Long report coming! Last week, we (me, wife and 3 kids) took our middle of the AP Year DL trip. We always take a week-long vacation in November, but with APs we try to get in a few trips in between. We actually made a trip like this during the same week two years ago, and it was awesome as DL was a virtual ghost town (before the 60th brought the Crowd Chaos that never ended)....but I'm getting ahead of myself.
It is my opinion, the great crowds began in 2005 with the 50th, and the start of payment plans.
First, we spent two nights at the Great Wolf Lodge....and we loved it! We got a pretty good deal, so it made it worth it. The waterslides were really great. I loved them. The kids loved them. And even the giant Fort McKenzie (giant waterslide, water bucket area) was really cool for adults. At least, this adult. The rooms were a lot like Grand Cali (only way cheaper), and there were plenty of restaurants and food options INSIDE the hotel, so it was a self contained vacation resort. No car travel or outside walking needed - very relaxing. Honestly, this place may change the way we do
Disneyland. I know I'm used to just walking from a hotel to the parks, but I might be tempted to start driving to the Disney parking lots if I could get a great deal for a week stay. That way we could escape the insane crowds of DL during the day, hit some waterslides, and then return.
I'm glad you were able to enjoy the Great Wolf Lodge. I'm deciding if I should book my brother's family there for a while. They enjoy that type of thing.
After two nights there, we went to BW Park Place Inn and they were very gracious to let us park before check-in. I've heard you can't do that, but they let us anyway. As for the rooms, they were very spacious and had lots of mirrors, which the Great Wolf Lodge didn't have. The pull-out couch was a big bonus for our son. And the breakfast on the second floor of Captain Kidd's was....surprisingly good! As good as a Hampton, at least. My only beef at Park Place is this - the pillows. They're enormous! I sleep on my stomach, so I like a thin pillow. These were like giant sawed logs wrapped in paper towels. No give whatsoever...so that made sleeping a little difficult. But the proximity to the cross walk simply cannot be beat. Well worth the money, even if the rooms are just motel rooms that face outside.
I'm glad you liked it. I didn't care for the beds myself, and that trumps the locality.
And here comes the disappointment....Disneyland. We came during this week for Dapper Days two years ago. It was a ghost town, and as I recall only had Splash Mt down (our fave, but that was it I think). This year. MADNESS!!!!! First of all, Disneyland post-60th should NEVER EVER EVER open at 10am. It makes security awful. The first day, it took us 30 minutes to get through (we arrived at 9:50am), and the second day it took 20 minutes (we arrived at 9:30am). But on Friday when the park opened at 9am, it only took 5 minutes. So listen up Disney!!!!! Never open a park at 10am again. It's just penny-pinching that makes guests very upset before we even enter your gates.
Here is the ride closures from March 2015.
- Peter Pan's Flight – closed for renovation; reopening date unknown, but not before March 21.
- Fortuosity Shop – closed February 23 through March 12 for refurbishment.
- Snow White's Wishing Well and Grotto – closed through March 2 for refurbishment.
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – closed through April 3 for refurbishment.
- Splash Mountain – closed through April 3 for refurbishment.
- Pooh Corner and all Critter Country stores – closed through April 3 for refurbishment.
- Hungry Bear Restaurant – closed through April 3 for refurbishment.
- Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes – closed through April 3 for refurbishment.
- Matterhorn Bobsleds – closed through May 16 for refurbishment.
- Captain EO – closed; reopening date unknown, but not before March 21.
Disney California Adventure
- Luigi's Flying Tires – closed February 16. Ride will be removed and replaced. Reopening date unknown.
- Fly 'n' Buy – closed through March 13 for refurbishment.
- World of Color – dark through March 13 for refurbishment.
- Taste Pilots' Grill – closed through March 13 for refurbishment.
- Grizzly River Run – closed through March 20 for refurbishment.
- It's Tough to be a Bug – dark through March 26 due to the Cinderella sneak preview.
- Soarin' Over California – closed through May 14 for refurbishment.
- Blue Sky Cellar – closed through October 2.
- Muppet*Vision 3D – closed indefinitely due to the Frozen Fun overlay.
As far as a 10am start, the turnstiles actually open at 930a, and we have never had an issue like you have described. That said, the bag checks open at 5am if you wanted to enter earlier.
Our routine at DL park is always this: go straight to Big Thunder, then Pirates, and then Splash Mt at least twice. We can usually do this with under 5 minute waits at each ride (when the park opens at 9am). So we walk in on Wednesday and Big Thunder is down for the first hour, Pirates is down for weeks (scheduled), and Splash is down until after Noon. Epic fail. Horrible start after 30 minutes in security. Add to it that all crowd calendars had this day as a ghost town or Level 2/10, but it was no 2. I've seen 2. This was a 5 or 6 day, so it was busy from beginning to the end. It was a tough day with closures and crowds, but at least in ended with my kids liking MSEP. I really didn't care for it, as it's old and outdated and not nearly "Disney" enough for my tastes, but if the kids were happy, I was happy. We also did the Red Rose Tavern that night....and they were all of out of desserts! That's what I went there for! No Grey Stuff for you! We had the Beast Burger, which was good, but the grilled onions and horseradish had me and my wife brushing our teeth 2 or 3 times to try to get the taste out of our mouths. But really? All out of desserts? C'mon Disney. And then when we wanted to get an AP popcorn bucket, they were all out of those too. My wife ran over to DCA to grab one of their AP buckets so we could take advantage of $1 popcorn refills. Ridiculous.
I think they have underestimated the demand for the Red Rose Tavern. As far as the "ratings" they have never been correct for Disneyland. As far as the popcorn buckets, I thought DCA was the only place they have them left? I loved MSEP when we saw it a couple weeks ago. I was sad my favorite float was gone, but we lost a couple floats when it was in WDW.
The next day was better as far as unscheduled breakdowns, except that Frozen Live cancelled after spending 40 minutes in line for it. That didn't sit well knowing that Grizzly River, Mickey's Fun Wheel, and Tower of Terror (our favorite DCA ride) was down and that there would be no World of Color finale. But we did get a lot of rides in, and the kids spent an hour in Redwood Creek Challenge. I like that place because I can sit in the shade and relax when it's crazy busy in the park (which is was). That day was definitely better than the first day, so I was doing better.
I really like Redwood Creek. It is a great place for me to relax while the granddaughter can play. She enjoys all the climbing.
Then Friday came. Holy cow. I've been in the summer recently, but nothing prepared me for the crowds this day. First, we went back to our routine. Big Thunder...and it was open! Yay! Of course, Pirates wasn't open, so we went to Splash...which was closed. We waited in line at the rope for about 25 minutes and they finally opened it, but I feel like I had some prime time stolen from us. We usually would've done Splash 2 or 3 times in that first hour. But the late opening created a huge line that never went away that day. And then when we were on it....it broke down, lights came on, and we had to wait to be escorted off. We later went on Space MT and the same thing! We got in the car, took off and then...turned left?!?!? What? The car turned left and then stopped and we were escorted off and waited as they reset the whole ride. Major bummer. The rest of the day, like I said, was stupid busy. The live shows were fantastic (Magical Map, Fantasy Faire). We got in a lot of rides thanks to us being FP pros, but it was so crowded. In fact, when it was dinner time, I hadn't made any reservation because two years ago this week, we literally walked into Blue Bayou and got a seat. Big mistake this time around. Rancho was spilling out with people.We went to Plaza Inn....the line was wrapped around the entire restaurant. Went to Carnation Cafe...90 minute wait. Went to Jolly Holiday...line was out into Main Street and there wasn't a table available anywhere. So we went to Gibson Girl and had sundaes for dinner. Not ideal, but it was all that was available.
Usually, they are pretty good at fixing the weight of the rockets, but usually when the rocket goes left, they have miscalculated the weight of the rocket and have to readjust. It happens. We've had it where they were able to roll a ladder up quickly and my son jumped out to change the weight and he rode on the next ship. It was a fast fix, but if it was all kids on the left side, or adults they didn't think would move fast enough, they will just send it left. As for Blue Bayou, I'm surprised you were able to get a walk up 2 years ago. Yes, the park was busy, so every where is going to be crowded unless you eat off hours. The difference a half hour makes is amazing.
And then the worst. If you know me, I'm not particularly pleased with DL's fireworks record. It's only 3 days a week (in the offseason) and then they cancel it probably one quarter of the time. I was not surprised to hear them come over the speakers and warn that they could be cancelled due to high winds. The crowds kept groaning at each announcement, but you know what? They kicked it off anyway, and the crowd cheered! And then 7 minutes into it, right after the Indy scene....they stopped the show!!!! Noooooo!!! "Due to high winds...." And the crowd booed. Everyone was looking up and pointing at the smoke from the fireworks that had been launched and the cloud wasn't moving at all. The guy behind me dropped a coarse adjective before breathing "...ing Disneyland". My 5yo began to cry. People were booing and complaining out loud and in anger. It was ugly. And it capped off what was my worst trip to DL. We thought about going to City Hall and giving an official complaint, but what good would it do. We know the fire codes for fireworks. This happens. And it would just make some CM's night awful and accomplish nothing. We just went back to the room, sad that our trip that we so looked forward to didn't come close to expectations.
I'm sorry you didn't get to see the whole show, but you did get part. As you know, Disney has an agreement with the City of Anaheim on the number of days they are allowed to have fireworks. So it pretty much works out to be F-Su, and holiday times. And the Fire Marshal calls it when there is weather or danger. We've seen him call it due to drift, of if something unsafe occurs backstage.
We ended up going to DCA the next morning to try and salvage the trip. It was pleasant. Got to do about 5 attractions before we left. But the damage was done. We had been thinking about coming back during the year a few more times before our November trip. But this trip burnt us bad. We were all saying how much we want to go to WDW where they have space for crowds and nighttime shows EVERY night that don't get cancelled. I'm sure it's busy and crowded there, too. But that Friday night, all we wanted to do is not ever come back. I'm sure I'm still feeling the height of the emotion, and I'll get over it soon enough. We'll be back.....after WOC and Fantasmic! return. But I'll never sit around at DL for fireworks again, and that's a shame.
With the stress of work and life, I need these trips to "feel the Magic"...and it wasn't even close. I'll leave with this quote from a guy I met from Hawaii while waiting for a show to start. "We went to Knott's Berry Farm on Tuesday - the place was empty and the rides were awesome. I came here (DL) and the place is jammed packed and the rides are all broken".
Perhaps you need a break from Disneyland. It isn't sounding like your family is enjoying it anymore. I know how much you love WDW. Perhaps just head there?
I know I am planning a trip to WDW, and it will be our first. For me, it is a major fear because I don't like preplanning. We enjoy just hitting up Disneyland, relaxing, hitting rides as we see fit. And knowing I need to plan our meals in a couple months, then what rides we want to go on is just giving me palpatations! (A friend keeps threatening me with Xanax!) I will let you know how we like WDW.
