Just got back, my thoughts on a crazy busy day

[mfleeting]

I would also suggest for anyone who just wants to use the phone to make sure you still have your paper tickets on you. We ran into it many times (especially around Matterhorn) where our phones could not connect and we just used our physical ticket.

 

[lurpee]

I would also suggest for anyone who just wants to use the phone to make sure you still have your paper tickets on you. We ran into it many times (especially around Matterhorn) where our phones could not connect and we just used our physical ticket.

Any idea if they have those GOOD lanyards with the sealing clear plastic "envelope"? The one i purchased in '06 finally broke in January and it was great for keeping tickets and FP's safe. I ask because it sounds like you have been there recently.

 

[mfleeting]

We had an old lanyard that we used when we went last week and just bought a new plastic holder for like $8 in the gift shop. It said 2018 on it and was more narrow instead of wide. It surprisingly held up all week when they normally rip down the sides on me. My daughter used it a lot for when she wanted to do Matterhorn alone. They had plenty of lanyards for sale as well.

 

[midnight star]

Background:

DH and I have been going to Disneyland for over 20 years and have been AP holders until we got priced out. So, that being said we know our way around the park. We went with DS age 11 and had a wonderful day despite that it was crazy busy.

The Good:

We were in the park yesterday, Saturday November 18th celebrating my birthday and DS's birthday. We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott on South Harbor, got a good rate for the room. The room was nice enough, and they gave us complimentary Starbucks drinks to celebrate our birthdays, which I thought was sweet. We walked over to the Toy Story tram at 7:30am and had no problems going through security.
We had bought our tickets the day before and added Max Pass. We entered the parks and got our Happy Birthday Mickey pins and had no problems with Max Pass. I would definitely recommend getting the Max Pass during this busy holiday season. We were able to ride Star Tours 2x, Winnie The Pooh, Small World, Indy, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain by 12:00, we were happy since we had hit our favorite rides but it.was.packed.

The Bad:

It was crazy busy and people seemed frustrated and confused by the Max Pass, not knowing how to scan, not having the app or tickets ready, having to reconnect, ect and the CMs seemed as equally frustrated.
Wait times were crazy long, Small World was 120 minutes for Stand By. We pulled a paper Fast Pass for Fantasmic around 10:30 am for the 10:30 show.

We had lunch, DS is gluten free and the Chef at Jolly Bakery was fantastic. We went back to our hotel to take a much needed break from 1:30-4:30. At this time I used the Max Pass to reserve some rides, love that I was able to do this in our hotel room.

Around 3:00-3:30, the fast passes were out for the following rides: Haunted, Star Tours, and 2 other rides that I can't remember. So if those are your must rides, please be aware that the passes go fast. We went on a few rides from 5:15-8:30 and had some dinner and then went to find a spot by Small World for the fireworks, and we loved it. Very magical.

The Ugly:

We tried to get in line after the fireworks by Mark Twain for Fantasmic and it was horrible. There were no CMs and people were just making their own line. Very disorganized. This was around 10:00. I finally saw a CM and asked him where to line up, he just sorted pointed and said somewhere over there and pointed to his right. He was letting in people that were disabled in first, which I completely understand but there were 4 other CMs just standing around by him, it looked like no one wanted to go deal with the mess. When they opened the ropes, around 10:10 the crowds were huge. Other people that had not been waiting just blended in with the crowd which obviously got people upset. People are standing so if you are not right in the front or if you are not tall its really hard to see. People are packed in tight and it's just not the best use of space. I really hope they figure this problem out. Bottom line, you are human cattle. Come on Disney, you can do better.

Hope this helps with planning.

Thanks for this update!! I will be at DLR on Dec. 11th, and was debating if we should do Max Pass! Looks like we will!

 

[bethannie203]

I used clear ID holders on lanyards for tickets - my husband and I each had ours plus a kid, both facing out so we could scan, flip, scan. It went a LOT faster than the people I saw using phones.

We are coming from out-of-state, and part of our "Magical Extras" are vouchers for lanyards... I would assume these free lanyards include a clear pouch for tickets? We plan on using those to hold our tickets since it sounds like that will be easier to scan once FPs have been booked using the app!

 

[lcp9]

We are coming from out-of-state, and part of our "Magical Extras" are vouchers for lanyards... I would assume these free lanyards include a clear pouch for tickets? We plan on using those to hold our tickets since it sounds like that will be easier to scan once FPs have been booked using the app!

That's actually a good question, I'm not sure...because they sell lanyards without the pouches in the park. I might get some to make sure - I got this 10 pack for 6.99 on amazon and they were perfect: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XW46F18/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And yes, just based on our experience and watching the people around us try to scan in, it seemed to go quite a bit faster with the actual tickets...especially if you have a bunch of tickets to slog through (we had 7)