Just back from 7 night stay, including 4 days in Disneyland

[nursejackie]

We had a 4 day tickets with maxpass (non park hopper), and spent 2 days in each park. It's been 37 years so suffice to say it was like our first time again. As WDW regulars it was weird to enter a Disney park and not know our way around!

Our favourite park was without a doubt California Adventure, with Cars Land being our favourite area. Radiator Springs racers is much more enjoyable than Test Track, the pit stops, and final race making it quite an experience, we rode it 4 times over 2 days. We are avid TOT fans so Mission Breakout was a must-do, and it didn't disappoint. I know there's been some debate on the change of theming but why have two of the same? The differences in the two parks (WDW and DLR/DCA) gives us a reason to visit both again.

The most noticable difference from WDW was the abundance of characters just wandering around the parks without handlers or photographers. You can just stop them for chat and a photo, and they are totally in character. We had chance experiences with Loki, Dr Strange, Alice, Jack Sparrow, Hook and many more. We have never seen this at WDW during our visits.

Finally our experiences with MAXPASS. We bought them with our tickets not really knowing how they were going to work for us, as we normally stay on site on WDW so have all our plans sorted 90 days in advance. I had done my research and was set to go, our only obstable was the Wifi. As Brits we didn't have our own data so relied on their sketchy Wifi to make bookings. Needless to say I spent time running between Wifi hotspots trying to get online, but we managed, and got fastpasses for everything we wanted. I particularly liked the fact you can have more than one booked at once, so we really did manage to get our money's worth.

We will defintely be back.

 

[Little E]

@nursejackie Thank you for your info...we are headed to DL for the first time in August, and the info on rides, characters and MaxPass is really helpful! If you don't mind me asking...where did you stay?

 

[Malcon10t]

I'm glad you enjoyed!!

 

[HydroGuy]

Thanks for posting and glad you had an enjoyable trip!

 

[nursejackie]

@nursejackie Thank you for your info...we are headed to DL for the first time in August, and the info on rides, characters and MaxPass is really helpful! If you don't mind me asking...where did you stay?

We stayed at Marriot Suites Anaheim, which is in Garden Grove. We had a car so drove to the parks every day but there is a shuttle service (about $6 return I think). If you are driving the toy story lot was very efficient but on our 8am Magic Morning it didn't open until 8am so we had to use Mickey and Friends, and from arriving at the lot to getting to the park gates took 40 minutes!

 

[wendow]

We stayed at Marriot Suites Anaheim, which is in Garden Grove. We had a car so drove to the parks every day but there is a shuttle service (about $6 return I think). If you are driving the toy story lot was very efficient but on our 8am Magic Morning it didn't open until 8am so we had to use Mickey and Friends, and from arriving at the lot to getting to the park gates took 40 minutes!

Thank you for your report. So interesting for us other WDW peeps to read your experience...we are about to be at DLR for our first trip...Question about the above bolded...WHY did it take so long??

 

[dina444444]

Thank you for your report. So interesting for us other WDW peeps to read your experience...we are about to be at DLR for our first trip...Question about the above bolded...WHY did it take so long??

It can take that long if there is a backup of cars waiting to get into the structure. This was what it looked like yesterday morning at 8:30am for a 9am opening pulling into the parking garage, it took over 15 minutes just to get to the toll booth CM from that point. I was also all the way to the left pulling in and the lines to the right were backed up at least 10/15 cars more than where I was. There was only one CM in each toll booth (can have up to 2) so a single cm was having to alternate car lines.

 

[nursejackie]

Thank you for your report. So interesting for us other WDW peeps to read your experience...we are about to be at DLR for our first trip...Question about the above bolded...WHY did it take so long??

As soon as we drove to the multi-story car park we joined a long queue. It took 16 minutes to pay as it's the usual one-person-serving-two-lanes situation they have at Disney. Then we had to follow the line to our directed parking space (6th floor), then go down the escalators, walk to security, queue for security, wait 8 minutes for a tram (empty tram sat there but didn't come round to the waiting crowd), then tram journey then finally a few minutes walk to line to get inside park. We joined the queue at 7.34am and entered the park at 8.15am which ate into our magic morning hour. Should have done my research first.

 

[nursejackie]

It can take that long if there is a backup of cars waiting to get into the structure. This was what it looked like yesterday morning at 8:30am for a 9am opening pulling into the parking garage, it took over 15 minutes just to get to the toll booth CM from that point. There was only one CM in each toll booth (can have up to 2) so a single cm was having to alternate car lines.

It was yesterday we went, what are the chances? We made a rookie mistake but we know for next time, to arrive earlier.

 

[dina444444]

It was yesterday we went, what are the chances? We made a rookie mistake but we know for next time, to arrive earlier.

I knew when I got there I wasn't making rope drop. I didn't leave my house early enough. I'm a 30 minute drive away and I know if I want to make rope drop I have to arrive at the structure at least 45 minutes before park opening.

 

[dina444444]

We stayed at Marriot Suites Anaheim, which is in Garden Grove. We had a car so drove to the parks every day but there is a shuttle service (about $6 return I think). If you are driving the toy story lot was very efficient but on our 8am Magic Morning it didn't open until 8am so we had to use Mickey and Friends, and from arriving at the lot to getting to the park gates took 40 minutes!

The Toy Story lot is more efficient for actual parking but if your arriving after park opening security takes a lot longer on harbor compared to the structure.

 

[smartlabelprint]

It’s Better to stay at a hotel in harbor blvd.

 

[DizneyMommy]

It can take that long if there is a backup of cars waiting to get into the structure. This was what it looked like yesterday morning at 8:30am for a 9am opening pulling into the parking garage, it took over 15 minutes just to get to the toll booth CM from that point. I was also all the way to the left pulling in and the lines to the right were backed up at least 10/15 cars more than where I was. There was only one CM in each toll booth (can have up to 2) so a single cm was having to alternate car lines.

I think I’ve waited in a line like this once ever. It’s not typical if you arrive early enough. The garage opens one hour prior to opening, 30 minutes prior to MM. We always get there at least an hour before opening, get coffee and get inside for rope drop. It never takes 40 minutes. Even after school, mid-afternoon it doesn’t look like that. This is pretty much the hour around opening on a weekend or holiday and for maybe an hour after that, then it dies down substantially. We rarely wait behind more than 5-10 cars and it moves fast.