wdwfan22
Totally Obsessed Disney Nut!
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2008
- Messages
- 1,382
Hello everyone.
This was my year of Disneyland. We bought annual passes and took 3 trips: January, May for the 60th, and October. In total I spent 29 days in the Disneyland Resort. I guess that means I was there 1/12 of the year. It doesn’t seem like that much, but I sure loved every minute of it! It was such an amazing year! My annual pass is good til January, but my husband says we’re done for the year. Kill joy. Haha!
I thought I would share some of my observations from the year. These are just my opinions, others may have completely different experiences. I will give my thoughts on the hotels I stayed at and park experiences.
We stayed at the Tropicana, Desert Inn & Suites, Del Sol Inn and Disneyland Hotel. I liked the DI&S the best of the Harbor motels. Here are my thoughts for different aspects of each hotel. Of course, it has been a while since I stayed at the first 2, but here’s what I remember.
Tropicana - standard room, 2 queen beds. Room was clean, but our room had a super musty smell that never went away the whole 11 days we were there even though they obviously cleaned every day.
DI&S - standard room 2 queen beds – by far the biggest room. Clean room. A nice big vanity, large refrigerator. We had a very comfortable bed, even though I know some say they are hard. I don’t like hard beds. Ours was not.
Del Sol Inn – Our room was clean. But the room was very small and very basic. It had a sheet and blanket, as opposed to the way most hotels have their beddings these days with sheet covered blankets, which I like. I’m just not sure if motels wash the blankets before each stay, and they kind of gross me out. The air conditioning unit, while it did keep our room cool, was sooo loud. My husband kept referring it to an airplane taking off. I had to sleep with earplugs in. It had a lot of outlets all around the room, including one on each side of the bed by the nightstands. I like being able to plug in my phone by the bed for an alarm in the morning.
Disneyland Hotel – Of course, what a fabulous hotel! I hadn’t stayed at this hotel in 22 years. So really, it’s my first time, since it’s completely different. We stayed in a premium room and had a Downtown Disney view. While the walk was longer than the Harbor motels, I am hooked. I know I won’t be able to stay there exclusively in the future, but I want to stay there a couple nights each trip like we did this time. We stayed 8 nights at Del Sol, then 2 at DL hotel. The grounds are so beautiful and peaceful. And it was nice to stay in the Disney bubble for a couple nights. And I’m also hooked on the premium view room. We watched the DL fireworks both nights from our room and it was amazing. And I fell asleep with the curtains open looking at the lights of Downtown Disney, with the beautiful headboard lit up. My one complaint was the lack of outlets. No outlet by the nightstands, my phone is old and doesn’t hold a charge all night, so I couldn’t have my alarm by the bed. And their clock was set to the wrong time, so I couldn’t use it for an alarm. I would have asked them to fix the time, but since we were only there for 2 nights, so I didn’t bother.
So for the parks, January was busy, May was crazy with the 24 hr event, sadly, we had a funeral to go to, so we weren’t able to try to get to the park til mid day of the event, but since the parks were at capacity we weren’t able to make it in. But October was crazy. We were there the 17 – 27 and it was crazy busy. Our last day, the 27th was by far the least busy day. Saturday the 24th was awful crowded. We made it by rope drop on all days, and we did more during the first 2 hours than the rest of the day combined. We utilized fast pass as best as we could. So we were able to do some things during the afternoon, but the parks were crazy crowded. My love of Disneyland is that in the past, even though the walkways are always crowded, once you get to a ride, the wait time is usually pretty reasonable. Not so this time.
I think it was due to a couple factors. Of course the 60th anniversary seems to be drawing more crowds than usual. But I really think, especially after reading the Dis for quite a few years now, that Disney World regulars that are fed up with the awfulness that is FP+, are making the trek to DL to experience the original BEST park that is Disneyland and also to get away from the ridiculousness that is scheduling your ride 60 days in advance.
Paint the Night is an amazing parade, and Disneyland Forever is a fantastic fireworks show with all the special effects on main street. Loved them both.
LOVE riding single rider on Radiator Springs Racers. If you do this before the evening time, you can ride as many times as you want over and over as fast as you can walk out and back in. In the evenings the wait was a little longer, but still way less than the regular line. This freed up our FP usage for Tower of Terror and others.
The Disneyland Halloween party is AMAZING! After experiencing MNSSHP and the Christmas party at DW, which are both sooo crowded, the DL Halloween party was fantastic. We’re not into meeting the characters, but just seeing them, without waiting in line, was amazing. We rode probably about ¾ of the rides with little or no line in the short 5 hour party, which is our favorite thing to do. And we were able to do this with hitting most of the trick or treat lines, which moved very fast, and had several candy stations per line. I have enough candy to hand out Halloween night to trick or treaters without having to buy candy and plenty for me to enjoy also. If we wouldn’t have gone through the trick or treat lines, I think we would have been able to ride just about all the rides in the park during the party. An amazing difference from the DW Halloween parties which are so crowded you can hardly move around. And maybe since there are more locals at DL, we saw some Amazing costumes. We had dinner at Naples one night and just sat outside and watched the people walking to the party. So many incredible costumes! And Halloween Screams fireworks were amazing!! My favorite fireworks show in DL. The projections on the castle, and the fireworks themselves were so fantastic! We had annual passes, but for people who have daily passes, the Halloween party is a great use of money!
Restaurants – Over the course of the year, we ate at most of the table service and quick service restaurants. Here are just a few of my thoughts. Minnie & Friends breakfast at the Plaza is wonderful. We ate there once each trip during early entry, and were done each time right before or at rope drop. It’s a great use of time. And the first seating is amazing. We see each character many times. In January we saw 12, May 10 and only 6 in October. I am hoping we just had a bad morning for characters as opposed to them cutting that many. It really didn’t matter, when they come by your table so many times, you get create a repore with them. A lot of posters on here ask about going to character meals without kids. It is great! We have learned that they love to mess with adults. If you don’t want to, they will leave you alone with a wave, but I think they like the change from interacting with kids. We had sooo much fun with them. We tried Goofy’s Kitchen for the first time in years, for Sunday brunch, thinking it would be as good as or a little better than Minnie’s. We were wrong. We did have fun with the characters, but the food was not good. It was edible but that was it. We love the food at Minnie’s.
Blue Bayou – Our favorite place to eat. I have to eat there twice each trip. Once for a Fantasmic dinner and once for lunch. Although now that they have combined the seating area for Blue Bayou and RBT, it is very crowded. Too many meals for that much seating area. And they really punish people for getting there early. In Oct (the only time the area was combined), we only got there about 15 mins before the show, but a ton of people showed up just a few minutes before the show, so they had everyone squish together to make room in the back for the last people, and we were all cramped and they were literally laying down watching the show. I was not happy. But I tried to let it go. I love the Monte Cristo at the Blue Bayou. I have had the Monte Cristo my whole life, so I know Monte Cristo’s. They are not the same at Café Orleans and Blue Bayou. They used to be. They are not now. At the Blue Bayou they have much less breading. And they give you 3 sauces for dipping. Yummy.
Steakhouse 55 – Our first time eating there. We were disappointed. My husband had the porterhouse, I had the prime rib. Both cuts of meat were very tender, but it was like they forgot to season them. There was no seasoning on the outside of my prime rib or any on his porterhouse. And I don’t like spending that much on dinner to literally having someone 12 inches away from me. There was a wall separating our table of 2 from the next table of 2 that only went out as far out as the end of the table, so sitting on the outside, it was like I was sitting at the same table as the man next to me. No Bueno.
Rancho Del Zocolo – I still love the taco salad here. I guess they call it a tostada salad.
White Water Snacks – Our favorite place to eat lunch while at DCA. It was very hot in October, and it was so nice to go sit in a nice air conditioned room with 5 other people. Such a change from other restaurants. Although I shouldn’t talk about it, because I hope it never becomes crowded.
Golden Horseshoe – Really miss Billy Hill & the Hillbillies, but still like the fish & chips and sitting inside in the air conditioning.
Carthay Circle – We had the World of Color lunch. It was good. Pretty pricey, but good food. I had the cheeseburger and what a cheeseburger. So flavorful. Not sure what to think of the viewing area. We only arrived a half hour before the show, and we had plenty of room to stand, so that was good. But there were lots of people in front of us and the view was so-so. Since we didn’t get there super early, I’m not sure how good the view could have been. It was definitely better than just pulling a FP, and again, nice to eat inside in air conditioning (can you tell I was hot?).
Well, I guess I have rambled enough. Although I am sad that I won't be back for a couple years, I have had so much fun this year. And I'm going to start buying gift cards next month to start saving up. I hope I have imparted a little information. I am not a great writer, but I love to share my experiences. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!!
This was my year of Disneyland. We bought annual passes and took 3 trips: January, May for the 60th, and October. In total I spent 29 days in the Disneyland Resort. I guess that means I was there 1/12 of the year. It doesn’t seem like that much, but I sure loved every minute of it! It was such an amazing year! My annual pass is good til January, but my husband says we’re done for the year. Kill joy. Haha!
I thought I would share some of my observations from the year. These are just my opinions, others may have completely different experiences. I will give my thoughts on the hotels I stayed at and park experiences.
We stayed at the Tropicana, Desert Inn & Suites, Del Sol Inn and Disneyland Hotel. I liked the DI&S the best of the Harbor motels. Here are my thoughts for different aspects of each hotel. Of course, it has been a while since I stayed at the first 2, but here’s what I remember.
Tropicana - standard room, 2 queen beds. Room was clean, but our room had a super musty smell that never went away the whole 11 days we were there even though they obviously cleaned every day.
DI&S - standard room 2 queen beds – by far the biggest room. Clean room. A nice big vanity, large refrigerator. We had a very comfortable bed, even though I know some say they are hard. I don’t like hard beds. Ours was not.
Del Sol Inn – Our room was clean. But the room was very small and very basic. It had a sheet and blanket, as opposed to the way most hotels have their beddings these days with sheet covered blankets, which I like. I’m just not sure if motels wash the blankets before each stay, and they kind of gross me out. The air conditioning unit, while it did keep our room cool, was sooo loud. My husband kept referring it to an airplane taking off. I had to sleep with earplugs in. It had a lot of outlets all around the room, including one on each side of the bed by the nightstands. I like being able to plug in my phone by the bed for an alarm in the morning.
Disneyland Hotel – Of course, what a fabulous hotel! I hadn’t stayed at this hotel in 22 years. So really, it’s my first time, since it’s completely different. We stayed in a premium room and had a Downtown Disney view. While the walk was longer than the Harbor motels, I am hooked. I know I won’t be able to stay there exclusively in the future, but I want to stay there a couple nights each trip like we did this time. We stayed 8 nights at Del Sol, then 2 at DL hotel. The grounds are so beautiful and peaceful. And it was nice to stay in the Disney bubble for a couple nights. And I’m also hooked on the premium view room. We watched the DL fireworks both nights from our room and it was amazing. And I fell asleep with the curtains open looking at the lights of Downtown Disney, with the beautiful headboard lit up. My one complaint was the lack of outlets. No outlet by the nightstands, my phone is old and doesn’t hold a charge all night, so I couldn’t have my alarm by the bed. And their clock was set to the wrong time, so I couldn’t use it for an alarm. I would have asked them to fix the time, but since we were only there for 2 nights, so I didn’t bother.
So for the parks, January was busy, May was crazy with the 24 hr event, sadly, we had a funeral to go to, so we weren’t able to try to get to the park til mid day of the event, but since the parks were at capacity we weren’t able to make it in. But October was crazy. We were there the 17 – 27 and it was crazy busy. Our last day, the 27th was by far the least busy day. Saturday the 24th was awful crowded. We made it by rope drop on all days, and we did more during the first 2 hours than the rest of the day combined. We utilized fast pass as best as we could. So we were able to do some things during the afternoon, but the parks were crazy crowded. My love of Disneyland is that in the past, even though the walkways are always crowded, once you get to a ride, the wait time is usually pretty reasonable. Not so this time.
I think it was due to a couple factors. Of course the 60th anniversary seems to be drawing more crowds than usual. But I really think, especially after reading the Dis for quite a few years now, that Disney World regulars that are fed up with the awfulness that is FP+, are making the trek to DL to experience the original BEST park that is Disneyland and also to get away from the ridiculousness that is scheduling your ride 60 days in advance.
Paint the Night is an amazing parade, and Disneyland Forever is a fantastic fireworks show with all the special effects on main street. Loved them both.
LOVE riding single rider on Radiator Springs Racers. If you do this before the evening time, you can ride as many times as you want over and over as fast as you can walk out and back in. In the evenings the wait was a little longer, but still way less than the regular line. This freed up our FP usage for Tower of Terror and others.
The Disneyland Halloween party is AMAZING! After experiencing MNSSHP and the Christmas party at DW, which are both sooo crowded, the DL Halloween party was fantastic. We’re not into meeting the characters, but just seeing them, without waiting in line, was amazing. We rode probably about ¾ of the rides with little or no line in the short 5 hour party, which is our favorite thing to do. And we were able to do this with hitting most of the trick or treat lines, which moved very fast, and had several candy stations per line. I have enough candy to hand out Halloween night to trick or treaters without having to buy candy and plenty for me to enjoy also. If we wouldn’t have gone through the trick or treat lines, I think we would have been able to ride just about all the rides in the park during the party. An amazing difference from the DW Halloween parties which are so crowded you can hardly move around. And maybe since there are more locals at DL, we saw some Amazing costumes. We had dinner at Naples one night and just sat outside and watched the people walking to the party. So many incredible costumes! And Halloween Screams fireworks were amazing!! My favorite fireworks show in DL. The projections on the castle, and the fireworks themselves were so fantastic! We had annual passes, but for people who have daily passes, the Halloween party is a great use of money!
Restaurants – Over the course of the year, we ate at most of the table service and quick service restaurants. Here are just a few of my thoughts. Minnie & Friends breakfast at the Plaza is wonderful. We ate there once each trip during early entry, and were done each time right before or at rope drop. It’s a great use of time. And the first seating is amazing. We see each character many times. In January we saw 12, May 10 and only 6 in October. I am hoping we just had a bad morning for characters as opposed to them cutting that many. It really didn’t matter, when they come by your table so many times, you get create a repore with them. A lot of posters on here ask about going to character meals without kids. It is great! We have learned that they love to mess with adults. If you don’t want to, they will leave you alone with a wave, but I think they like the change from interacting with kids. We had sooo much fun with them. We tried Goofy’s Kitchen for the first time in years, for Sunday brunch, thinking it would be as good as or a little better than Minnie’s. We were wrong. We did have fun with the characters, but the food was not good. It was edible but that was it. We love the food at Minnie’s.
Blue Bayou – Our favorite place to eat. I have to eat there twice each trip. Once for a Fantasmic dinner and once for lunch. Although now that they have combined the seating area for Blue Bayou and RBT, it is very crowded. Too many meals for that much seating area. And they really punish people for getting there early. In Oct (the only time the area was combined), we only got there about 15 mins before the show, but a ton of people showed up just a few minutes before the show, so they had everyone squish together to make room in the back for the last people, and we were all cramped and they were literally laying down watching the show. I was not happy. But I tried to let it go. I love the Monte Cristo at the Blue Bayou. I have had the Monte Cristo my whole life, so I know Monte Cristo’s. They are not the same at Café Orleans and Blue Bayou. They used to be. They are not now. At the Blue Bayou they have much less breading. And they give you 3 sauces for dipping. Yummy.
Steakhouse 55 – Our first time eating there. We were disappointed. My husband had the porterhouse, I had the prime rib. Both cuts of meat were very tender, but it was like they forgot to season them. There was no seasoning on the outside of my prime rib or any on his porterhouse. And I don’t like spending that much on dinner to literally having someone 12 inches away from me. There was a wall separating our table of 2 from the next table of 2 that only went out as far out as the end of the table, so sitting on the outside, it was like I was sitting at the same table as the man next to me. No Bueno.
Rancho Del Zocolo – I still love the taco salad here. I guess they call it a tostada salad.
White Water Snacks – Our favorite place to eat lunch while at DCA. It was very hot in October, and it was so nice to go sit in a nice air conditioned room with 5 other people. Such a change from other restaurants. Although I shouldn’t talk about it, because I hope it never becomes crowded.
Golden Horseshoe – Really miss Billy Hill & the Hillbillies, but still like the fish & chips and sitting inside in the air conditioning.
Carthay Circle – We had the World of Color lunch. It was good. Pretty pricey, but good food. I had the cheeseburger and what a cheeseburger. So flavorful. Not sure what to think of the viewing area. We only arrived a half hour before the show, and we had plenty of room to stand, so that was good. But there were lots of people in front of us and the view was so-so. Since we didn’t get there super early, I’m not sure how good the view could have been. It was definitely better than just pulling a FP, and again, nice to eat inside in air conditioning (can you tell I was hot?).
Well, I guess I have rambled enough. Although I am sad that I won't be back for a couple years, I have had so much fun this year. And I'm going to start buying gift cards next month to start saving up. I hope I have imparted a little information. I am not a great writer, but I love to share my experiences. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask!!
Guilty as charged! We defected to the west in 2013.
