How was your 24 hours at Disneyland?

[crystal1313]

Didn't get to do the Astro Orbiter or Jungle Cruise in DL or Mater's, Luigis, or the Swings in DCA. So I did do a ton, just not everything. After standing for Magical and Fantasmic i pretty much ran out of gas. Still made it 3 more hours then called it a night.

Wow!! That's awesome! Great job Astor orbiter line is always brutally long. We were at dca around 12-1 I think and were surprised how dead cars land was but didn't check the lines. But the actual street was actually easy to walk down. We talked for ages with the CMs at Sarges. They were bored. Really nice people. I think overall I enjoyed talking to others the most. Everyone seemed more open to talking to us and in wonderful spirits.

 

[mama2goldens]

We made it all 24 hours!!! I was pleasantly surprised by the crowds were. We din't wait in any lines more than 30 minutes.

We took pictures each hour with shirts I created with the help of my sister in law. They were "count up" shirts where we changed the numbers for each hour completed. Here is our 1st 2 pics and our last.

 

[durantigger]

First, I LOVE the count up shirts! SO CUTE! What a great idea!!!

I did the entire 24 hours plus with 3 friends. No breaks, no naps, just parks!! I got to the gate at 4:25am. There were four women sharing a hotel room, so we had to start showers at 3:30am to get us all there by 5:30, so I decided to head over alone and get us a place in line as soon as I was ready. We were at the Del Sol, so just a skip away, and I wanted to see the preshow entertainment. Got my first 2000 people lanyard! They had a DJ going and characters were out doing photos. I didn't get any photos then, just got in line and started making friends with the lady in front of me. When one of my friends got there a little before 5 I went to Starbucks in Downtown Disney only to find that it didn't open until 6. LAME!! They missed out on a lot of money!!

So there were four of us in my group. One did not wear a costume (loser!! lol). One friend was child Ellie from Up!, the other was casual Snow White, and I was casual Cinderella. Dressing up was a lot of fun, and we got great comments all day. It was also nice being acknowledged as a princess all day/night. ;-)

Anyway, we entered Disneyland at 6am, did Space Mountain and Star Tours twice, had breakfast at Tomorrowland Terrace and then grabbed a Starbucks on Main Street. From there we headed to New Orleans for Pirates and Haunted Mansion, then Pooh and a snack.

At this point, about 11am, we hopped to California Adventure. First stop was to grab a fastpass for Racers with a return time between 7 and 8pm. Then we headed to Toy Story for about a 30 minute wait. Did the Fun Wheel and California Screamin', then stopped for lunch at the Paradise Garden Grill for the special mac & cheese flatbread for lunch. After that was Goofy's Sky School and Little Mermaid. Then we hit the extended sneak peek of Maleficent. After we rode Tow Mater we booked over to the Hyperion just in time to catch the 2:35 Aladdin. After the show, we rode Tower of Terror and then hopped back to Disneyland about 4:30 for our 5pm reservation at Big Thunder BBQ.

We took our time and had a relaxing dinner, then headed over to Big Thunder Railroad. The wait time was posted at 50 minutes, which was great because we wanted time to disgest, but was really only 30 minutes! Then headed to Matterhorn, with a posted wait of 60 minutes which also ended up being 30.

After that we hopped back to California Adventure (checking with the CM at the exit to see if he heard anything about a capacity closure, which he didn't), to use our Racers fastpass. It was about 7:45 at this point, and before riding we stopped and snagged a fastpass for the 3am World of Color. That hop was done for the sole purpose of riding Racers and seeing about World of Color, so after that we hopped back to Disneyland.

My friend had her heart set on seeing Mr. Lincoln, so we did that. At this point it was about 9:15 and we were able to grab a GREAT viewing spot for the 9:25 Magical fireworks on Main Street near the photo shop. After fireworks we caffeinated at Starbucks again and headed to Tomorrowland for Astro Blasters and the Captain America meet & greet (I swear, he's like 12 years old, but that's another story...). We then waited in the longest line of the day/night, about an hour, for a photo with Star Wars Darth Goofy and Stormtrooper Donald. From there we headed to Small World, and got out in time to catch the last 1/2-2/3 of the 12:30 Soundsational Parade.

Once again, it was time for a park hop! Back to California Adventure, where we rode the Silly Symphony Swings before securing a spot for World of Color. We were yellow, and went to the wet zone railing, where I had never been before. We got pretty wet. Oops.

After World of Color, we left for our last hop back to Disneyland. We got some cute photos with Mickey on Main Street, then rode Pirates again about 4:30am. We stopped at the Stage Door Cafe for the special red velvet funnel cake just before they closed at 5am, then did Haunted Mansion as our final ride. We headed to Main Street to see the characters in their PJs saying goodbye and sang the Mickey Mouse song with them.

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!! I was gone from my hotel for a total of 26 hours.

It was crowded, but not worse than a weekend in summer for sure. I did last year, too, and I do think it was a little more crowded this year. But manageable. I would totally do it again. My friends are less sure, and said they'd do it with naps. NO WAY!!! ;p

And I only know everything we did because I checked in everywhere on facebook to keep track! ;-)

 

[crystal1313]

I'm so impressed with how long everyone was able to make it! I wish we could have stayed longer. That was the original goal. Had to get back to our kids in NorCal at a reasonable hour on Saturday, so we got about 4 hours of sleep then were up at 6am to drive home 6 hours. We had so much fun and hope to go again next year if they have this event. If they continue it, hoping to bring the kids into the mix when they are older and can stay up longer

 

[ImDMous]

We had a great time but we were surprised how long the lines got in the wee hours.

We got there around 3pm Friday and went to DCA to make breakfast reservations at Wine Country. Then we went over to DL to spend the afternoon. Lines seemed to be fine at that time and things weren't very crowded. We went on Pirates and Mansion, hung out with some friends by the hub and then headed to Pizza Port for a little dinner. We went to get on Space and the line was 80 minutes so we got Fast Passes for 4:40 AM. So cool!

We went on BTM with about a 45 minute wait then headed to see fireworks just as it was started. That might have been a mistake. We followed the CMs to where they said was spots open and ended up just going in a big circle with all the other cattle around the hub and back into Frontierland. That was really the only place we could figure they were leading people. We went out of Frontierland, across main street towards Tomorrowland, turned towards the castle than right back out to Frontierland. So we didn't end up seeing any fireworks really. Then we were stuck in the gift shop for a long time as everyone from the fireworks pushed back to the Rivers for the second Fantasmic. We really didn't have anywhere to go anyway so it wasn't a big deal but it was frustrating how it all worked out. We really try to stay away from the wrong place at the wrong time but that was a perfect storm.

After that we figured we should head to DCA for our 12:30 reservation in case there was a long line getting in. There really wasn't so we were able to hit Luigis with no line and wander Cars a bit (RSR was closed) before heading to Wine Country. We checked in for our reservation right about 12:30 and they said they were about half an hour behind so we just kicked it on the patio people-watching until our buzzer went off. Breakfast was delicious although it took until about 2:15 before we were done. We got Fast Passes for the WOC at 3 with breakfast so we went over and got our spots for the show. People were laying down all over the place in the viewing area taking a cat nap but it filled up a lot by show time.

After that we went to Cali Screaming which had a posted 40 minute wait. We were about half way through the line when they said it was closing at 4 and everyone in line would be fine to ride. Then we got up right before the stairs and the ride broke down and they told everyone to leave. That sucked.

We went by Tower of Terror on the way but it was down also and so was RSR so we just went back to DL for our Space fast passes. We actually got over there with enough time do to Star Tours first with about a half hour wait.

After Space it was around 5:20 or so and it was getting light so we headed back up Main Street, took some pictures and got video of everyone high fiving the CM's wearing Mickey hands. The PhotoPass at the gates had a decent line to get your picture taken in front of the Mickey flowers and train station so we did that and then stumbled our way to our hotel for a 4 hour sleep.

We did have a great time but because of lines and shut-downs we didn't get on as many rides as we would have liked. I think if we go again we'll have to focus on more of the event based things since we can go on rides any time. There were a lot of things we just didn't get to because of crowd movement.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Buncha die-hards! Impressive!

 

[Kristina4109]

I am having such a good time reading everyone's experiences. I checked in via webcam a couple of times during the event. I was with you in spirit, but real life kept me from going myself!

 

[myty5]

We have dd5, dd6, and a ds7. CA seemed less crowded in the early morning to early evening hours. Which was really nice for our family. Lines was never too long of a wait and even Parades was much more enjoyable with a lesser crowd. Kids started to get tired after the 9:40pm Magical Fireworks Spectacular over at DL. Tapped out after 16 hours, which in turn we had the best day ever the very next day. But, that's a different story.

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