Mesaboy's DLR Trip Report -- The Quest To See Dumbo Fly

[mesaboy2]

Introduction

After some nudging by some very helpful and prominent posters here on the DLR boards, I have decided to do a full trip report here. Hopefully this will be an informative thread for others like me who are familiar or very familiar with WDW but who have never been to DLR before--that is my main intent. I'll try to pepper my commentary with my own comparisons between the two.

I'm not one who is comfortable posting pictures of myself or my family on the internet, so any pictures I do post will have our faces obscured. I'm not really planning on posting many pictures anyway unless I feel they're somehow noteworthy or unique--I just can't compete with some master photographers on here.

It will likely be days or weeks in between posts detailing our days, please be patient with me as I take my time and try to do my best. For today I'll just write about how this trip initially came about.

The Idea

Flashback to March 2013, when I started to think seriously about 20th anniversary ideas (married June 1995) for DW. I had been blessed in 2010 to be sent to Hawaii for a week for work, and knew that was an obvious choice. She's always wanted to go and now only moreso since hearing me talk about it. Of course being Disney fans, Aulani was the first thing I thought of there. I did some pricing and found that the least expensive options for staying at Aulani were going to start in the $400-$500 per night range, presumably for a view of the parking lot, some large air handlers, or something else similar. Ouch. I'm a big Disney fan, but not a big-money one!

Through work however, I have access to a hotel on Waikiki where the rates are much more reasonable, even compared to hotels right next door. For less than half of what I would pay at Aulani for an entry-level room, I could get an ocean-front view at Waikiki. Looks like Aulani will be a day-trip visit.

Our family is such a tight-knit one that I knew that even on an anniversary trip our DD would be tagging along. That's the way this family happily rolls. Hawaii is a good time for anyone, but knowing that Aulani was off the table for anything but a few hours would bum DD out. Wait a minute--isn't there a Disney resort between Florida and Hawaii? I swear I've heard of it somewhere.... How much do airfares differ if you stop for a few days on the way out to or back from your final destination? After some brief research, it turns out the answer is not much at all. Happy days, I think I can trade the Aulani touch for some Disneyland time, no? And oh-by-the-way, my plan was to keep this trip a surprise to all until Christmas. All my files and notes I kept on the trip I referred to as Project XX--with the XX meaning the Roman numeral 20.

Those of you paying close attention may have noticed a math error in the dates given so far. Given the price of such an extravagant vacation (by my standards anyway), I was aware that I needed to do some serious saving for a while before I started making deposits and such. But between March and June of last year, I ran some financial numbers and decided that instead of waiting until June 2015 to do the trip on our real 20th anniversary, I couldn't wait that long and bumped it up a year. DW would just have to be satisfied with this for her 19th!

Up next: The Planning And Reveal

 

[mesaboy2]

Links to future posts:

The Planning and Reveal

Day 1 - Travel, Settling In, And an Unexpected Twist

Day 2 - Disneyland Park

Day 3 - Disneyland California Adventure

Day 4 - Disneyland California Adventure

Day 5 - Disneyland Park

Appendix - Aulani

 

[Suelala]

Looking forward to your trip report! Always enjoy reading your posts. Now, get going!!!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Welcome back. Can't wait to read about your experiences at DLR!

 

[tstidm1]

I enjoy your thoughts on the Theme Park Strategies board, so I can't wait to hear your thoughts about DLR and Aulani.

 

[andyman8]

Looking forward to reading along Mesaboy2! I was wondering how your trip went. Lucky enough myself to be visiting DLR for a couple days in July!

 

[mesaboy2]

The Planning and Reveal

So now it was time to figure out the particulars.

I started off thinking we’d hit DLR on the way back from Hawaii, since Hawaii was the original idea. After quite a bit of experience at WDW, I figured all the walking and long days at DLR would also tax us enough to wipe us out, so what better place to recoup than Hawaii? Let’s do DLR first then.

Early June was always my target date, since DD gets off school in mid to late May and I know at WDW the huge summer crowds haven’t quite arrived by then. I couldn’t do it too early though since I knew there was some end-of-year things (piano recitals, etc.) that I wanted to avoid conflicting with. And I didn’t want to mess with Memorial Day crowds either. One thing I did completely whiff on was Grad Nites and how they impact crowds—haven’t had GNs at WDW for a couple of years now and they are handled completely differently. In the end, they didn’t impact our experience much at all.

Settling on 5 days at DLR was easy—of course that’s the maximum number of days you can get on a ticket out there. I was more than willing to go 6 or 7, but it makes no financial sense to buy extra tickets for those additional days. Kind of a fail there for DLR, but I understand the reasoning behind it I guess. On the plus side, 2 parks only 100 yards apart (and DTD right there!) made doing the park-hopper option an easy call. (Ultimately we used it only once, but that’s okay—it was nice knowing the option was there.)

The other important part of any DLR visit is of course the hotel stay. I knew pretty quickly I wanted to stay onsite if at all possible, even though the extra hours benefits are less generous than at WDW. No Evening EMH is a bummer, especially when DW is about the least morning of a morning person as there is. Prices were steep compared to what I can find in Orlando, but not beyond our reach for an entry-level room at the least-expensive resort—Paradise Pier, of course. I set us up for 5 nights there for exactly that—entry level, no view, and no practical perks other than an extra hour each morning. (I hoped the 3-hour time change in our favor would help with DW in the mornings, but you’ll have to see how that worked out in future posts. )

Last Labor Day weekend we stayed at Wilderness Lodge thanks to a long-time friend who became a WDW CM in the last couple of years. While touring the parks with their family, they asked when we would be coming back and I had to reveal to them (under penalty of death if they mentioned this to DW or DD) I was letting our WDW APs expire later that month to save money. When asked why, they immediately offered to look into what options they could help with at DLR. Leveraging off of their unending generosity was never a part of my plan, but they insisted on looking into it. Within a week or two, they contacted me and gave me new prices based on my dates. Instead of looking at this as an opportunity to save money though, I took it as an opportunity to upgrade. Might as well do this right, right?! The difference in cost would allow me to upgrade all the way to either DLH Upper Level Resort View or GCH (can’t recall exactly what the options were there) and stay within the budget I had already set! After some discussions with other posters who opinions I trust and have DLR experience, I wound up choosing the DLH for the theming and mostly for the nostalgia. And the monorail slides didn’t hurt either.

One of the most interesting parts of planning everything was doing it in secret, as I wanted to also make this a Christmas present. I started to share with a few posters on the boards my general plan, and word got out to another poster that I was in the early stages of planning. This tremendously cool and awesome poster--and they know who they are--has some um…connections we’ll say…and offered up the idea of sending postcards to DD from DLR and signed by The Mouse himself. We coordinated when the first would be sent just before Christmas so I could intercept the mail and have the first postcard on the tree on Christmas morning. That didn’t quite work out thanks to the USPS, but a second postcard was also teed up and ready to go and that one did make it by Christmas morning. To this anonymous and unnamed poster, I again greatly (and now publicly) thank you for helping with this—it made the already cool reveal even cooler!

Once Christmas came and went, things got easier and time went faster. All the hard stuff is set up and paid for (tickets, hotel deposits, airfares)…now to figure out what we want to do exactly and when. This is the really fun part for me, and I enjoyed the new challenges that DLR presented. The absolute must-do attractions (or the trip would be a partial fail) were always Radiator Springs Racers and World of Color. Everything else was secondary to these two (except just being in Walt’s park, which was never in question), but other high priorities were any and all attractions unique to DLR (Fantasyland has quite a number of these) or significantly different (I’m looking at you, Pirates). Anything mostly similar (JC, Tower of Terror) would be next on the list, followed then only by virtual duplicates if we had time (Soarin’, TSM). Unfortunately and with any trip, some things just weren’t going to be available due to refurb. For us this meant the Nemo subs (boo!, it would’ve been nice to ride some version of 20KLUTS again), Space (bummer, but no huge loss I guess since it’s fairly similar), Grizzly River Run (another boo), and Alice (yet another boo). C’est la vie.

By the time the trip started, I had selected park days mostly on EE privileges, and had a sit-down meal set up for 4 out of the 5 days. I had certain rides listed on certain days, but really the order was based on what was most important to us—with those being first up of course. You never know when something might go down and you won’t get another chance. I know that most any schedule you set up will be mostly toast by mid-morning Day 1, so we were all set and also ready to flex.

Next up: Day 1 - Travel, Settling In, And an Unexpected Twist

 

[quigs3]

I'm in! Can't wait to read more!

 

[mesaboy2]

I'm in! Can't wait to read more!

Hopefully the boring stuff is over.

 

[quigs3]

Nothing boring so far!!!

 

[momto3gr8boys]

Following along! I'm a WDW vet who made the trip to DLR for the first time this past January. I'm looking forward to your take on it!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[SnowBelleAlice]

 

[mom2rtk]

Sheesh, if that's what you do for 19 years, I can't wait to see what you do for 20!

I'm definitely a fan of doing Disney followed by time at the beach. It's just a great 1-2 punch.

 

[natebenma]

So excited to be following along! Your info on the other forums is so incredibly helpful. This WDW vet who is venturing west for the first time is really interested to hear what you have to say!

Love your secret planning, secret friends helping and what may be the best Christmas surprise ever!



Dee

 

[mesaboy2]

So excited to be following along! Your info on the other forums is so incredibly helpful. This WDW vet who is venturing west for the first time is really interested to hear what you have to say!

Love your secret planning, secret friends helping and what may be the best Christmas surprise ever!



Dee

I'll give you a preview of the end: we loved DLR.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'll give you a preview of the end: we loved DLR.

And here I thought you might keep us in suspense.

 

[Cheshirecatty]

Just found your Trip Report, and am already very intrigued---after only the first installment!!!

Waiting(and tapping my foot) for the next post!

 

[amandaw]

I'm so excited to have found your TR!

Just today, my family decided that we're going to cancel our 2015 cruise on the Fantasy & go to DLR instead. It'll be our 1st time there.

Very interested to read more. I'm especially interested to hear how the crowds were - we'll be going either the 1st or 2nd week of June next year.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Just found this! Looking forward to reading it!

 

[mesaboy2]

Travel

For Day 1 we planned a pretty relaxed schedule once at DLR. After all, we were also flying from the East Coast and adjusting to the 3-hour time difference. Other than getting the usual stuff set up (room, tickets, PhotoPass+) and a 3:00p lunch reservation at Blue Bayou (which would serve as dinner for us), we had no concrete plans other than It's a Small World--DD's favorite at WDW.

We had a 6:30a scheduled departure from the Jacksonville airport, with a 43-minute layover at Chicago O'Hare. That was the most nerve-racking part of the schedule that day--not a lot of time at a large airport. When I had purchased the airfare way back in October, there was almost an almost 2-hour layover, but United moved stuff around in the interim. At least it was an early-morning flight, and those are not as susceptible to schedule delays as afternoon and evening flights. We maxed out our practical baggage allowance with one checked bag, one carry-on, and one "personal item" for each of the three of us--we had a 12-day odyssey in front of us and also needed some room for any souvenirs we picked up along the way. As it worked out, we landed early at ORD and our connecting gate was in the same terminal just a few gates away. Fortune was on our side. When we landed at LAX at 11:10a local, even our checked bags had made the quick turnaround in Chicago. A smooth start!

After reading many threads about the different ways to get to DLR from LAX, I settled on the Disneyland Resort Express. Most of the negative opinions on it seemed to me to be because they had reduced their operating schedule to hourly from every half-hour. But it was a nice coach bus and my schedule had enough padding in it that I figured it was the best option for us. As it turned out, it did work out fine--one arrived after we waited curbside for about 30 minutes. Fortunately I knew from reading the excellent DLR threads that the similarly-named Disneyland Express was not the same thing and I resisted the temptation to hop in one of their little white vans. My prepaid DLR Express voucher probably had little weight with them. The ride itself was maybe 45-50 minutes, but we were either tired enough to take a nap (DW) or too excited (DD, me) for it to feel that long. I would do the DLR Express again as long as my schedule wasn't too tight.

Arrival

Here we are, arriving at the iconic Disneyland Hotel! (Yeah, yeah, I know, none of the original buildings remain, but even so!). We hop off the bus, roll on in to the lobby and love to see the Tea Cup booths waiting for the family while I check us in, a couple hours early. Here's a decision point I didn't see coming. As I get out all the necessary paperwork and mention that I know we're a bit early, I ask the CM is it possible to get a room in Adventure Tower with a view of the parks? (With this tower, I was told that Upper Level Resort View could still mean looking east towards the parks or west towards the pool. Neither would suck, but we really wanted a parks-view room.). I had put in this request when I initially made the reservation and again a week or so prior, so I had maximized our chances for getting what we wanted. The CM responds by offering an upgrade to concierge (for free I eagerly listened for ) that would give me what we wanted for sure, allow access to the concierge services including the E-Ticket Club upstairs, and the room was ready now to boot. Then he says for an additional $125 per night, plus tax. Oh well, not free, but still.... <Cue Jeopardy music here>. Yeah sure, what the heck. Let's do it!!!!!!!! This is one of those trips-of-a-lifetime, one we'll always remember. Let's do it in STYLE. Just an FYI, I've never stayed concierge anywhere before and certainly hadn't spent this much coin on a hotel room in my life. Here we come, Room 2853, 10th floor.

Time to go settle in briefly, drop off our luggage, and get ready for a few hours at Disneyland. But first I'll just enjoy the view. We have arrived. Ahhhh.

Disneyland Day 1

We started the walk to DLP through DTD, and we immediately appreciated how relatively close everything is at DLR. There really is no comparison between WDW and DLR on this point. To go almost anywhere in WDW you need some form of motorized transportation, at DLR all you need is your rested feet. This aspect of DLR is very similar to Universal Orlando, where there are three hotels (now four, actually), a shopping district, and two theme parks all within walking distance. That's one of the pluses of UO and I knew it would be at DLR also. WDW has that "blessing of size", I believe The Man called it, but it can be a little detriment as well when you just want to get around.

At the gate it was easy to turn our vouchers into 5-day hoppers (in Tyvek ticket form), and when I asked if we needed our pictures taken (I had read about this process unique to DLR) the CM just shook his head and waved us on. In we go.

This is one of those rare times in life when something innately familiar to you doesn't look quite right. Yeah, it's Town Square but it's just a little smaller, just a little more intimate. The parade entry/exit to backstage is on your right, not your left. At least the Emporium is in the same spot, but it's so much smaller--not a bad thing at all, just...different. Main Street also smaller, but not at all in a bad way. And that Sleeping Beauty Castle goes up what, maybe 80-90 feet? (I'm guessing when I could look it up--I bet one of you will chime in. ). When Cinderella Castle is nudging 200 feet? That's soooo different, but again not in bad way. The word surreal comes to mind.

We got our PP+ voucher business also taken care of--for any picture hounds out there this is a no-brainer at DLR for the cost alone. I prepaid $70 for this back in January, when WDW would run like $200 now? And for that $70 I get all PP photos, ride photos, and character meal photos on CD to do with almost as I please. Definitely do this if you're considering it, and do what we did--hit up every PP photog you see. We came out with about 140 photos, before I started with borders.

We had a little time before we needed to head over to BB for lunch, so our first technical "attraction" was the SBC Walkthrough. Kind of appropriate given the structure's iconic status, and plus we had watched a segment on this (I think on the SB Blu-Ray a few years back) that may have sparked the first inklings in me of a trip out West. We always wanted our first ride to be IaSW for DD's sake, and technically that could still work. When we went to IaSW however, I knew the wait looked like more than we could afford before making it to BB on time, so we passed for now and went to eat "lunch".

Blue Bayou was good, the atmosphere amazing. We managed not a waterside table but one next to that, so we still had a chance to see the GN teens making out in the dark as their boats went by. (Just kidding--aside from the occasional stupid yells during that quiet part of the ride they were fine.) I had heard so much about the Monte Cristo I had to try it, and DW got the Jumbalaya. The MC was different for me but I enjoyed the odd combination of sweet and a bit salty. It was too much food though, so I felt bad leaving what I did behind. DW said the J was very good, if a bit spicy. The $50 GC I got for signing up for the Disney Chase Visa earlier this year took a little sting out of the bill. (This from the dude who dropped $700+ on a whim a couple hours before.)

Finally we have something substantial in our bellies (that we didn't eat at 30,000 feet) so it's off for a few more things before fatigue sets in. As we trek back over to IaSW we got caught on the wrong side of the Soundsational Parade and watch the last few units of that go by. Reminder to self--in DLR the parade goes nowhere near Frontierland and ends at IaSW. As for IaSW, this is easily DD's favorite at WDW--I think this version upped the bar and was even better for her. I'm sure it's longer, it seems like there are more rooms, and we all liked the addition of (according to a CM) 37 identifiable characters from Disney and Pixar's past. I get how traditionalists would not like this, but since it's not our home version of IaSW anyway I am less concerned as a brand-new visitor. We only counted 29 of the supposed 37, so maybe a return trip is warranted? Our first ride at DLR was terrific! I think DD managed another 5 rounds on IaSW before we left a few days later.

Over to Toon Town next since we lost our ghetto version a few years back at WDW. Mickey's and Minnie's houses were a welcome sight, as was a two-level version of Donald's Boat (but with no water play area). Seeing other completely new things like C&D's Treehouse and Goofy's House, along with a little Toonified downtown was a cool touch too. We went through the Mouse's house and did his M&G, but ran out of time before Minnie's line closed. Goofy was out too but we opted for a later date.

Leaving TT took us right past Mickey and the Magical Map and ten minutes before it's final showing, so we hung a right and sat in the theater for a great show. A nice integration of classic elements Mickey and Yensid with some of the modern Disney characters from Tangled, Mulan, LIlo and Stitch, Pocahontas, and Princess and the Frog. I'm reminded again how much the Frog music rocks.

By this time we hit Soundsational again as we walk out Main Street towards a good night's sleep, and stop in TS to see most of it this time. I like it, but I'm not sure about ending it with the Mary Poppins unit and the chimney sweeps. Seems anticlimactic to me.

We're all pretty exhausted at this point but of course manage the walk back through DTD. A little Haagen-Daz never hurt anybody, and as we approached Build-a-Bear it looked fairly quiet. Knowing we were planning on stopping there at some point, this seemed as good a time as any. I had heard and relayed to DW and DD some time ago that this particular store had a unique bear with Mickey heads or something, so I already knew that would be a souvie. At least DD brought her own money for some stuff! Before long, Honey Hugs was born and smelled of cotton candy and sported his own DLR shirt and Mickey ears. That DD's got it good.

Back at the hotel, we take a quick tour of the pool and ask one of the CM lifeguards there when it and the monorail slides are open. Up to the room, and then we find out what kind of "free" goodies are in the E-Ticket Club. We take some desserts and drinks back down a level to our room and try to catch the fireworks from there in a few minutes. As the concierge mentioned to me, winds were not looking favorable for Magical and as the appointed 9:30p start time came, we tuned the TV to the Magical channel (for the audio) and an initial burst of small fireworks shot up. After that, nothing. So ended the first of 4 attempts to see Magical as fully intended. Fifteen minutes later, we saw small parts of World Of Color going off over in Paradise Pier. I'm sure the PPH has a much better view, but I had absolutely nothing to be disappointed about. That was one show we were going to see for sure from Position Alpha in a couple more nights anyway.

Off to bed. A full day at Disneyland Park is on tap for tomorrow.

Up next: Day 2 - Disneyland Park