh with the comments I had read about it being a park inside a city where many people visit for a day and not for a vacation. Unfortunately the train was down at the time of our visit. We knew it was scheduled to be down but you always hope.
I had to swing by City Hall to get First Visit buttons for DD and me; DH had been a couple of times before, taking advantage of business trips to LA and San Diego, so I wouldn’t let him have one. He thought it would be a waste of time and he didn’t want to spend a second more than we had to in order to RIDE DUMBO FIRST!
That is part of our tradition at WDW and we had to uphold it here. I was hoping to see some of the YOAMD crew and have them notice our buttons and give us a night in Mickey’s Penthouse , but I only ever saw one person who I think was a Dream Team member and he was engaged in conversation with another family. Several cast members commented on this being our first visit and made polite conversation with us, but we never really hit pay dirt with the buttons.
Hard to tell what the topiary is, but it's Dumbo standing on his hind legs with his trunk in the air. Took me a while to figure it out in person but I love the topiaries!
We came out of City Hall and headed down Main Street toward the castle. Well, I knew Sleeping Beauty Castle was smaller Cinderella Castle. Had heard it was a good bit smaller, in fact, but wow! I wasn’t prepared for how much smaller it really is.
DD even said, “It looks like a doll house!” I always take a picture of her and her dad in front of the castle and this was no exception.
When we walked through the castle we were through to the other side before I even realized we had walked INSIDE. Well, that was quick! Off to Dumbo!! We didn’t have to wait too long and then we could head on. We had planned to hit Dumbo then head over to either ride or get FP for Space Mountain, but it seems it always happens – you step into Fantasyland and getting out becomes a fantasy, LOL! There’s always “one more thing” to do, see, or ride, so we spent more time there than we anticipated. We ended up at SM about an hour later. We still got FP for SM but waited in line to ride and wow! It was great! The Red Hot Chili Peppers soundtrack that DH had experienced a couple of months before was gone (he said he hated it) but the regular music is great and it really enhances the experience. The ride is much smoother than at WDW, hence I relaxed more and enjoyed it more.
I have to give the overall ride experience to DL but the theming of the queue/exit areas goes to WDW hands down. At some point later in the day we did ride the Matterhorn. Wow, was that a letdown for me.
It is a WAY rough ride. Can’t figure out why on earth there is no FP for that thing, as the line was typically wrapped halfway around the mountain all day. DH says that some people claim it would be akin to sacrilege to bring FP to the Matterhorn. I say, bring on the FP and let those die-hard Matterhorn purists wait in line as long as they want! DD and I didn’t even want to ride it again so we didn’t worry about having to work that into the schedule later. At the time of our visit, the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage wasn’t scheduled to open for a few days. I had thought it might have a soft opening while we were there. Our first day, we did see a lot of people milling around but they all appeared to Disney “suits.” They were running submarines through but not with passengers. I asked the CM who was manning the KEEP OUT rope (LOL
) if there might be any chance to ride in our three days there and he said no . I knew our third day was a passholder preview for the ride so I didn’t see any hope in riding and no point in hanging around. The seagulls you see in the picture are animated. They turn, open their mouths and say -- can you guess? -- "Mine! Minemine! Mine mine!!" Too cute!
We like to look for Hidden Mickeys (well, dd and I, not so much DH -- it "slows us down"
). It was fun finding new ones -- I'm not sure if there aren't as many as at WDW or if I just was trying to take in so much that I missed them (probably the case) but DD found this one in her cherry icee. Cool!
I’ll stop here for the sake of not having a too-long post, and I’ll add part 2 of DL later. Thanks for reading!
We had a chance to ride it close to closing the third night with nearly no wait but I just couldn’t do it. 
A better ride, longer, seems like the drop is bigger but the queue is horrible, right in the sun. If I have to wait in line, let me wait at WDW.
While I was waiting to see him, DH and DD were off getting her one of the pirate princess mouse ears with her name on the back. He said that when the sat down under the tree to wait for me, across the river, she said, "Daddy, I just know Mommy is going to kiss Captain Jack Sparrow on the lips!" 
We even had FP and went to get in line in the afternoon. While we were there, we could look over to the Nemo Submarine Voyage and looked longingly at all the people getting to ride….: sad2: <sniff>. DH started thinking, which can sometimes be dangerous. 
“Well, it’s a passholder event, right? I could get go get an AP, and then I can apply that to an AP at WDW next time we go.” Now THERE’S a man I can go to Disney with! LOL. There were several CMs and “suits” at the ride, with a few at the entrance checking tickets. He went over to one of them and asked if we could get in if he got an AP today, since this is our ONLY TRIP OUT HERE, EVER. Turns out those in attendance had gotten tickets in advance so that wouldn’t work, but the CM must have had pity on us (LOVE YOU, and I won’t post your name because I know you weren’t supposed to do this!) and told him to bring us on over. 
Well, needless to say, we got out of line from Autopia as if it were on fire. We were able to get in line for Nemo and we were SOOOO excited. As one group was coming off from the sub we were about to board, someone asked one of those exiting, “How was it?” His response was to shrug and say, “It’s alright. It’s a kids’ ride.” Helllloooo???? Do you realize where you are? Sheesh. Of course the woman who ends up beside me nearly didn’t get on b/c she is claustrophobic. Um, we’re 20 people in a sardine can, under water with NOWHERE to go; exactly WHY did you get on here? 
). Just a few seconds into the ride DD’s tears turned to squeals of joy, so I relaxed and enjoyed it, too. We both got off and wanted to ride AGAIN. The first time we had FP but, by the time we finally rode, the FP was inactive so we had to wait but it was worth it. 
