golfdad
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2009
- Messages
- 61
I am happy to say that in the past 4 months, my family and I have done most everything Disney has to offer. We went to Disneyland (first trip) in the middle of November and just got back from a wonderful land/sea vacation to the World and sailed on the Magic (first time cruising). Here are my impressions.
Disneyland
We stayed off property at the Howard Johnson's just down the street from the parks. To be honest, it was ok. I mean, for the price we got and being there just to sleep it was just a place to sleep for us. Our room was clean but you can hear the traffic all night from the highway behind the hotel. Disneyland was great. So much different than WDW. I loved how you didn't have to walk so far to the next attraction. A lot of attractions were the same as WDW but it was nice to see a few had slight changes like Haunted Mansion. I was never into Nightmare before Christmas but it was a nice twist on what I am used to. Cars Land was incredible!! It truly felt like you were in the movie. I didn't want to leave that area of California Adventure. Our last night I just sat on one of the benches and took it all in. We got to meet Lightning, Mater, Red and even did the DJ dance party which my son enjoyed. Getting fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers was a pain. But, the information on here helped me be one of the first ones to get them for the day. We also stood in line without fastpasses and our wait was 80 minutes! This was on a Tuesday, 10 days before Thanksgiving. That is one thing that surprised me so much was how many kids were there even on school days a week before Thanksgiving. Our wait times for a lot of rides were 30-45 minutes. It blew my mind how many people were there. Much more crowded than WDW. We also liked that it seems so many rides out in DL catered to children. Our 4 year old rode most rides except Indiana Jones and the Matterhorn. The castle was lit up for Christmas at night and it made the trip that much more special. Downtown Disney district was also nice. We liked how it was laid out length wise and everything is on one side or another. Whereas in WDW, there are multiple paths you can take and you may miss a store or 2. All in all, we loved it for our first time and hope to be back in a few years.
Walt Disney World
I'm not gonna go too much into WDW since we've been there a handful of times the past 7 years. This trip was nice because our son is tall enough he got to ride Tower of Terror, Big Thunder Railroad and Star Wars. He's such a huge Star Wars fan right now we rode that a few times. He loved Tower of Terror and Big Thunder and that made my wife and I enjoy it even more. Now, Fastpass Plus, I can't believe how many complaints and threads I have seen involving this. We had NO issues whatsoever. We booked our Land/Sea trip 2 weeks before going so our Magic bands weren't even available to mail to us. We had to pick them up at our resort which I was ok with. We simply went online, booked times of the rides we wanted, and it worked great! The bands weren't uncomfortable and we obviously kept them for our shadow box we make for each of our Disney trips. We stayed at Pop Century. This was our first value resort (we mainly stay Moderate or even Deluxe). Again, just like the Howard Johnson's, it served its purpose. We were only there to sleep since we were only doing 3 nights at WDW (didn't do Epcot) and we were going from 9am to 10pm every night. The resort was nice, our room was in the 1980's wing. The resort was well kept and I would stay there again. We enjoyed being back even though we were just there 3 years ago and were just at DL a few months back that has a lot of the same rides. Fantasyland was a really nice addition. Our son loved the Goofy Barnstormer roller coaster. I think he rode it 5 times that day we were at Magic Kingdom. The crowds were so much more manageable at WDW than DL. I think we waited no longer than 20 minutes for anything we went on. Except Aerosmith's roller coaster. We only did that one time just because we did the single rider line. That wait was about 60 minutes as well as Toy Story Mania, we had fast passes for it. Other than that, the wait times were great. I feel we did every ride at least twice in the Magic Kingdom.
Disney Cruise on the Magic
This was my families first time cruising..ever. Never been on a cruise ship before. We are so glad we picked the DCL. The ship was so intimidating seeing it for the first time. We only did a 3 night and when we were done, we wish we would have done the 4 or 5 night. The time went way too fast. We spent the first night looking around at everything on the ship. My son loved the Oceaneers Kids Club. He was there every night for a few hours before dinner and he never wanted to leave. This was so nice because it gave my wife and I time to go sit at a bar, or on the deck and just watch the ship sail through the ocean. The ship was always well kept and the food and service was top notch! Our assistant waiter, Joe from Thailand was one of the best people we have ever met. He was always making my son laugh and doing magic tricks with him. I know my son was sad when he had to say goodbye to him. Every night before dinner, he would ask us if we were going to see his friend for dinner. We had the second seating at 8:15pm for dinner and we actually enjoyed it. With us usually eating dinner around 5:30-6pm at home, this worried us but once we were on the ship, we were always occupied with doing some activity that the time flew by for us. Our favorite place was Lumierre's. The food just seemed better there but the atmosphere of Animator's Palate was really great! Loved seeing the drawings come to life and then going from black and white to color. Going to Nassau, we did the dolphin encounter at Blue Island Lagoon. It was great seeing my son get kissed on the cheek by our dolphin, Salvador. We would feed him, pet him, give him a hug. The people were great there. Going to Castaway Cay was just like in all the pictures you see. The ship just parked in the distance and the white beach. I did not want to leave that day. This was our last day there so we knew our trip was coming to an end but being at Castaway Cay was so nice. We are definitely hooked on cruising now. It was pretty relaxing. The only time we saw a ton of people was at dinner or during the deck parties. The pirate party they had the second night was great with everyone dressed up as pirates and capping it off with a fireworks show. We had the 4th room from the front and really never felt the boat sway. This was a relief because this was the reason my wife was so hesitant to book a cruise before. She never got sick or felt a thing. We will definitely be booking another Disney cruise, probably in a couple of years.
Sorry this was so long, I feel lucky that I got to spend so much time with my family going to the places that make us feel like kids again. And, having my 4 year old son there with us to enjoy it made it well worth it. I don't know if we will ever do these trips this close again, but I do know we will probably give WDW a break for a few years and do the cruising.
Disneyland
We stayed off property at the Howard Johnson's just down the street from the parks. To be honest, it was ok. I mean, for the price we got and being there just to sleep it was just a place to sleep for us. Our room was clean but you can hear the traffic all night from the highway behind the hotel. Disneyland was great. So much different than WDW. I loved how you didn't have to walk so far to the next attraction. A lot of attractions were the same as WDW but it was nice to see a few had slight changes like Haunted Mansion. I was never into Nightmare before Christmas but it was a nice twist on what I am used to. Cars Land was incredible!! It truly felt like you were in the movie. I didn't want to leave that area of California Adventure. Our last night I just sat on one of the benches and took it all in. We got to meet Lightning, Mater, Red and even did the DJ dance party which my son enjoyed. Getting fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers was a pain. But, the information on here helped me be one of the first ones to get them for the day. We also stood in line without fastpasses and our wait was 80 minutes! This was on a Tuesday, 10 days before Thanksgiving. That is one thing that surprised me so much was how many kids were there even on school days a week before Thanksgiving. Our wait times for a lot of rides were 30-45 minutes. It blew my mind how many people were there. Much more crowded than WDW. We also liked that it seems so many rides out in DL catered to children. Our 4 year old rode most rides except Indiana Jones and the Matterhorn. The castle was lit up for Christmas at night and it made the trip that much more special. Downtown Disney district was also nice. We liked how it was laid out length wise and everything is on one side or another. Whereas in WDW, there are multiple paths you can take and you may miss a store or 2. All in all, we loved it for our first time and hope to be back in a few years.
Walt Disney World
I'm not gonna go too much into WDW since we've been there a handful of times the past 7 years. This trip was nice because our son is tall enough he got to ride Tower of Terror, Big Thunder Railroad and Star Wars. He's such a huge Star Wars fan right now we rode that a few times. He loved Tower of Terror and Big Thunder and that made my wife and I enjoy it even more. Now, Fastpass Plus, I can't believe how many complaints and threads I have seen involving this. We had NO issues whatsoever. We booked our Land/Sea trip 2 weeks before going so our Magic bands weren't even available to mail to us. We had to pick them up at our resort which I was ok with. We simply went online, booked times of the rides we wanted, and it worked great! The bands weren't uncomfortable and we obviously kept them for our shadow box we make for each of our Disney trips. We stayed at Pop Century. This was our first value resort (we mainly stay Moderate or even Deluxe). Again, just like the Howard Johnson's, it served its purpose. We were only there to sleep since we were only doing 3 nights at WDW (didn't do Epcot) and we were going from 9am to 10pm every night. The resort was nice, our room was in the 1980's wing. The resort was well kept and I would stay there again. We enjoyed being back even though we were just there 3 years ago and were just at DL a few months back that has a lot of the same rides. Fantasyland was a really nice addition. Our son loved the Goofy Barnstormer roller coaster. I think he rode it 5 times that day we were at Magic Kingdom. The crowds were so much more manageable at WDW than DL. I think we waited no longer than 20 minutes for anything we went on. Except Aerosmith's roller coaster. We only did that one time just because we did the single rider line. That wait was about 60 minutes as well as Toy Story Mania, we had fast passes for it. Other than that, the wait times were great. I feel we did every ride at least twice in the Magic Kingdom.
Disney Cruise on the Magic
This was my families first time cruising..ever. Never been on a cruise ship before. We are so glad we picked the DCL. The ship was so intimidating seeing it for the first time. We only did a 3 night and when we were done, we wish we would have done the 4 or 5 night. The time went way too fast. We spent the first night looking around at everything on the ship. My son loved the Oceaneers Kids Club. He was there every night for a few hours before dinner and he never wanted to leave. This was so nice because it gave my wife and I time to go sit at a bar, or on the deck and just watch the ship sail through the ocean. The ship was always well kept and the food and service was top notch! Our assistant waiter, Joe from Thailand was one of the best people we have ever met. He was always making my son laugh and doing magic tricks with him. I know my son was sad when he had to say goodbye to him. Every night before dinner, he would ask us if we were going to see his friend for dinner. We had the second seating at 8:15pm for dinner and we actually enjoyed it. With us usually eating dinner around 5:30-6pm at home, this worried us but once we were on the ship, we were always occupied with doing some activity that the time flew by for us. Our favorite place was Lumierre's. The food just seemed better there but the atmosphere of Animator's Palate was really great! Loved seeing the drawings come to life and then going from black and white to color. Going to Nassau, we did the dolphin encounter at Blue Island Lagoon. It was great seeing my son get kissed on the cheek by our dolphin, Salvador. We would feed him, pet him, give him a hug. The people were great there. Going to Castaway Cay was just like in all the pictures you see. The ship just parked in the distance and the white beach. I did not want to leave that day. This was our last day there so we knew our trip was coming to an end but being at Castaway Cay was so nice. We are definitely hooked on cruising now. It was pretty relaxing. The only time we saw a ton of people was at dinner or during the deck parties. The pirate party they had the second night was great with everyone dressed up as pirates and capping it off with a fireworks show. We had the 4th room from the front and really never felt the boat sway. This was a relief because this was the reason my wife was so hesitant to book a cruise before. She never got sick or felt a thing. We will definitely be booking another Disney cruise, probably in a couple of years.
Sorry this was so long, I feel lucky that I got to spend so much time with my family going to the places that make us feel like kids again. And, having my 4 year old son there with us to enjoy it made it well worth it. I don't know if we will ever do these trips this close again, but I do know we will probably give WDW a break for a few years and do the cruising.
