Just back--2 Day Trip, 2 adults (Warning, VERY detailed!)

[wonderfuller]

I’m a newbie to this board and thought I would post my trip report. This is probably going to be very long, but I got so much help from reading these boards that I thought I would contribute by letting everybody know how our trip went (and hopefully helping out those who are planning their first trip to the parks).

Our trip: Two days in the parks, August 9th and 10th (a Thursday and a Friday). Stayed at the Hyatt Regency OC. We planned this trip in the span of 2 weeks, it was a spur of the moment thing.

Who we are
Me: 25 y/o female, currently living in Northern CA. I’ve been to WDW 4 times including just this year in May (I’m a lucky girl), which makes it very easy for me, with this trip, to compare the parks. Even though I’m a west coastener, before this trip I had not been to DLR since I was 6 years old (and terrified of pretty much every big ride…and obviously this was prior to DCA). I did all of the planning for our trip, and utilized Ridemax (though I was wary of spending another $15 on this trip, I found it incredibly useful and worth it).

My aunt: Mid 50’s, native Northern Californian who had been to DLR a few times throughout her life, including two years ago with her two small grandchildren.

Day 1
After getting up at 3:30am to leave for SMF, we arrived at LAX at 8:10am. We took supershuttle to the Park Vue Inn (even though that was not where we were staying). Got there by 9:00, supershuttle was great! We were planning on going to DCA for the morning/afternoon since we arrived after DL opened. We first got a locker to put our stuff in, and then lined up for the park opening at 10:00. We went on Soarin’ first, were in the first group of people to go. We both just love that ride! It’s exactly like the one at EPCOT (I think) but it never gets old…and it’s much cooler to watch it in CA than in FL. After we got off, got fastpasses so we could ride it again later. We wanted to go get GRR fastpasses next, but the ride was down. Then we went over to Monsters Inc. and walked right on the ride. Next up was the ToT, which was very slow loading (I don’t know if that’s how it always is….but it seemed to take forever. The wait time was only supposed to be ~15 minutes, which it probably was to the start….but after getting out of the room that shows the video it was probably another 15-20 minutes before actually getting in the elevator). Next we headed back over to see if we could get fastpasses to GRR, but it was still down (I thought the whole thing was fishy…during the time they said the ride was down it was definitely still running rafts…and I saw at least one raft that was filled with people who were obviously not CMs.) Next we walked over to paradise pier and were very surprised to see Screamin’ was running (we thought it wasn’t going to open ‘til 1:00, yet this was around 11:00). So we got fastpasses for screamin.

Next we decided to head over to DL for the first time to get fastpasses to space mountain, as we were planning to head to DL in the evening and knew space mountain would run out of fastpasses early. We REALLY lucked out, right after I got our fastpasses I found out that the ride had just been stopped. Took the railroad from tommorrowland back to Main street, and then headed back to DCA to get in line for the 12:20 showing of Aladdin. We loved Aladdin. I was afraid the show would be hokey but it truly was amazing! The genie was funny and definitely threw some jokes for the adults. The special effects were great. After Aladdin we had hot dogs from the place in the backlot ($5.00 hotdogs, gotta love Disney prices). My aunt said the chili dog was really super good. I just had a plain one (and it was quite good…but still, $5 for a hot dog and eensy bag of chips?!).

After our lunch we headed over to Soarin’ to ride it again. Next, our fastpasses for Screamin’ were finally up, so we headed over to paradise pier to ride it (that walk out to PP is killer…very hot and each time we did it, it seemed longer). GRR was still down at this point. I loved Screamin’! It was very smooth and the take-off was amazing. We made GREAT faces for the picture. The standby line was only a 20 minute wait so we went right on it again. After that we were both pretty done in (it was about 3:00, and we’d been up almost 12 hours already. And it was HOT), so we left the park (en route we saw that GRR was FINALLY back up and running so we got FPs for later…that already had a 7pm return time!). We were staying at the Hyatt Regency Orange County (I got a great price on priceline…our bid was $53!). It was not clear where to catch the shuttle, so I called the hotel and they told me to wait for it in the white zone. The shuttle was great, right on time, and only took about 10 minutes. We checked into our room and took showers and rested for a little while. Our room was very nice, and the people at the front desk were very nice as well. Had dinner (overpriced crappy pizza hut express pizza/breadsticks….but good enough for us) and had huge starbucks drinks (to keep us up ‘til midnight) at the hotel.

We caught the 6:00 shuttle back to the parks. Went to DL, tried to get passes to BTMR, but they were out (either that or the ride was stopped, I’m not sure which). Next we decided to ride POTC. I was absolutely blown away by it. It is a million times better than the one in the MK. What a great ride! (I’m a big fan of the movies too, so I was very excited by the ride). We decided to leave DL and go use our fastpasses at GRR next. I was really looking forward to riding it and was not disappointed. It’s a million times better than Kali river rapids! We did get completely soaked, though, and this was at 7:00ish at night which was not the greatest thing….but it was worth it! To go off on a tangent, one of the biggest tips I can offer to anybody going to the parks is, if you’re going on the water rides, do not wear jeans!!! You’ll be miserable the rest of the day! Wear pants that dry quickly! Trust me….when I went to WDW this past time I wore jean capris and went on Splash Mountain in the evening and got soaked to the bone. Was miserable for hours afterwards. I learned my lesson, though, and on this trip I wore light fast drying pants and was completely comfortable even after getting soaked in the evening by GRR.

Next we headed back over to DL to use our space mountain fastpasses. We got all the way to the loading area…..and found the ride stopped. What a disappointment, I was soooooo excited to ride it after hearing such good things about it. They gave us fastpasses that we could use on any ride (that day) and made us leave. I think space mountain had had many problems on this day as we heard people grumbling about it all over the park. My aunt had never been on the Buzz Lightyear astro blasters ride, so next we did that. I wanted to make sure she got the opportunity to ride it at least twice as I know that my score (at the MK) improved greatly the second time, so we rode it even though the standby wait time was 25 minutes and we were getting close to time for the fireworks. The ride was soooo much better than the one at the MK! It was a lot easier and I had more fun on it because I actually was able to aim and hit the targets!

Next we went to Main Street to stake out a spot for the fireworks and rest our aching feet. Got a really excellent spot and greatly enjoyed the fireworks. There were some truly amazing ones! For example, when they got to the “toon town” part there were fireworks that were happy faces! So cool. I really enjoyed the show, I think it beat Illuminations and the fireworks at the MK. We wanted to go to the 10:30 showing of fantasmic and knew we’d have trouble getting there (with everybody exiting the park) so we took the railroad from main street to New Orleans square. This worked really well. We staked out GREAT seats, sitting on a ledge behind one of the big light thingys (‘cause I knew from going on these boards that those would lift up when the show started giving us a great view). We both loved fantasmic….though I think the one at MGM was just a teeny bit better. My aunt had never seen it and didn’t know what to expect and was completely awed by it.

After fantasmic, we decided that since space mountain was being flaky, and we were already near critter country, we would use our special fastpass from space mountain to go on Splash mountain. I was a little disappointed by splash mountain, it definitely is not as good as the one at the MK. You move SOOOO quickly through the ride, you don’t get to enjoy any of it! But it was still fun! Our picture was “washed away”, though (not sure why…but we were riding with teenage boys, so who knows what they were doing in the picture…). I knew I had made a great face, so I was a little disappointed. After splash mountain we headed over to BTMR (one of my all time favorite rides, even after having the crap scared out of me on it when I was 6.). The standby wait was supposed to be ~20 minutes, but clearly the ride was having problems because there were long periods of silence that indicated no trains were going, the line moved very slowly, and we waited for more than half an hour. It was worth it though; it’s fun to ride BTMR at night! I found it just about equal to the one at MK. By the time we got off it, it was 10 minutes to midnight and we were absolutely exhausted (by then we’d been up for almost 21 hours!) so we headed for the shuttle to our hotel. Beds at the Hyatt were amazingly comfortable, but sadly for me, my aunt snored loudly and I got absolutely ZERO sleep. Ack! How would I ever be able to enjoy day two?!

I’m impressed if you read this all….but if you want more stay tuned for Day Two.

 

[wonderfuller]

DAY 2

We knew the importance of getting to the park early, so even though we were exhausted, we checked out of the hotel and made sure to be on the first shuttle to the parks (at 7:30); me with a venti latte and my ridemax trip plan in hand (thank goodness I had that to follow the whole day….with no sleep I was a zombie with mush for brains). We rented a locker again, and then got in line for entrance to DL. I headed straight for Space Mountain for FPs while my aunt went to first aid to get bandaids for her blistered feet (note to all who love crocs: don’t wear them to Disneyland, at least not without socks…or moleskin. My aunt learned that the hard way). We went to Astro Blasters next, and were the only people on the ride. We both definitely improved our scores on it after the practice from the previous night. I love that ride. Next we went on the Matterhorn which was fun, but rather painful to my derriere. My aunt and I rode together which was definitely a mistake. Ridemax told us to go to fantasyland next, where we rode my fav fantasyland ride, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. It wasn’t quite as fun as I remembered it being (I guess it was more exciting to my 6 y/o self), but it was cute. Next I ran ahead to get Splash Mountain FPs while my aunt went on one of her fav fantasyland rides (I think it was Casey’s Jr.’s train or whatever). We met up again to ride POTC. Which I adored. Again. Afterwards, I headed to get get FPs for Indiana Jones while my aunt toured Tarzan’s treehouse. Unfortunately IJ was down, and apparently had been for about an hour. So, we continued with our plan, and rode Winnie the Pooh followed by Splash Mountain. My aunt has a tip for anybody who sits in the very back of the log, and that is to hold on to the handrails when you go down…apparently otherwise you slide around a lot and hurt your neck.

Next we paused to get churros, and then I ran back to see if IJ was up and running (it was, yay!) and got FPs. We then rode the haunted mansion (about as enjoyable as the MK version, a great ride!). Our next ride was Small World which was just as obnoxious as ever….and I do believe much longer than the one at the MK (or maybe it just seemed that way). I was quite certain that I would not make it alive out of that boat. It definitely gave me an appreciation for all the other rides we went on, though. I found that an excellent antidote to the small world song is going to the tiki room (which we did later that day) but that could just be a case of the cure being worse than the disease…

Next we got FPs to Roger Rabbit’s cartoon spin, and wandered around toontown a bit (my aunt loves toontown!). We decided to do Space Mountain next. We were thrilled to see it was running and lucked into getting the seat in the very front! I was completely blown away by it. It was even better than I had thought it was going to be! You can’t see the track at all, you have no idea which way you are going to go, and the visuals are amazing! So fun. Afterwards, we shopped a bit outside of Space Mountain so that we could get another FP to Space Mountain as soon as our next FP period was available.

By this time (11:30) the park was starting to get crowded and we were exhausted, so we decided to go to DCA for a lunch break. I ran to get Screamin’ (which was open before 1:00 again!) and GRR FPs (those were our two fav rides in DCA) while my aunt went to get our hotdogs (she loved her chili dog so much she decided that’s where she wanted to eat lunch and I was fine with that!). After lunch we digested by seeing MuppetVision, my absolute favorite Disney show (well, non live-action at least). We lucked out by getting to the show EXACTLY as it started (that happened to us a lot on the trip…we were so incredibly lucky with timing). My aunt just loved it (she had never seen it before). Our screamin’ FP period had passed by then, so we headed out to the pier (again…a long hot walk!). We stopped to get our picture taken a couple of times. Rode Screamin’ (made great faces!) and then headed over to GRR, stopping to window shop as it wasn’t quite time for our FP yet. This time when we rode GRR it was actually hot, and I was greatly looking forward to getting wet…..so of course, I did not get wet at all. Ahh, well.

By now we were running fairly low on energy (and my aunt’s feet were not in great condition) so we decided to head back to DL for the rest of our time. We still had 3 FPs over there to use. On the way back we had our pictures taken with Lightening McQueen and Mater (so cute!). We were rather warm after the walk, so I decided we should go to the Tiki Room. The AC was sheer bliss and I finally got it’s a small world out of my head, so I consider the Tiki Room a great success. We still had our IJ FPs, so rode it next. I had never been on it and really loved it! I’m a big fan of the movies, and it was just a great ride! My aunt was excited to ride it because the last time she had ridden it she rode with her grandson and his friend who were just a little too short for it and she was so terrified that they were going to been shaken out of the car that she couldn’t enjoy it.

Next we headed to toontown to use our cartoon spin FPs. Wow, that was an experience. I concur with the person who was quoted in the Unofficial guide as saying “It was like combining Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride with the Mad Tea Party while tripping on LSD.” (note: I have never tripped on LSD…but I imagine if I had, it would be like this ride). If anybody takes their small child on this ride, be really careful when they steer….the wheel has a mind of its own and it was definitely pulling on my arms, nearly hurting me as I tried to steer it. Also, it’s pretty loud.

By now it was about 3:30 and we were dragging big time (and it was hot…and crowded). We decided to go have a snack break near Space Mountain…at the cafeteria by the coke thingy that sprays (I can’t remember what it’s called). My aunt got a kids meal with pasta and really enjoyed it. Perfect size for an afternoon snack. We sat there for a while, waiting for our Space Mountain FP time. I was feeling rather sick by this time (I don’t do well with sleep deprivation) and was certain space mountain would be the straw that broke the camels back….which it quite nearly was. Luckily made it off in one piece (and still managed to enjoy it). We decided to take the train to Main Street to get our souvenirs at the Disney Emporium right near the exit before we left the park. We then hobbled to our locker and back to the Park Vue 45 minutes before our Super Shuttle was scheduled to arrive. The best thing about being so exhausted was that I was not as depressed as I might have been about leaving the park….my brain was completely occupied with getting my body back home. Miracle of miracles, the second we got to the Park Vue our Super Shuttle arrived (over 40 min early). I wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t been ready to go then. Would they have left us? Hmm. Anyways, it was (for us) wonderful that it was there so early….although we did end up sitting in LAX for nearly 3 hours (yuck. I was not a fan of LAX). By the time we got back to Sac it was midnight (our plane was delayed a bit) and my aunt and I could barely keep our eyes open…let alone walk. We had an amazing time, though, and the trip was completely worth the fact that we would probably be completely useless for the next two days while we recovered.

Yup, so that was my very long winded account of my wonderful Disneyland Adventure. If anybody read the whole thing, kudos to you. I hope you enjoyed it and/or found it helpful. I’m sad to be back, but so glad that everything worked out so well for us and we had such a great time.

Oh yes, one last thing: if anybody is going in the high season and wondering whether they should buy ridemax, definitely do it! It was a great help to me (and I was VERY dubious). (now…if anybody from ridemax is reading and looking for a spokesperson….I am currently looking for a job….)

 

[giftcard]

Thanks for sharing!!!!!

 

[DonnaLeah]

I enjoyed your TR Wonderfuller!!!

 

[karin6996]

Wow! That was a whirlwind of a trip!! We are only going to be in DL for 2 days as well, but I don't think we'll be able to pack as much in as you did. Great TR!!

 

[talie95]

Great report! I read the whole thing.....so are you from Sac? I was born and raised in So Cal and live back here now but I lived in Sac for 3 years. It will always hold a special place in my heart as that is where I met my husband!! Well, sounds like you had a great, yet exhausting time!

 

[mt mommy]

Thanks for sharing!!!