June 2019 Check In

[OKC Disney Fan]

We are embracing the madness too. My only concern is the parks reaching capacity while we are there and not being able to get in or get back in. We are there Sat 6/15-Tues 6/18.

 

[lalasmama]

We are embracing the madness too. My only concern is the parks reaching capacity while we are there and not being able to get in or get back in. We are there Sat 6/15-Tues 6/18.

That's my hub's concern as well. We are so used to going back and forth park hopping and to the hotel and whatever else we want to do, and that chance of capacity over our head is kind of daunting. Thankfully, we're taking our grandson that's an early waker, so he'll have us up in plenty of time to make rope drop!

 

[BadPinkTink]

Added the latest people to the first post, welcome everyone

I think the park capacity closures are on everyones mind. Those of us who have been before are used to the ease of park hopping or afternoon breaks at our hotel. This is a totally different beast but we are the lucky ones. We are on Dis and have all this info available to us. We are just the minority though. So many people wont be as prepared as us, and will get caught by the capacity closures. Its going to be madness, people getting stuck on the Esplanade and missing restaurant reservations and Fastpasses

 

[Astylla]

June 2nd-4th at PPH for the sole reason of checking out GE and reservation for it. May change depending on details as they come available.

 

[RockyG225]

Ack, In LA for a wedding in June. Had been planning to go to DL on June 4-5. Crushed when found out GE would be open. I have the hotel; haven't bought the tix yet! We like to be there for rope drop. Do you think we'll have to camp out to get in?

 

[Dreaming of Cali]

We’ll be at the Grand Californian from 18-20 June, 2019

 

[BadPinkTink]

Ack, In LA for a wedding in June. Had been planning to go to DL on June 4-5. Crushed when found out GE would be open. I have the hotel; haven't bought the tix yet! We like to be there for rope drop. Do you think we'll have to camp out to get in?

Most likely they will not allow people to camp out.

For people who just want to go to the Main Park and NOT go to Star Wars Galaxys Edge, being there for rope drop is a sensible plan. You will need to expect and allow for huge lines at security and then again at the actual entrance turnstiles. If you are NOT going to Galaxys Edge, I would check out the layout of the park and go the opposite way to people trying to go to Galaxys Edge once you are onto Mainstreet.

To go to Galaxys Edge on your park days you will need a free reservation. If you are staying at one of the 3 onsite Disney hotels, you will get a reservation as park of your package.
If you are not staying at one of the 3 onsite Disney hotels, you will need to book a reservation either through the Disneyland Website or APP. Disney have not released information on how this process will work.

Please keep checking the first post of this thread, as I will update when more information becomes available

 

[ChloesDaddy]

We’re booked at DLH June 8-12. First visit to DLR for me since 1971 and first ever for the rest of the family. Wasn’t expecting SWGE to be open then, but we’ll roll with it.

 

[DBAZ]

We planned our DLR trip for the week of Memorial Day, specifically to avoid Galaxy's Edge opening. And we also thought it smart to avoid Memorial Day weekend, so our trip dates are May 29-June 1. That turned out to be a VERY bad decision! We are staying at the Castle Inn on a buy 3 get the 4th night free deal. I'm enough of a Disney and Star Wars fan to think about sticking it out and not cancelling or trying to change our trip, so I also booked one night at the Disneyland Hotel for May 31 to ensure we would get entrance to Galaxy's Edge. We will have two hotels booked that night - I've told my family we can spread out, but everyone wants to stay at the nice hotel! LOL

I'm sweating this decision and wondering if I should try to change our dates to May 26-29. This is my third trip to Disneyland but my family's first. My husband HATES crowds but LOVES Star Wars. My kids are 9 and 12. We go to Disney World about every other year, so Disney isn't new and it won't be the end of the world if we don't see and do everything.

I'm posting this in the June board because it seems more relevant here than the May board! Any opinions on what I should do? TIA

 

[Eve & Wall-e]

...specifically to avoid Galaxy's Edge opening.

We booked our trip to avoid SWGE also (May 30-June 3 at the Disneyland Hotel). I'm going with my sister this trip, so we decided to embrace the madness and are now looking forward to seeing the new land. We're really excited to be among the first to see Galaxy's Edge.

 

[BadPinkTink]

We planned our DLR trip for the week of Memorial Day, specifically to avoid Galaxy's Edge opening. And we also thought it smart to avoid Memorial Day weekend, so our trip dates are May 29-June 1. That turned out to be a VERY bad decision! We are staying at the Castle Inn on a buy 3 get the 4th night free deal. I'm enough of a Disney and Star Wars fan to think about sticking it out and not cancelling or trying to change our trip, so I also booked one night at the Disneyland Hotel for May 31 to ensure we would get entrance to Galaxy's Edge. We will have two hotels booked that night - I've told my family we can spread out, but everyone wants to stay at the nice hotel! LOL

I'm sweating this decision and wondering if I should try to change our dates to May 26-29. This is my third trip to Disneyland but my family's first. My husband HATES crowds but LOVES Star Wars. My kids are 9 and 12. We go to Disney World about every other year, so Disney isn't new and it won't be the end of the world if we don't see and do everything.

I'm posting this in the June board because it seems more relevant here than the May board! Any opinions on what I should do? TIA

Everyone is in the same boat, all crowd predictions and previous strategies and plans are invalid right now.

The best advice I can give is

1. Know when your 60 days is and make sure to book any TS restaurants or dining experiences you may want. You can cancel up to 24 hours before without any charge, so it would be better to book and cancel, then not have anything booked. At least by booking ADR you wont have to battle crowds at quick service.
2. Disneyland California is a locals park and other than the Star Wars mania, most likely the first few hours after opening should still have manageable crowds in the rest of the park. There will probably be crazy wait times at security and bag check and at the entrance turnstiles on the Esplanade, so get there as early as you can and expect to wait to even just get to Main Street.
3. Normally everyone recommends park hopper tickets, HOWEVER with the Star Wars Mania, Im expecting more park capacity closures and for longer periods of time, especially in the first few days. This time it might be best just to do one park per per day, and stay in that park from open to close, and not park hop or go to Downtown Disney.

 

[DBAZ]

Everyone is in the same boat, all crowd predictions and previous strategies and plans are invalid right now.

The best advice I can give is

1. Know when your 60 days is and make sure to book any TS restaurants or dining experiences you may want. You can cancel up to 24 hours before without any charge, so it would be better to book and cancel, then not have anything booked. At least by booking ADR you wont have to battle crowds at quick service.
2. Disneyland California is a locals park and other than the Star Wars mania, most likely the first few hours after opening should still have manageable crowds in the rest of the park. There will probably be crazy wait times at security and bag check and at the entrance turnstiles on the Esplanade, so get there as early as you can and expect to wait to even just get to Main Street.
3. Normally everyone recommends park hopper tickets, HOWEVER with the Star Wars Mania, Im expecting more park capacity closures and for longer periods of time, especially in the first few days. This time it might be best just to do one park per per day, and stay in that park from open to close, and not park hop or go to Downtown Disney.

Thanks for the advice! My 60 day window started on Saturday, and I'm embarrassed to say how many ADRs I've booked for the four days! I honestly don't have any must-do dining, but I'm thinking having guaranteed sit-down restaurants to go to will be nice. Interestingly, I've had no problem booking everything even for May 31 and June 1. I'm thinking most people going just for Galaxy's Edge aren't going to book dining in case their window to visit is opening then.

One benefit of staying one night in the Disneyland Hotel is that we get two mornings of EMH. Combined with our four day ticket and one Magic Morning option, we can get in early three of the four days. I'm going to drag everyone out of bed super early for all of those days!

I've already bought park hoppers, but I am planning to start all days but one at Disneyland. Then we can hop to CA when it gets unbearable. I'm trying to get all the must-dos at Disneyland done on May 29-30 so that we can just concentrate on Galaxy's Edge and CA on May 31-June 1.

Opinion question: I always want to like evening entertainment far more than I actually like it, I think because I'm always there at rope drop and never do afternoon breaks. But I've never seen Fantasmic at Disneyland - only at Disney World and Tokyo Disneysea. Is it a mistake to miss it? I've heard it is the best, but the one at Tokyo Disneysea was pretty good, and still I'm not sure it was worth dealing with the crowds and the wait to see it . . .

 

[lalasmama]

Opinion question: I always want to like evening entertainment far more than I actually like it, I think because I'm always there at rope drop and never do afternoon breaks. But I've never seen Fantasmic at Disneyland - only at Disney World and Tokyo Disneysea. Is it a mistake to miss it? I've heard it is the best, but the one at Tokyo Disneysea was pretty good, and still I'm not sure it was worth dealing with the crowds and the wait to see it . . .

I've found I like night time shows significantly more if I have reserved seating Any chance you could try changing a sit-down restaurant to a dining package? Fantasmic is definitely a wonderful show, and the reserved seating area for the Riverbelle Terrace is a great spot!

 

[DBAZ]

I've found I like night time shows significantly more if I have reserved seating Any chance you could try changing a sit-down restaurant to a dining package? Fantasmic is definitely a wonderful show, and the reserved seating area for the Riverbelle Terrace is a great spot!

I've booked the Hungry Bear on the Go meal for Fantasmic because it's the cheapest option with a reserved area, and I've read good reviews of it. On the other hand, paying so much for a counter service meal is not appealing either. My daughter is 12 and so a Disney adult, but she still eats kids' meals. It's hard to stomach paying full adult price for her for any of the dining packages.

 

[kirstie101]

Just got all our dining reservations made. Normally we don't make more than one or two reservations but we made one for just about every park day this time. Does anyone know if you can change a Blue Bayou reservation to the Fantasmic dining package later on?

 

[dina444444]

Just got all our dining reservations made. Normally we don't make more than one or two reservations but we made one for just about every park day this time. Does anyone know if you can change a Blue Bayou reservation to the Fantasmic dining package later on?

You will likely need to rebook it when the packages are made available.

 

[smchristy]

We just entered our reservation period this morning! I cannot wait! I am assuming most folks visiting in June will be making multiple reservations and then dump them as they know more about SWGE and general park schedule.

We get in really early on 6/8 so I scheduled a lunch and a dinner for that day (Cafe Orleans and Lamplight Lounge). We may not even visit the parks that day, but I wanted to be covered just in case. My family would prefer to get their In-n-Out Burger fix ASAP. They have demanded we go back to the Bronx Sandwich Company in Anaheim as well as Krispy Kreme (not in MN anymore) while we are in CA.

 

[gypsy_at_heart]

All booked for June 19th to June 23rd super excited for SWGE!

 

[Madison2018]

We will be at the Grand Californian from June 28-July 1. We will only have 2 park days. Booked this trip before we knew about Galaxy's Edge opening and this is our first trip to Disneyland. We are pretty nervous about the crowds and trying to manage expectations. But we will be wrapping up a 10 day trip through California and we are excited to finally check out DL. My son is a huge Star Wars fan so he is super excited but has no concept of the crowds (he's 11).

 

[abnihon]

Joining the party!
Bought our plane tickets today for June 1-6!
Was planning to stay at HOJO the whole time but once I decided for sure I was going after SWGE opens I booked 2 nights at PPH so will split the trip (3 nights at Hojo and 2 at PPH)
So excited to check out SWGE!
Planning for 1 day at DCA, 2 full days and 2 half days at DL and 1 beach day but we’ll see how it goes.
Booked two Plaza Inn breakfasts until I know more about the SWGE reservation and one Blue Bayou F! dining package.
DS and I (age 6) are DW vets but this is our first DL trip! So excited!