Yikes, I don't check in for a day, and look what happens to this thread! A lot to respond to!
So what's everyone plan for the first thing to do when they enter the park on their first day?
Generally, we go straight to Jungle Cruise, which was the only memory I had from my first trip to
Disneyland as a child.
This trip will be a little different in that instead of catching the earliest flight possible we are taking a late afternoon flight that gets us in around 7:45 pm so we will not go to DL that first day. By taking a later flight and not going into the park that first day, we are hoping to avoid the first day nightmare and just enjoy 4 full days plus a half day on our last day.
DH and I flew into LAX in the late afternoon last summer. It was a *wonderful* way to start the vacation. We went over to Garden Walk, ate at the Cheesecake Factory, picked up our bottled water at 7-11, and were settled into bed at a reasonable hour. When it's just me for my solo trips, I tend to fly in that morning (for my upcoming Feb trip, I'll be leaving home at 3am), so it was really nice to have that time to relax the night before going to the parks!
We'll just have to make the most of what's open! Holidays are what you make it, right?!
Great outlook to have! I'll admit I was a bit bummed too--Splash and Soarin' are "must rides" typically, but it is what it is, and there's still plenty of rides that will be open!
I agree. Those are some pretty big closures. For me it is Splash and Soarin. Our kids love splash mountain and sing the song at home all the time. I admit I was so bummed I started looking at Hawaii instead. However after pricing it up
I just resorted to what you said "holidays are what you make it". So we will live it up in other areas and stick with DL. What a sacrifice
I was also wondering how reliable some of it is.? Soarin was supposed to go down last year for the long refurb but did not. Their schedules seem to change quite a bit. I am still scratching my head at getting rid of a ride in Carsland that is only 2 years old. Does it really cost that much to operate and does no one really ride it? We liked it. Having a hard time believing that one. Also what is wrong with the WOC that it needs to be replaced or worked on?
The refurb lists will change multiple times between now and then. I remember with my trip last year, POTC was supposed to be down. I think it actually just recently went down--8 months after it was rumored to go down! And, like you pointed out, Soarin' has been rumored to be going down for months, rescheduled over and over again too.
Are they likely to announce more closures starting in February? If so, it seems like that would be a lot of rides down.
They will continue to refurb the refurb list every few weeks (days sometimes!) from now until forever, so it's always a "maybe refurb" list in my mind
To pick up the mood, what's everyone's favourite non ride thing to do at Disneyland? Or if you haven't been before, what do you want to do?
People watching, ideally with a Dole Whip in hand!
One of our favorite things to do is go to the Animation building and sit on one of the comfy couches and immerse ourselves in Disney. We love the different songs and scenes shown in that room. We can sit there for hours and relax, but DS6 only lasts about 10 minutes.
This is another one of my favorite things. Thankfully, the Zoetrope is mesmerizing for my DD, so I can watch all the drawing/movies/songs/etc in the lobby, and she'll just watch the Zoetrope. Also a good way to avoid the rain!
