mom25kiddos
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Messages
- 315
We had four days at the park with genie +, park hoppers, and we used ILL. Family of 7, kids ranged from 9-18. We do a lot of things 'wrong' so wanted to share our experiences. The things we do that are generally ill advised that we do include:
-we don't rope drop-not even close
-we don't stay close by (we have five kids and need room, space and more room)
-we don't pre-plan our rides for the day (other than general ideas)
-we don't usually have ADRs (but we did this time for Oga's)
-we were there for return of parade and WOC...and skipped them both
-also...dare I say it...we didn't get the hype over the In and Out Burger lol!! We are from Canada so wanted to try it out after a park day-was fine but we expected fireworks lol.
How it worked:
-without rope drop, the genie + and ILL were pretty useful (might even say essential), but we did all of the rides we wanted, some several times, and had few waits (we did webslingers once at 40 minute wait which was the longest).
-our kids were past the fantasyland rides, so not rope dropping those was not a big deal, we still did Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and Is a small world, but didn't do peter pan, snow white or winnie the pooh. Kids just weren't interested.
-Oga's was neat to see, but was a one and done for me-the menu is so limited (I mean, 9 am reservation and it is the same menu), but kids loved seeing it so worth it for that. I had some sort of strange cold brew coffee drink, as did my husband and oldest, 3 kids had basically an expensive powerade, and one kid had water
-our boys built droids, and my oldest son built a light saber-they loved this. It is super spendy but was the one thing they wanted to do. I suspect my oldest will never use the light saber but he has no regrets
-we could have done 3 days, even without rope drop, but the bonus day was good for redoing some favorites, hitting up the food and wine festival a bit, and doing some souvenir shopping
-we stayed at Newport Beach-it was awesome and the drive was not a big deal to us-although $30 a day parking is steep
-food-ADRs for 7 is challenging, especially when we never plan far enough in advance-so we did mostly counter service, off-site and the food and wine booths. Mobile ordering was awesome and super easy. We used it every day. We aim for sharables, and hit up lots of snacks-pretzels, ice-cream, churros, etc. We did Hungry Bear, Pym's Test Kitchen, Flo's, Pizza Planet, Lucky Dragon, and likely some others I am forgetting. Food was decent and while expensive, wasn't out of the norm for event/theme park pricing.
-the mob of people gathering for the first electric parade (our last day) was intense-and we didn't want to hold a spot for hours to see it. I know for some it was incredibly magical (a lady in the bathroom was saying she expected to cry!), but just wasn't important to us. Not to mention the line for the light up popcorn buckets!
-our kids weren't into characters for the first time-I never really realized how much time we spent waiting in lines to see characters! That freed up a lot of time for us, the kids were happy to see them out and wave, but didn't want to wait around.
Highlights
-I loved ROTR, and I am not a huge Star Wars fan (my boys are thought so seeing it with them was awesome)
-We were able to do Smuggler's Run several times, once with Genie+, but after that we never found the line too prohibitive (often 20 minutes or so)
-We had a couple of times where a ride broke down when we had a Genie+ and it always worked in our favor (for example Indiana Jones broke down-we used the Genie + for splash mountain with a 60 minute wait) and Indiana opened as we walked by it and it was walk on!)
-Guardians of the Galaxy was a huge favorite, we did it many times, also kids loved Incredicoaster and rode it five times
-Our first trip ever with five kids without a stroller! Doesn't sound like a big deal, but it was huge. Also the kids being that little bit older made it so much easier (wasn't worried about someone running off etc.). We used a locker each day to store hoodies and long pants and it worked great.
-Our kids loved Avenger Campus (Avenger shows were great, but quite short other than Dr. Strange) and Galaxy's Edge
My husband is still not over that I forgot to mention Pirates was under refurbishment, but otherwise was a fantastic week and so great to travel again. Thanks to all for the advice along the way and sharing your experiences so we could learn from them!
-we don't rope drop-not even close
-we don't stay close by (we have five kids and need room, space and more room)
-we don't pre-plan our rides for the day (other than general ideas)
-we don't usually have ADRs (but we did this time for Oga's)
-we were there for return of parade and WOC...and skipped them both
-also...dare I say it...we didn't get the hype over the In and Out Burger lol!! We are from Canada so wanted to try it out after a park day-was fine but we expected fireworks lol.
How it worked:
-without rope drop, the genie + and ILL were pretty useful (might even say essential), but we did all of the rides we wanted, some several times, and had few waits (we did webslingers once at 40 minute wait which was the longest).
-our kids were past the fantasyland rides, so not rope dropping those was not a big deal, we still did Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and Is a small world, but didn't do peter pan, snow white or winnie the pooh. Kids just weren't interested.
-Oga's was neat to see, but was a one and done for me-the menu is so limited (I mean, 9 am reservation and it is the same menu), but kids loved seeing it so worth it for that. I had some sort of strange cold brew coffee drink, as did my husband and oldest, 3 kids had basically an expensive powerade, and one kid had water
-our boys built droids, and my oldest son built a light saber-they loved this. It is super spendy but was the one thing they wanted to do. I suspect my oldest will never use the light saber but he has no regrets
-we could have done 3 days, even without rope drop, but the bonus day was good for redoing some favorites, hitting up the food and wine festival a bit, and doing some souvenir shopping
-we stayed at Newport Beach-it was awesome and the drive was not a big deal to us-although $30 a day parking is steep
-food-ADRs for 7 is challenging, especially when we never plan far enough in advance-so we did mostly counter service, off-site and the food and wine booths. Mobile ordering was awesome and super easy. We used it every day. We aim for sharables, and hit up lots of snacks-pretzels, ice-cream, churros, etc. We did Hungry Bear, Pym's Test Kitchen, Flo's, Pizza Planet, Lucky Dragon, and likely some others I am forgetting. Food was decent and while expensive, wasn't out of the norm for event/theme park pricing.
-the mob of people gathering for the first electric parade (our last day) was intense-and we didn't want to hold a spot for hours to see it. I know for some it was incredibly magical (a lady in the bathroom was saying she expected to cry!), but just wasn't important to us. Not to mention the line for the light up popcorn buckets!
-our kids weren't into characters for the first time-I never really realized how much time we spent waiting in lines to see characters! That freed up a lot of time for us, the kids were happy to see them out and wave, but didn't want to wait around.
Highlights
-I loved ROTR, and I am not a huge Star Wars fan (my boys are thought so seeing it with them was awesome)
-We were able to do Smuggler's Run several times, once with Genie+, but after that we never found the line too prohibitive (often 20 minutes or so)
-We had a couple of times where a ride broke down when we had a Genie+ and it always worked in our favor (for example Indiana Jones broke down-we used the Genie + for splash mountain with a 60 minute wait) and Indiana opened as we walked by it and it was walk on!)
-Guardians of the Galaxy was a huge favorite, we did it many times, also kids loved Incredicoaster and rode it five times
-Our first trip ever with five kids without a stroller! Doesn't sound like a big deal, but it was huge. Also the kids being that little bit older made it so much easier (wasn't worried about someone running off etc.). We used a locker each day to store hoodies and long pants and it worked great.
-Our kids loved Avenger Campus (Avenger shows were great, but quite short other than Dr. Strange) and Galaxy's Edge
My husband is still not over that I forgot to mention Pirates was under refurbishment, but otherwise was a fantastic week and so great to travel again. Thanks to all for the advice along the way and sharing your experiences so we could learn from them!
but I’m not a huge fan of their burgers, either.
