gatorfreud
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2008
- Messages
- 1,556
Hi all! We just got back after being in the parks Dec 21-25. I was a little worried after a bunch of negative reports that we would not have fun (we are super Disney vets) but we had a great time! I didn't take careful notes, but I will offer a couple of observations… I think if I had big expectations of the trip and it was a once in a lifetime thing, I may have been more annoyed…. But we stretched out to 5 day tickets and had low expectations going in.
The first morning we rope dropped DCA- went to Harbor side and got there around 6:45am and were not quite back to the street, by 7am, it was about back to the street. Security was surprisingly fast - tons of lanes which I was not expecting. We were at the gates, about 15 people back by like 7:15am. We were in and at the rope by 7:35am. We had planned Toy Story first bc we wanted to ride a lot in a row - they said Webslingers was down while we waited, then annoyingly when we got all the way back to Toy Story found out it was down too, as was Incredicoaster. It was seriously annoying, we were far enough up we could have gone to Racers first thing. We did not check the app while we waited at the rope, maybe that would have shown TSM down… but anyway, it was a bit annoying, we ended up riding Goofy, Zephyr and Jellyfish at rope drop which is just stupid. We got Genie + and had booked Guardians for like 9:30… we headed over there, but just as we were getting in line for LL, TSM came back up so we hustled over there to get a ride in before the lines - best of the day score!, which is all my kids really wanted hahaha. We bought the Webslingers ILL and did that - I really liked this ride and got the high score of the family which was shocking and awesome! Then back to Guardians. Then we had Storytellers breakfast for my 17yo’s bday.
This turned out to be the only day we rope dropped… we went back to hotel for a break. Then back to DCA and used Genie + on TSM, saw the quick mini-parade. Then we headed to DL, can;t remember but we did some on Genie +, Splash, Smugglers, saw Galaxy’s Edge for first time. We may have also done HM, I can;t really remember. I don’t think we used Genie + to it’s fullest - really don’t think we maxed it out any of the days we got it (⅗ days). We stayed late and lines weren’t bad.
The other days are more of a blur, but we went in late on 12/22 for my bday Blue Bayou lunch. Got Genie + this day too I think. My husband discovered Smugglers Run single rider this day which was a walk on (and was every other time he tried it, and often 2 of them did and got to go together). We rode Casey Jr. and waited for Snow White about 20-30 min… Went back to hotel for a break, then back into DCA, probably used Genie on TSM, Guardians, Soarin’, Incredicoaster I’m guessing… I think this was the night that we went on Racers near closing and only waited like 15 minutes… the last hour in DCA was good pretty much every day - not as good when not raining though (more on that later). I think we called it a night after that and did not go to DL….
On the 23rd we went in really late, husband and I went to GE and had ronto wrap which was good! It was pretty rainy this whole day. He did SR smugglers and we had a 3pm Oga’s (I finally got it using MouseWatchers after missing it many many times)... we had a table so we got the charcuterie plate and he had Fuzzy Tauntaun which was an experience! I don’t want to spoil the surprise… Then we went to Splitsville to watch some football and easily got a table outside walk up. We decided to stay and bowl, then headed back into DCA around… 7 or 8? It was really really wet out, we hit TSM a couple times and then I think they hit guardians and maybe incredicoaster? I can’t remember but lines were really short because of the rain. We were leaving near 10 and Webslingers was like 10 minutes so we rode that again! Headed back to DL and pretty much just rode everything because it was so wet, it was pretty dead. We did Jungle, Pirates, HM, Space, probably Smugglers SR hahaha, and then like everything in Fantasyland, even Peter.
On the 24th we decided we better to Rise because it was already Day 4! It said 75 minutes, but it was more like 90. We just listened to some podcasts, it wasn’t so bad. The ride broke down after pre-show but before boarding the ride… so we got a pass to come back later. We took the monorail over to Earl of Sandwich and ate and looked at some shops, then Rise was back up so we went back to ride. I won’t spoil anything for anyone who has not ridden but what an experience!! We had dinner at Naples in DTD then we wandered around in DCA, rode TSM (best of day score!)… I think we had an ILL for Rise with our son, so we went back and did that again…. Don’t remember what else.
Christmas day we had lunch at Carthay outdoor, then we had bought ILL for Rise for all 4 of us this time, met Elsa, got some ice cream, and it started to rain again. Kids went back, husband and I stayed and did LL for Autopia (we got genie + this day, probably didn;t need it) - then took the train out to go back and dry off and prep better for rain. We hung out in DCA - used Genie + on a lot of stuff - we had 4 actually because we had expected both kids to stay in this day - so i booked 2’s for husband and son to ride a bunch and I walked around and drank beer hahahah. My son got 367,000 on TSM assisted by me, I think our highest family score yet! Still can’t break 400K…. Went back to DL and did some Genie + (Space, Matterhorn) and walked on a bunch of stuff bc it was raining!
I guess those aren;t super helpful details, we did some mix of Genie and ILL - rain and late nights were the best… we could have done without any extra paid stuff because we could have rope dropped some of the big ones. If I had limited time though I would ride early then just wait in line in early afternoon for Rise, Web, etc… I would not do those at rope drop because they tended to be down and it would eat away your whole god morning. I hate waiting in lines, but you could do it. Early morning and late nights is the way to go if your family can do it (we couldn’t have done the nights when the kids were small).
Overall it was a great trip, super fun, magical, the lights are awesome…. The food situation was fine, I couldn’t figure out mobile order half the time, but we didn’t have trouble getting food (less drink carts out than usual I think). However…. We woke up on the morning of 26th and my son and husband were sick, we had home covid tests with us, and guess what, positive - we were going to go to DTD that day, but we just drove home instead obviously. We ate mostly outdoors (only inside twice I think), religiously wore masks indoors (though not everyone did - lots of people think hanging their nose out is acceptable) and often times we wore them outdoors… we have been extremely careful the whole pandemic and not surprised though that we got it being around so many people, and Omicron is sooooo contagious. Luckily, we are all vaxxed and boosted so it’s mild - but just be aware I am sure cases there are exploding.
Oh forgot to add we stayed at Worldmark on Katella and we would often take the toy story lot parking bus back to the hotel, saved a little time and walking. We took it in once and wasn;t worth it, took longer and was annoying. We either walked in (about 20 min) or took an uber a couple times!
The first morning we rope dropped DCA- went to Harbor side and got there around 6:45am and were not quite back to the street, by 7am, it was about back to the street. Security was surprisingly fast - tons of lanes which I was not expecting. We were at the gates, about 15 people back by like 7:15am. We were in and at the rope by 7:35am. We had planned Toy Story first bc we wanted to ride a lot in a row - they said Webslingers was down while we waited, then annoyingly when we got all the way back to Toy Story found out it was down too, as was Incredicoaster. It was seriously annoying, we were far enough up we could have gone to Racers first thing. We did not check the app while we waited at the rope, maybe that would have shown TSM down… but anyway, it was a bit annoying, we ended up riding Goofy, Zephyr and Jellyfish at rope drop which is just stupid. We got Genie + and had booked Guardians for like 9:30… we headed over there, but just as we were getting in line for LL, TSM came back up so we hustled over there to get a ride in before the lines - best of the day score!, which is all my kids really wanted hahaha. We bought the Webslingers ILL and did that - I really liked this ride and got the high score of the family which was shocking and awesome! Then back to Guardians. Then we had Storytellers breakfast for my 17yo’s bday.
This turned out to be the only day we rope dropped… we went back to hotel for a break. Then back to DCA and used Genie + on TSM, saw the quick mini-parade. Then we headed to DL, can;t remember but we did some on Genie +, Splash, Smugglers, saw Galaxy’s Edge for first time. We may have also done HM, I can;t really remember. I don’t think we used Genie + to it’s fullest - really don’t think we maxed it out any of the days we got it (⅗ days). We stayed late and lines weren’t bad.
The other days are more of a blur, but we went in late on 12/22 for my bday Blue Bayou lunch. Got Genie + this day too I think. My husband discovered Smugglers Run single rider this day which was a walk on (and was every other time he tried it, and often 2 of them did and got to go together). We rode Casey Jr. and waited for Snow White about 20-30 min… Went back to hotel for a break, then back into DCA, probably used Genie on TSM, Guardians, Soarin’, Incredicoaster I’m guessing… I think this was the night that we went on Racers near closing and only waited like 15 minutes… the last hour in DCA was good pretty much every day - not as good when not raining though (more on that later). I think we called it a night after that and did not go to DL….
On the 23rd we went in really late, husband and I went to GE and had ronto wrap which was good! It was pretty rainy this whole day. He did SR smugglers and we had a 3pm Oga’s (I finally got it using MouseWatchers after missing it many many times)... we had a table so we got the charcuterie plate and he had Fuzzy Tauntaun which was an experience! I don’t want to spoil the surprise… Then we went to Splitsville to watch some football and easily got a table outside walk up. We decided to stay and bowl, then headed back into DCA around… 7 or 8? It was really really wet out, we hit TSM a couple times and then I think they hit guardians and maybe incredicoaster? I can’t remember but lines were really short because of the rain. We were leaving near 10 and Webslingers was like 10 minutes so we rode that again! Headed back to DL and pretty much just rode everything because it was so wet, it was pretty dead. We did Jungle, Pirates, HM, Space, probably Smugglers SR hahaha, and then like everything in Fantasyland, even Peter.
On the 24th we decided we better to Rise because it was already Day 4! It said 75 minutes, but it was more like 90. We just listened to some podcasts, it wasn’t so bad. The ride broke down after pre-show but before boarding the ride… so we got a pass to come back later. We took the monorail over to Earl of Sandwich and ate and looked at some shops, then Rise was back up so we went back to ride. I won’t spoil anything for anyone who has not ridden but what an experience!! We had dinner at Naples in DTD then we wandered around in DCA, rode TSM (best of day score!)… I think we had an ILL for Rise with our son, so we went back and did that again…. Don’t remember what else.
Christmas day we had lunch at Carthay outdoor, then we had bought ILL for Rise for all 4 of us this time, met Elsa, got some ice cream, and it started to rain again. Kids went back, husband and I stayed and did LL for Autopia (we got genie + this day, probably didn;t need it) - then took the train out to go back and dry off and prep better for rain. We hung out in DCA - used Genie + on a lot of stuff - we had 4 actually because we had expected both kids to stay in this day - so i booked 2’s for husband and son to ride a bunch and I walked around and drank beer hahahah. My son got 367,000 on TSM assisted by me, I think our highest family score yet! Still can’t break 400K…. Went back to DL and did some Genie + (Space, Matterhorn) and walked on a bunch of stuff bc it was raining!
I guess those aren;t super helpful details, we did some mix of Genie and ILL - rain and late nights were the best… we could have done without any extra paid stuff because we could have rope dropped some of the big ones. If I had limited time though I would ride early then just wait in line in early afternoon for Rise, Web, etc… I would not do those at rope drop because they tended to be down and it would eat away your whole god morning. I hate waiting in lines, but you could do it. Early morning and late nights is the way to go if your family can do it (we couldn’t have done the nights when the kids were small).
Overall it was a great trip, super fun, magical, the lights are awesome…. The food situation was fine, I couldn’t figure out mobile order half the time, but we didn’t have trouble getting food (less drink carts out than usual I think). However…. We woke up on the morning of 26th and my son and husband were sick, we had home covid tests with us, and guess what, positive - we were going to go to DTD that day, but we just drove home instead obviously. We ate mostly outdoors (only inside twice I think), religiously wore masks indoors (though not everyone did - lots of people think hanging their nose out is acceptable) and often times we wore them outdoors… we have been extremely careful the whole pandemic and not surprised though that we got it being around so many people, and Omicron is sooooo contagious. Luckily, we are all vaxxed and boosted so it’s mild - but just be aware I am sure cases there are exploding.
Oh forgot to add we stayed at Worldmark on Katella and we would often take the toy story lot parking bus back to the hotel, saved a little time and walking. We took it in once and wasn;t worth it, took longer and was annoying. We either walked in (about 20 min) or took an uber a couple times!
❤ (too soon for jokes?)
