NorthernCalMom
Compulsive Touring Planner
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2012
- Messages
- 608
Hello! I am crafting my plan for a 4-day trip in August (Wed 08/01 through Sat 08/04). Advice and feedback are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance to anybody who is willing to read this epic post.
There are 4 of us (myself, DH, two girls aged 4 & 6, both over 42"). DH will be at a conference for some of the time. All of us spend all day Wed and Thu eve (after 4:30pm) together. DH's Thu ticket is a 1-park twilight one, the other tix are park hoppers. We'll stay at DLH & are early birds, so we can do the early admission (yeah!). While getting the kids' favorite rides in, I'm also trying to schedule some time for the DLH's pool/water slides. I came up with a tentative plan, using much of the advice on this board (thank you, guys, you are amazing) and Ridemax recommendations for the same weekdays at the end of July (August numbers aren't out yet). I am willing to be the fast pass runner and miss out on some rides (it's more important for me that the girls have a great experience than to do everything myself). That said, I want us to ride RSR and Star Tours together if possible (as well as Soaring, my favorite). We're trying to avoid long lines (duh!), but I'll bring coloring books and reading materials for the kids, just in case. We don't care where to eat but are trying to keep cost down (since the DLH is pricy enough). We're planning to leave the parks after the fireworks, since that's already pushing the girls' bed times and we're planning to get up early.
Here is what I have to work with, our list of must dos (and our scheduling restrictions):
(1.) Any time (both kids want to do these and we won't need to split up for them)
DL: Alice, Tea Cups, Astro Orbiter, Big Thunder Ranch, Autopia, Casey Jr., Princess Storytime, Dumbo, Tiki Room, Small World, Jungle Cruise, Winnie the Poo, Peter Pan, the Toontown climbing/play areas (Donald's boat, Goofy's house, Chip'n'Dale, Tarzan), King Arthur Carrousel, Mr. Toad (if it's possible to fit me and the girls into one car), Pixie Hollow, Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walkthrough, maybe seeing Merida if the line is manageable. CA: Bakery tour, Redwood Challenge Trail, Aladdin show, Animation building, Little Mermaid, Bug's Land and its rides, Jumping Jellyfish, King Triton's Carrousel, Silly Symphony Swings.
(2.) WED or THU afternoon/evening, since daddy wants to partake in these or they are rides that only one of the two kids wants to do
DL: Thunder Mountain Railroad, Buzz Lightyear, Davy Crocket Canoe, Go Coaster, Snowwhite, Roger Rabbit, Startours, Storybook. DH wants to do Indiana Jones single rider, since he's never been on it before and both girls feel it's too scary. Watching the parade would be a bonus but isn't absolutely necessary. We are also trying to see Fantasmic, if at all possible. CA: RSR, Luigi's, Mater's, Goofy's Sky School, Grizzly River Run, Toy Story Mania, Soaring over California. Again, parade would be nice but isn't absolutly necessary. We are trying to catch World of Color.
I came up with two possible plans (depending on fast pass return times and how the timing runs): Plan A involves using DH's single part twilight ticket at California Adventure, Plan B uses the same ticket for Disneyland. PLAN A and PLAN B start out the same way:
1st Day (Wednesday): Use early admission at CA, ideally line up around 6:30am to get to the front of the line. When getting in, DH and kids ride Luigi's, while I take all tix and line up for RSR FP. Depending on how long I wait, DH and kids ride Mater's and walk over to TSMM to ride that one and then ride whatever they feel like until we meet up again. After getting the RSR FP, I get WOC fast passes, walk over to DL to get the Star Tours FP, walk back to CA and call DH's cell phone to meet up. What happens next depends on the RSR FP return time, FP return line wait time, and the rides technical status.
PLAN A (go to DL on Wed pm and CA on Thu pm) would kick in if we get relatively early FP return times. We would then try to do as many of the kids' CA "must do"s as feasible, leaving any time rides with long lines for FRI or SAT and "collecting" FPs as we go. We could defer Soaring to another day (sorry, DH!). Hopefully, we'd be able to do the Grizzly River Run and Goofy's Sky School. Though it'll be a hard sell, I'll balk at doing the Redwood Challenge Trail that day, since we usually spend a lot of time there, once we get in, and I found it to be such a great activity on busy days when I'm by myself with the kids. We would have early lunch at California Adventure (Any tips for yummy, affordable food? We've in the past done and liked the Mexican place or the hot docs in the Hollywood area. I heard good things about the bread bowls, but we are from SF, so, since we know the original, I doubt that copy can measure up...). I was originally wanting to hang out at CA for the parade (2pm) and then hopping over to DL, but figure that by then the DL lines would probably be substantial. That's why Plan A means watching CA's Pixar play parade w/o DH on one of the other days and heading to DL right after our (early) lunch. We would then try to do as many of the rides on our "must-do" list as possible, again with me dashing off at times to get FPs, pending availability (Thunder Mountain Railroad, Buzz Lightyear, Davy Crocket Canoe, Go Coaster, Snowwhite, Roger Rabbit, Storybook). At some point, DH would use the Indy single rider line and meet up w/ us again after that. If it works out, we'll watch the parade at 4pm. Around 8pm, we split up, so I can stake out a spot for Fantasmic, while DH and the kids do any of the rides that both kids want to do that don't have super-long lines (King Arthur Carrousel and such). We'll watch Fantasmic (we would in that case not use the WOC Fps that I got earlier), maybe bits and pieces of the fireworks, then back to the hotel.
PLAN A then involves going to California Adventure with DH on his afternoon day and trying to catch WOC on Thursday night either w/o FP or, if a nice CM gives us a FP for him when we get ours (since he has a ticket but it won't yet be activated earlier in the day), w/ FP. Drawback of the plan is that we have less must do with dad rides in CA than in DL, so our Wednesday afternoon at DL would probably be very hectic.
PLAN B (spend more time at CA on Wed and do DL on Thu pm) would mean that we head over to DL after the parade and to as many of the above mentioned must dos in without stressing about it, since we know we'll still have Thursday afternoon to do what we don't get done on Wednesday. This would mean that we watch WOC on Wednesday (using the FPs) and Fantasmic on Thursday.
2nd Day (Thursday): Use early admission for DL and hit Peter Pan first thing in the morning (me & the kids only). Then line up for Pixie Hollow. Then do whatever else we can do, using Ridemax recommendations to avoid long lines (I won't finalize that list until I have access to the August dates). In the pm, meet up with DH and proceed according the above plan A or plan B.
3rd and 4th day (Friday and Saturday): Do any of the rides we have not done yet, planning in good chunks of time for the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail and the Princess Story Time (the kids tend to get stuck there for a long, long time), probably concentrating on CA on FRI and DL on SAT. In the past, we did it the other way around, since I found DL to be more crowded on past SATs, but with early admission falling the way it is, Cars Land drawing so many people, and reports on this board about DL Saturdays being rather quiet, I wonder if the above order might work better (school me, if you think it would be better to do the early admission and then switch parks on FRI and SAT, to swim against the stream...). Either way, we'll leave the parks in the afternoon on FRI and SAT, so that the kids get some time in the DLH pool with the water slides.
Those are my thoughts and ideas. If you read all the way down to here, you are my hero! Any comments and words of wisdom from you Disney veterans and experts? Thank you in advance for any insights you may have.
