Just returned... a few of my observations.

[pjlla]

I'll try to be brief, especially since I am so tired. We returned home about 1:30 am Eastern time Sunday morning. We were in the parks for Wed, Thurs, and Fri.

Goofy's Kitchen... food not as good as Chef Mickey's. Character interaction was slow. We got in at 7:30 pm. By 8:30 we had only had Pluto come by our table. We let our waitress know that we were waiting patiently. The rest of the folks (Snow White, Chip & Dale, Goofy) came by eventually. We saw Mulan in passing but she never made it to our table. Pinocchio was out front doing pictures when we arrived and Minnie was out front doing pictures when we left. We got some great interaction from the chipmunks when they arrived. Would I do it again??? Probably.

HoJo Anaheim.... GREAT PLACE!!! Our room was very clean. Second floor of bldg #5, not on the freeway side. Staff was great... very pleasant and helpful. They printed our Southwest boarding passes with no problems. While this certainly wouldn't be considered a "luxury" hotel, I was VERY satisfied with it. The pool area was clean and fun. Even my slightly older children (7 1/2 and 9) loved the fountains. The walk to and from the parks was 11 to 20 minutes, depending on how tired we were and how the pedestrian traffic was. I would highly recommend this place, especially for the price!! Just a word of warning... if you plan to nap during the day, don't do an upper level room. They have these curving windows over the picture windows that don't have shades. They let in LOTS of light and it made it a bit difficult to nap.

DL and DCA... GET THERE EARLY!! I can't say that enough!! Even at this busy time of year we were able to see everything we wanted and rode many things multiple times. The parade and fireworks at DL were tear-inducing. I would suggest avoiding sitting on the left side of Main St. (facing the castle) near Corner Cafe, as we sat there for the parade on Thursday and the sewer gas smell was strong. (We had noticed the smell in several different spots in DL on different days, but this was the worst).

Block Party Bash was fun, but I'm not sure I would take the time to see it again. Especially since we had to sit an hour before the Bash in order to secure a good spot. Same for Electrical Parade.... glad I saw it once, not sure I would ever need to see it again.

No matter how short the line for souvenirs and food seemed, they took FOREVER!! DD and I bought chicken sandwich at Club Buzz about 9pm either Wed or Thurs night.... only two parties in front of us and we were in line over 30 minutes.... same with DH and DS over at Pizza Port at the same time.

Position yourself well by 8:30 pm most nights in DL.... with the 9 pm and 10:30 pm Fantasmic show in the New Orleans Square area... and the 9:25pm fireworks clogging up the Main Street area, there is virtually NO WAY to move around the parks at that time. We ended up riding BTMRR over and over until the 9pm Fantasmic ended and we could get a spot for the 10:30 show. We would have watched the 9 pm show, but by 8pm we literally couldnt' get a decent spot for it. Our options were to stand behind a bank of lights with a partially obstructed view, or wait until the 10:30 show. Even though the kids were tired they opted to wait until 10:30pm.

ANYHOW.... I'll try to post a more full trip report when I have caught up on my sleep and on the laundry! ........................P

 

[dletz]

by the way, that bank of lights that is down before the show starts, does get raised up. There is still a pole in the way, but the big block of lights will end up being in the sky. For some reason they raise them all the way up, then lower them back down, then before the show raise them again.