- Joined
- May 6, 2012
- Messages
- 319
We just finished up our trip... We're driving home as I type this on my phone. Sorry if there are any typos. 
1)Arestravel tickets: we bought the buy 3 days get the 4th day free tickets from them. They email you a voucher that must be exchanged for tickets at the DLR ticket booths. Make sure that your ID matches exactly with the name you buy the vouchers with. This was a smooth process and I definitely recommend arestravel. We exchanged the vouchers the day before our first park day.
2)Goofy's Kitchen was awesome!! We saw Mad Hatter, Alice, Hook, Pluto, Chip, Dale, and Goofy. When our host seated us, she told us to stay for 90 minutes in order to see all of the characters, so that's what we did. We will definitely eat here again.
3)On our first day in the parks (Monday the 22nd) We were picked to open the park! We couldn't believe how lucky we were! Cinderella came out and met us and helped us open the park. A photopass photographer took pictures for us .That was a wonderful start to our trip.
4)We headed straight to Fantasyland and we were the first on Alice. We did all of Fantasyland (except PP, we did that later in the week), in time to go to the first Royal Theater show. That show was great! Very cute and entertaining. We stayed after the show and stood on the right side of the stage to wait for Flynn Rider and Rapunzel. They were very fun to interact with.
5)My dad had his happy birthday pin on, and randomly as we were walking along a CM gave him a Fastpass for 6 people for any ride. We used it to ride HMH, which had a 45 minute wait at the time!
6)Crowds were great all week up until Thursday, when California Adventure closed at 6pm... Then DL became VERY crowded! Everyone from CA must have come over to DL. Lines shot up to very long waits. Other than that night, we never waited more than 20 min for anything.
7)Touring plans worked great for us. It helped me figure out the best times for shows, and also helped us develop a general plan. We found the wait times predicted were pretty accurate.
8) The parades at CA and DL were fun! Although I had to put my camera away during the CA parade to keep it from getting wet, so we didn't get any good pictures. I definitely recommend taking the time out for these parades
8)The Aladdin show was GREAT! We were very impressed. Even our boys were captivated during the whole performance.
9)Photopass+ was awesome! We got a ton of pictures. We saw lots of PP+ photographers out and there were at every meet and greet. The only time we were disappointed was at Goofy's Kitchen, the photographer's camera stopped working. So we didn't get any pictures from there
10)We had a breakfast reservation at Ariel's 9am (park opened at 10am for normal guests that day). We had a wonderful time here! We have two boys and even they liked it. It was nice to get into the park early and not waste any park time either.
11)We followed the advice for Blue Bayou; 11:30 reservation, got there early and were seated at a waterside table. We loved this meal! We loved how it got us out of the heat for a bit and gave us a chance to rest. The food was good! DH got the Monte Cristo... It was interesting...? Not sure we'll ever get it again lol.
12)DL did great with our son's food allergies! Even at quick service places the chef came out and talked with us. DL gets an A+ from us for how they handle food allergies.
13)The weather was hot! We weren't expecting that kind of heat.
14)We met Jack skellington and Sally; they were great! They were very funny and had us laughing. They are worth waiting in line for. Thor was also great! They do a little entrance show to "take" you to the other world. It was very well done.
15)We followed the advice for the Jedi academy (bring signs, be in the front row), and the boys were picked right away. We saw some people who made signs on napkins and they were not picked.
16)MM was great. It was a 7am MM, and a lot more crowded than I thought it would be. We got FP for A&E, rode Matterhorn and Space.
17)We got FP for A&E at 7:10am. We waited about 5-10 minutes to get the passes. Our return time was 8:10. We got there at 8:07 and had to wait the three minutes before we could enter the line. Then once we were in the line we waited about 15 minutes and met both A&E. I think one of the girls was about to leave because they closed the doors after we entered the little house where A&E met.
18)We spent four full days plus another day with our MHP tickets. We could have spent more time here! We almost did everything we wanted, but we would have loved to repeat some things too I recommend staying as many days as you can. It also made for a more leisurely vacation since we didn't have to cram everything in.
1)Arestravel tickets: we bought the buy 3 days get the 4th day free tickets from them. They email you a voucher that must be exchanged for tickets at the DLR ticket booths. Make sure that your ID matches exactly with the name you buy the vouchers with. This was a smooth process and I definitely recommend arestravel. We exchanged the vouchers the day before our first park day.
2)Goofy's Kitchen was awesome!! We saw Mad Hatter, Alice, Hook, Pluto, Chip, Dale, and Goofy. When our host seated us, she told us to stay for 90 minutes in order to see all of the characters, so that's what we did. We will definitely eat here again.
3)On our first day in the parks (Monday the 22nd) We were picked to open the park! We couldn't believe how lucky we were! Cinderella came out and met us and helped us open the park. A photopass photographer took pictures for us
.That was a wonderful start to our trip. 4)We headed straight to Fantasyland and we were the first on Alice. We did all of Fantasyland (except PP, we did that later in the week), in time to go to the first Royal Theater show. That show was great! Very cute and entertaining. We stayed after the show and stood on the right side of the stage to wait for Flynn Rider and Rapunzel. They were very fun to interact with.
5)My dad had his happy birthday pin on, and randomly as we were walking along a CM gave him a Fastpass for 6 people for any ride. We used it to ride HMH, which had a 45 minute wait at the time!
6)Crowds were great all week up until Thursday, when California Adventure closed at 6pm... Then DL became VERY crowded! Everyone from CA must have come over to DL. Lines shot up to very long waits. Other than that night, we never waited more than 20 min for anything.
7)Touring plans worked great for us. It helped me figure out the best times for shows, and also helped us develop a general plan. We found the wait times predicted were pretty accurate.
8) The parades at CA and DL were fun! Although I had to put my camera away during the CA parade to keep it from getting wet, so we didn't get any good pictures. I definitely recommend taking the time out for these parades
8)The Aladdin show was GREAT! We were very impressed. Even our boys were captivated during the whole performance.
9)Photopass+ was awesome! We got a ton of pictures. We saw lots of PP+ photographers out and there were at every meet and greet. The only time we were disappointed was at Goofy's Kitchen, the photographer's camera stopped working. So we didn't get any pictures from there
10)We had a breakfast reservation at Ariel's 9am (park opened at 10am for normal guests that day). We had a wonderful time here! We have two boys and even they liked it. It was nice to get into the park early and not waste any park time either.
11)We followed the advice for Blue Bayou; 11:30 reservation, got there early and were seated at a waterside table. We loved this meal! We loved how it got us out of the heat for a bit and gave us a chance to rest. The food was good! DH got the Monte Cristo... It was interesting...? Not sure we'll ever get it again lol.
12)DL did great with our son's food allergies! Even at quick service places the chef came out and talked with us. DL gets an A+ from us for how they handle food allergies.
13)The weather was hot! We weren't expecting that kind of heat.
14)We met Jack skellington and Sally; they were great! They were very funny and had us laughing. They are worth waiting in line for. Thor was also great! They do a little entrance show to "take" you to the other world. It was very well done.
15)We followed the advice for the Jedi academy (bring signs, be in the front row), and the boys were picked right away. We saw some people who made signs on napkins and they were not picked.
16)MM was great. It was a 7am MM, and a lot more crowded than I thought it would be. We got FP for A&E, rode Matterhorn and Space.
17)We got FP for A&E at 7:10am. We waited about 5-10 minutes to get the passes. Our return time was 8:10. We got there at 8:07 and had to wait the three minutes before we could enter the line. Then once we were in the line we waited about 15 minutes and met both A&E. I think one of the girls was about to leave because they closed the doors after we entered the little house where A&E met.
18)We spent four full days plus another day with our MHP tickets. We could have spent more time here! We almost did everything we wanted, but we would have loved to repeat some things too
I recommend staying as many days as you can. It also made for a more leisurely vacation since we didn't have to cram everything in.
And thank you! It was a wonderful trip 
