Mugglemama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2008
- Messages
- 1,501
We were in the parks Sunday 1/29, Monday 1/30, and Tuesday 1/31.
Day 1
We arrived about ten minutes after opening. We weren't sure we were going into the parks on Sunday, so we didn't get to the security tables before opening. We bought AP's again after not having them for the past 9 years!
WEATHER/CROWDS/WAIT-TIMES:
The weather was *amazing*, and Disneyland was moderately crowded. Ride waits were not terrible, despite the heavy-ish crowds.... POTC was a walk-on, as was HM. We picked up FP's for Splash and when we came back to use them it was also a walk-on. BTMRR was 15 minutes, JC was a walk-on. We used FP's for Indy, making our wait only about 15 minutes midday. Everything in FL had really long waits (I mean, long for *those* rides), so we only rode the Snow White ride, with about a 5 minute wait. IASW was closed, so we headed into TT. RR was a 35 minute wait, and GCC was about 20 minutes. Ride wait times for everything else in the parks was longer than we felt like waiting, so we headed over to DCA at that point.
GRR was closed. We picked up FP's for Soarin', and headed up to Screamin'. On the way we went on the Mermaid ride for the 1st time, and while I thought it looked hugely disappointing when I watched it on YouTube, I felt totally different about it when riding it. It was really cute (albeit boring), and since it was a walk-on, I didn't feel like I'd "sacrificed" any precious time for it. We liked it. Next, it was my DS7's very first time on Screamin', and he loved, loved, LOVED it! We only waited about 15 minutes to ride it (we did not need FP's for Screamin' during our entire 3 days). TOT was less than a 10 minute wait. Goofy's Sky School was maybe 10 minutes, jellyfish was a walk-on, as were the swings. We then headed down to use our FP's for Soarin' and were surprised to find the wait was STILL about 20 minutes, even with the FP's. We then headed back over to Disneyland to do a repeat of POTC and BTMRR (5 and 15 minute waits, respectively) and to ride Star Tours. It was our first time on it since it reopened....we waited 35 minutes to ride it without FP's. It was OK...I found that it makes me FAR more motion sick than the previous version, so I won't be riding it again.
FOOD:
I had decided before leaving for this trip that I wanted to try new food items in the parks (we generally bring in healthy food for one meal, and then eat one meal at Taste Pilot's Grill (my kids feel nostalgic about TPG so they always end up wanting to go there...). This time we brought only water and healthy snacks into the park, but were determined to try several of the things that people here at DIS tend to rave about. On our 1st day, the new things we tried were Bengal BBQ and the corn dogs at DCA. Also, a snack from Pooh Corner (my 13 year old son cracked up anytime anybody said that name, lol...).
Bengal BBQ: We tried one of everything. We're a group of 5, so we just shared it all. I was SOOOOOOO entirely unimpressed! The sauce on the chicken tastes like ketchup, the beef on the skewer was so tough we couldn't get it all off the stick, and the Tiger Tails? $4 for a bland dinner roll?!?! The bacon-wrapped asparagus was better than the rest, but still nothing great. What a letdown.
DCA corn dogs: We bought a couple of these and shared them. All of the guys in our group loved them. I thought they were tasty, but I'm not much of a corndog lover to begin with.
Snack from Pooh Corner: I try not to pump my kids full of junk food and sugar in the parks, so I've never just pointed to the glass case and said, "Pick whatever you want" before. I did that this time....and all they ended up wanting were lollipops, lol. To be honest, nothing appealed to me a great deal either, so I just bought a bag of carmel-chocolate popcorn. Which was REALLY yummy.
We had also gotten an ice cream snack at DCA...between us we had the Mickey bars, Mickey ice cream sandwich, frozen lemonade, and I got a frozen banana (which was really good).
Earlier in the day, we had gone to the Hungry Bear because we generally like the cheeseburgers there. It was our first time trying the sweet-potato fries that are now served there....gross! They were freezing cold and they just tasted terrible. Nobody in our group would eat them. Our burgers were cold, as well.
So by the end of our 1st day, we were sure we'd never go to either the Hungry Bear, or Bengal BBQ ever again.
SHOWS:
We decided to finally make time to see Aladdin. I was really glad we did! Even my DS13, who was less than enthusiastic about being forced to go in and see it, ended up enjoying it when all was said and done.
Fireworks were canceled, so that was a bummer. But we'd arrived at our hotel the night before just in time to watch them from the parking lot, so we didn't end up feeling like we'd missed out too much.
MISCELLANEOUS:
It was my birthday, and the girl at the ticket booth gave me an "It's My Birthday" button when I picked up our AP's that morning. It was really fun to have tons of people wishing me Happy Birthday while I walked through the parks. 2 CM's even stopped what they were doing to SING to me, lol! It was fun.
I don't know *what* the deal was on this trip, but we felt like there were so many extraordinarily annoying people in the parks this time. Ugh!! Parents who absolutely would NOT watch their kids or keep their kids from disturbing other people in line, people who were so rude with flash photography and obnoxious behavior throughout rides like POTC, etc. So while 99% of the CM's that we encountered in the parks were fantastic....there were moments when it was a bummer to be sharing our Disney-time with the seemingly huge amount of extremely inconsiderate guests who were there.
I'll post Day 2 a bit later, along with some pics I took.....if I can figure out how to get them from my cell phone to my laptop???
Day 1
We arrived about ten minutes after opening. We weren't sure we were going into the parks on Sunday, so we didn't get to the security tables before opening. We bought AP's again after not having them for the past 9 years!
WEATHER/CROWDS/WAIT-TIMES:
The weather was *amazing*, and Disneyland was moderately crowded. Ride waits were not terrible, despite the heavy-ish crowds.... POTC was a walk-on, as was HM. We picked up FP's for Splash and when we came back to use them it was also a walk-on. BTMRR was 15 minutes, JC was a walk-on. We used FP's for Indy, making our wait only about 15 minutes midday. Everything in FL had really long waits (I mean, long for *those* rides), so we only rode the Snow White ride, with about a 5 minute wait. IASW was closed, so we headed into TT. RR was a 35 minute wait, and GCC was about 20 minutes. Ride wait times for everything else in the parks was longer than we felt like waiting, so we headed over to DCA at that point.
GRR was closed. We picked up FP's for Soarin', and headed up to Screamin'. On the way we went on the Mermaid ride for the 1st time, and while I thought it looked hugely disappointing when I watched it on YouTube, I felt totally different about it when riding it. It was really cute (albeit boring), and since it was a walk-on, I didn't feel like I'd "sacrificed" any precious time for it. We liked it. Next, it was my DS7's very first time on Screamin', and he loved, loved, LOVED it! We only waited about 15 minutes to ride it (we did not need FP's for Screamin' during our entire 3 days). TOT was less than a 10 minute wait. Goofy's Sky School was maybe 10 minutes, jellyfish was a walk-on, as were the swings. We then headed down to use our FP's for Soarin' and were surprised to find the wait was STILL about 20 minutes, even with the FP's. We then headed back over to Disneyland to do a repeat of POTC and BTMRR (5 and 15 minute waits, respectively) and to ride Star Tours. It was our first time on it since it reopened....we waited 35 minutes to ride it without FP's. It was OK...I found that it makes me FAR more motion sick than the previous version, so I won't be riding it again.
FOOD:
I had decided before leaving for this trip that I wanted to try new food items in the parks (we generally bring in healthy food for one meal, and then eat one meal at Taste Pilot's Grill (my kids feel nostalgic about TPG so they always end up wanting to go there...). This time we brought only water and healthy snacks into the park, but were determined to try several of the things that people here at DIS tend to rave about. On our 1st day, the new things we tried were Bengal BBQ and the corn dogs at DCA. Also, a snack from Pooh Corner (my 13 year old son cracked up anytime anybody said that name, lol...).
Bengal BBQ: We tried one of everything. We're a group of 5, so we just shared it all. I was SOOOOOOO entirely unimpressed! The sauce on the chicken tastes like ketchup, the beef on the skewer was so tough we couldn't get it all off the stick, and the Tiger Tails? $4 for a bland dinner roll?!?! The bacon-wrapped asparagus was better than the rest, but still nothing great. What a letdown.
DCA corn dogs: We bought a couple of these and shared them. All of the guys in our group loved them. I thought they were tasty, but I'm not much of a corndog lover to begin with.
Snack from Pooh Corner: I try not to pump my kids full of junk food and sugar in the parks, so I've never just pointed to the glass case and said, "Pick whatever you want" before. I did that this time....and all they ended up wanting were lollipops, lol. To be honest, nothing appealed to me a great deal either, so I just bought a bag of carmel-chocolate popcorn. Which was REALLY yummy.
We had also gotten an ice cream snack at DCA...between us we had the Mickey bars, Mickey ice cream sandwich, frozen lemonade, and I got a frozen banana (which was really good).
Earlier in the day, we had gone to the Hungry Bear because we generally like the cheeseburgers there. It was our first time trying the sweet-potato fries that are now served there....gross! They were freezing cold and they just tasted terrible. Nobody in our group would eat them.
Our burgers were cold, as well.So by the end of our 1st day, we were sure we'd never go to either the Hungry Bear, or Bengal BBQ ever again.
SHOWS:
We decided to finally make time to see Aladdin. I was really glad we did! Even my DS13, who was less than enthusiastic about being forced to go in and see it, ended up enjoying it when all was said and done.
Fireworks were canceled, so that was a bummer. But we'd arrived at our hotel the night before just in time to watch them from the parking lot, so we didn't end up feeling like we'd missed out too much.
MISCELLANEOUS:
It was my birthday, and the girl at the ticket booth gave me an "It's My Birthday" button when I picked up our AP's that morning. It was really fun to have tons of people wishing me Happy Birthday while I walked through the parks. 2 CM's even stopped what they were doing to SING to me, lol! It was fun.
I don't know *what* the deal was on this trip, but we felt like there were so many extraordinarily annoying people in the parks this time. Ugh!! Parents who absolutely would NOT watch their kids or keep their kids from disturbing other people in line, people who were so rude with flash photography and obnoxious behavior throughout rides like POTC, etc. So while 99% of the CM's that we encountered in the parks were fantastic....there were moments when it was a bummer to be sharing our Disney-time with the seemingly huge amount of extremely inconsiderate guests who were there.
I'll post Day 2 a bit later, along with some pics I took.....if I can figure out how to get them from my cell phone to my laptop???
