July 2025 Trip Report

[OlliePop27]

My family is just back from a quick Colorado trip to escape the Texas heat, so I will finally get to my July 4th DLR trip report!

It was myself, my spouse, two kids, sister's family with two kids, and my two 69 year old parents.

We did 4 park days with hoppers and LLMP. More to come!

 

[OlliePop27]

BACKGROUND and DAY 1

This trip was originally supposed to occur in November 2025, but we had to move the trip up to July because of other obligations. It ended up working out better for many reasons, not least of which being that we LOVE July! It is our favorite month to go. This year we visited July 2 - 7 with park days on the 3-6. We had a 2 and 6 year old with us, then my sister's family had a 9 and 11 year old.

All of us stayed at the Tropicana, which we have grown to really enjoy. It's incredibly convenient and we choose a suite with multiple rooms. We flew from DFW to SNA on the morning of July 2nd. Easy and uneventful flight as usual. We are very fortunate to have about 8 nonstop flights per day to SNA!

When we arrived around 9:30 am the marine layer was still thick. Temperatures the entire trip hovered with highs right around 80 degrees.

When we landed, we met my parents who flew in at the same time from Denver two gates down - how convenient! My sister’s family was flying in later to LAX.

We rented car from National and headed off to Huntington Beach. Spent about 1.5 hours there from 11:00-12:30. It was amazing and totally worth the effort to spend some time at the ocean to start the trip. We have been fortunate this year to visit the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific!

We headed off to DLR after calling Tropicana to confirm our rooms were ready early. Checked in about 1:30. Got Walmart delivery about 2:30, stroller delivery about 3:00, and returned car about 3:30 on Katella. When my sister's family arrived around 4:00, we walked to Downtown Disney and shopped at World of Disney and Star Wars Trading Post. Checked into Goofy’s Kitchen at 5:25 for 5:45 dinner. Waited until about 6:00. Great dinner and walked back to Tropicana for bedtime and to get ready for our first park day the next morning.

 

[Tinkaboo]

Sounds fabulous...what a great start! No hiccups anywhere! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[OlliePop27]

Day 2 - Thursday, July 3rd

Everyone was up around 6:00 am local because of the time difference (coming from Central time). We all met outside our rooms at 7:15 and left for DL, which was EE that day. There was no wait at security or to enter the parks. This was my first experience with the new entry gates and I think they are awesome!

We waited to the right of the hub to head to FL past Matterhorn. Closures this trip were Matterhorn and Star Tours.

We did Alice, even with EE it was only about a 7 minute wait. We did Snow White and Toad. Next we ran into Pinocchio and Genie on our way to Toontown. Small World was down. We had gotten an MEP from Tiana’s being down and booked Small World for after Toontown. We did Minnie’s House, Mickey’s House, the play fountain and Goofy’s yard. We did Roger Rabbit then Runaway Railway. My sister, who went to Hollywood Studios last year, was in shock that at 9:30 you can literally walk onto Runaway Railway! We then did Small World because it opened back up.

We then headed over to Haunted Mansion and then did Big Thunder with LL. We then watched the DL Band and did Space Mountain with LL. We then headed all the way over to Incredicoaster with LL. We then headed back for a rest at the hotel around 1:00. We headed back to the park around 4:45 and watched Better Together from near Hyperion.

We then went back to DL to do Pirates and then Rise, which had a 25 minute posted wait and we waited 15 to the first preshow! My wife, mom, and youngest did Pooh while the rest of us did ROTR. Some of the group then did Falcon with LL, while me, my wife, mom, and youngest did some stuff in FL. I don’t remember the order of everything, but I know we did Buzz before finally heading back to the hotel around 8:30. Some in the group stayed later.

What a great day! Extremely light crowds and very easy LLMP booking. This was a $180 ticket day and Believe was not blocked. I thought about coming back into the park after putting the kids to bed around 10:30, but I opted not to given 3 more days and nighttime entertainment the next 3 nights.

Up next - July 4th!