tkradtke
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2016
- Messages
- 76
Just got home from our mother daughter trip at about 1am due to a three hour flight delay, but we had a great time so it was all good! I thought I would post a mini trip report about our experiences...
Day 1 - This was Easter Sunday, we got to our hotel around 6:00pm and had plans to meet friends from here in Chicago (another mother daughter duo - one of my daughter's good friends) who were also visiting CA for spring break. We met at 7:30 at DTD and had dinner at Tortilla Joe's. Was told our wait would be 35 minutes, but received the text to return to be seated after about 20-25 minutes. We did a little shopping that night (new pins and lanyards) to be ready for trading the next day in the park.
Day 2 - Was a little worried about this day, since we figured it would be crowded and there was the pressure of it being our friends' only day in the park. BUT... we had an AMAZING day!!
Clara and I rode Snow White while we waited for our friends to get there, once they were there, we went on to ride 12 more rides as a group (2 of those rides we rode 2x) by the end of the day. The only line we waited in of any length was Pirates for about 25 minutes. FP's were definitely our friend! We held a total of 6 fast passes over the course of the day (BL, HSM, HM, BTMR, RR, and Indy). In addition to this we had two leisurely meals (lunch at Aladdin's for the PTN package and dinner at Plaza Inn), did a lot of shopping, had Dole Whips in the Tiki Room, started our egg hunt, pin traded and met with 5 characters (Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Mary Poppins and Mickey Mouse). Longest wait for the characters was about 15 minutes to see Mickey Mouse in Toontown.
The food for the Aladdin PTN package was pretty good, not great, but good. Nice quiet space to have lunch though, a nice respite from the crowds. We sat here a LONG time to relax. For the parade, we showed up about 30 minutes before the parade (the first one) and walked right in. Plenty of good spaces to choose from and never got crowded. My only issue was that the family that was right below us (in the non-PTN area) bought one of the big Baymax balloons and put their kid on their shoulders when the parade started. They did a good job of keeping the balloon low throughout the parade though, and with the extra space in the reserved area, it was easy to adjust for the kid. Just something to be aware of. Fireworks were cancelled.
Oh... since we were spending the day with friends, we really took advantage of the park photographers and had a lot of photos taken. I wish we would have done more, since we're buying the one day photo pass and splitting the cost. The photos by the Matterhorn and Haunted Mansion were fun!
Day 3 - Non-Disney day. Hollywood Warner Brothers Studio combo tour with Anaheim Tour Company and dinner at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles on Harbor after we got back.
Day 4 - California Adventure day. Way more crowded than I had expected! RSR was down when we got there, so we went straight to Luigi's. Cute ride. After that, RSR was open, so we grabbed a fp with a return time of 2:30. This was a WAY low key day for us. We really overdid it on Monday, so we were taking it easy. We did lots of classes in the Animation Academy and wished we had done more and my daughter was obsessed with pin trading, so we did that a lot too. We got fast passes for Soarin' once we were able to pull another fp. After our RSR return, we were maxed and needed a break from the crowds, so we grabbed an uber and went to the Anaheim Packing House for lunch and a treat (popbar). Round trip was about $11 (trip takes about 5 minutes). We figured our lunch would have cost about that much more, so the money spent was a wash. It was a great change of pace from the parks.
We went back to the hotel for a bit before returning to DCA for the World of Color Dessert package. We had never seen WOC, so I can't speak to how this compares with the usual experience, but we loved it. It was a completely stress free event, no lining up early, no crowds and a chair! We picked a high top table, it seated four, but it was a light night, so we had the table to ourselves. Great views and a nice plate of cheeses and desserts.
Day 5 - DLR mostly. Another low key day... we took things very slow and really looked around (we used our MM hour this day). Lots of pin trading again this day. We finished up our egg hunt and got our prize, watched Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, smashed pennies, rode 8 rides, went to the Tiki Room again, got a silhouette done and had lunch at Blue Bayou. We hopped over to DCA for a little while in the afternoon to do some pin trading and some classes at the Animation Academy.
That night we had dinner at Hungry Bear because it was quiet there. We rushed back to the hub hoping to catch the fireworks, but they were cancelled again that night. I think the only night we know for sure that they happened during our trip, was our one non-Disney day.
Day 6 - DLR. We just had about three hours in the park before we needed to head to the airport. We were there at rope drop again. We were so excited to be walking by Peter Pan and find out that they were just opening the line, we ended up being within the first 15 people in line! But, the ride went down for about 30 minutes with the first person on it, so our wait ended up being as long as we had waited the day before
We got in about six rides, lots of shopping, one last trip to the tiki room and a little pin trading before heading back to the hotel and finding out that our flight was delayed... we could have spent more time in the park!
All in all... we had an AMAZING trip thanks to all of the tips that we got from here! We can't wait to plan our next trip!
Day 1 - This was Easter Sunday, we got to our hotel around 6:00pm and had plans to meet friends from here in Chicago (another mother daughter duo - one of my daughter's good friends) who were also visiting CA for spring break. We met at 7:30 at DTD and had dinner at Tortilla Joe's. Was told our wait would be 35 minutes, but received the text to return to be seated after about 20-25 minutes. We did a little shopping that night (new pins and lanyards) to be ready for trading the next day in the park.
Day 2 - Was a little worried about this day, since we figured it would be crowded and there was the pressure of it being our friends' only day in the park. BUT... we had an AMAZING day!!
Clara and I rode Snow White while we waited for our friends to get there, once they were there, we went on to ride 12 more rides as a group (2 of those rides we rode 2x) by the end of the day. The only line we waited in of any length was Pirates for about 25 minutes. FP's were definitely our friend! We held a total of 6 fast passes over the course of the day (BL, HSM, HM, BTMR, RR, and Indy). In addition to this we had two leisurely meals (lunch at Aladdin's for the PTN package and dinner at Plaza Inn), did a lot of shopping, had Dole Whips in the Tiki Room, started our egg hunt, pin traded and met with 5 characters (Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Mary Poppins and Mickey Mouse). Longest wait for the characters was about 15 minutes to see Mickey Mouse in Toontown.
The food for the Aladdin PTN package was pretty good, not great, but good. Nice quiet space to have lunch though, a nice respite from the crowds. We sat here a LONG time to relax. For the parade, we showed up about 30 minutes before the parade (the first one) and walked right in. Plenty of good spaces to choose from and never got crowded. My only issue was that the family that was right below us (in the non-PTN area) bought one of the big Baymax balloons and put their kid on their shoulders when the parade started. They did a good job of keeping the balloon low throughout the parade though, and with the extra space in the reserved area, it was easy to adjust for the kid. Just something to be aware of. Fireworks were cancelled.
Oh... since we were spending the day with friends, we really took advantage of the park photographers and had a lot of photos taken. I wish we would have done more, since we're buying the one day photo pass and splitting the cost. The photos by the Matterhorn and Haunted Mansion were fun!
Day 3 - Non-Disney day. Hollywood Warner Brothers Studio combo tour with Anaheim Tour Company and dinner at Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles on Harbor after we got back.
Day 4 - California Adventure day. Way more crowded than I had expected! RSR was down when we got there, so we went straight to Luigi's. Cute ride. After that, RSR was open, so we grabbed a fp with a return time of 2:30. This was a WAY low key day for us. We really overdid it on Monday, so we were taking it easy. We did lots of classes in the Animation Academy and wished we had done more and my daughter was obsessed with pin trading, so we did that a lot too. We got fast passes for Soarin' once we were able to pull another fp. After our RSR return, we were maxed and needed a break from the crowds, so we grabbed an uber and went to the Anaheim Packing House for lunch and a treat (popbar). Round trip was about $11 (trip takes about 5 minutes). We figured our lunch would have cost about that much more, so the money spent was a wash. It was a great change of pace from the parks.
We went back to the hotel for a bit before returning to DCA for the World of Color Dessert package. We had never seen WOC, so I can't speak to how this compares with the usual experience, but we loved it. It was a completely stress free event, no lining up early, no crowds and a chair! We picked a high top table, it seated four, but it was a light night, so we had the table to ourselves. Great views and a nice plate of cheeses and desserts.
Day 5 - DLR mostly. Another low key day... we took things very slow and really looked around (we used our MM hour this day). Lots of pin trading again this day. We finished up our egg hunt and got our prize, watched Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, smashed pennies, rode 8 rides, went to the Tiki Room again, got a silhouette done and had lunch at Blue Bayou. We hopped over to DCA for a little while in the afternoon to do some pin trading and some classes at the Animation Academy.
That night we had dinner at Hungry Bear because it was quiet there. We rushed back to the hub hoping to catch the fireworks, but they were cancelled again that night. I think the only night we know for sure that they happened during our trip, was our one non-Disney day.
Day 6 - DLR. We just had about three hours in the park before we needed to head to the airport. We were there at rope drop again. We were so excited to be walking by Peter Pan and find out that they were just opening the line, we ended up being within the first 15 people in line! But, the ride went down for about 30 minutes with the first person on it, so our wait ended up being as long as we had waited the day before
We got in about six rides, lots of shopping, one last trip to the tiki room and a little pin trading before heading back to the hotel and finding out that our flight was delayed... we could have spent more time in the park!All in all... we had an AMAZING trip thanks to all of the tips that we got from here! We can't wait to plan our next trip!
