Lissame
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2010
- Messages
- 1,196
We were just at DL from June 29-July 3. We're currently at Capistrano Beach but I thought I'd give a couple of highlights of our trip and some helpful hints. I'll do a trip report after I get home.
We arrived about 9:30 AM from Portland to the Long Beach airport. We rented a car, which took no time at all. We drove to our hotel (Candy Cane Inn) and got a temporary parking pass because we couldn't check in until the afternoon. When we got to the park, it was already pretty crowded. We did get a FP for Splash (our kids' favorite ride) and then headed to our lunch reservation at Carnation Cafe. The food was great and the service was wonderful also.
We rode quite a few rides afterward, and headed to DCA at about 4 to pick up our WOC picnics. The food was so-so, our kids didn't eat much of their chicken meals, but they were ok. We got fastpasses to the blue section. We watched the Pixar parade and then rode California Screamin, by that time my sister and her family had arrived and were eating their picnics. They got the yellow section. We all went to line up about 6:45. They started letting us into the sections at 7, and we sat there for about 1 1/2 hours until the pre-show stared. Then we stood until WOC was over. The show was nice, but by then we had been traveling since early in the morning and were totally exhausted and tired of being in one place.
We stayed a bit later, but got up early to be there by 8 the next morning.
Some highlights of the rest of the trip:
**We got there at opening every morning except our last day. That is the BEST thing you can do. We also took advantage of the Magic Morning (we got to "open the park" on our MM day, that was a plus). We were able to ride multiple rides with NO lines by getting there at 8--Indy, Space, Splash, BTMRR--all walk-ons that early. On our MM day we rode all of Fantasyland plus the Matterhorn and were walking into Space when the park opened (no line)
**We did the Discover the Magic tour on Saturday morning. It was SO much fun for my kids (ages 10 and 11). We were on the tour with another family with twin 3 year old girls and they got nothing out of it (the girls) IMO this tour is excellent for about 5 years old and up, and not if you are scared of POTC (which both of those girls were). I will give a full report of that tour later also. I highly recommend it, my daughter said "I am SO glad we did this, it was so much fun!"
**We met my sister and her family (sister, husband, kids ages 3, 5, 8, 10) and we had to adjust our expectations with the younger kids there. We didnt' see nearly the number of shows that we had planned or wanted to see.
**During Fantasmic, Splash Mountain is totally a walk-on ride. We took the oldest cousin with us and the three kids went on the ride four times in a row with no wait.
**Loved our Fantasmic Dessert seating as always. It was a big highlight of our trip. They do have two areas for seating now, so more seating is available than when we did it before. There were only three families in
our section and room for many more. Food was EXCELLENT and plentiful. I would do it again over the WOC premium seating in a heartbeat.
**Last year when we were there, we got photos taken with the photopass photographers every time we could. This year there weren't nearly as many, especially at DCA. When I asked about it, the lady at the photopass store in DCA said that many photographers are now used for crowd control for WOC--for fastpasses and then again for the shows, so they aren't available to take photos. They are quite bummed about it (as were we, the night photos are our favorites)
I know this is really long, but I haven't even scratched the surface. If you have any questions or want clarification, please feel free to ask!
We arrived about 9:30 AM from Portland to the Long Beach airport. We rented a car, which took no time at all. We drove to our hotel (Candy Cane Inn) and got a temporary parking pass because we couldn't check in until the afternoon. When we got to the park, it was already pretty crowded. We did get a FP for Splash (our kids' favorite ride) and then headed to our lunch reservation at Carnation Cafe. The food was great and the service was wonderful also.
We rode quite a few rides afterward, and headed to DCA at about 4 to pick up our WOC picnics. The food was so-so, our kids didn't eat much of their chicken meals, but they were ok. We got fastpasses to the blue section. We watched the Pixar parade and then rode California Screamin, by that time my sister and her family had arrived and were eating their picnics. They got the yellow section. We all went to line up about 6:45. They started letting us into the sections at 7, and we sat there for about 1 1/2 hours until the pre-show stared. Then we stood until WOC was over. The show was nice, but by then we had been traveling since early in the morning and were totally exhausted and tired of being in one place.
We stayed a bit later, but got up early to be there by 8 the next morning.
Some highlights of the rest of the trip:
**We got there at opening every morning except our last day. That is the BEST thing you can do. We also took advantage of the Magic Morning (we got to "open the park" on our MM day, that was a plus). We were able to ride multiple rides with NO lines by getting there at 8--Indy, Space, Splash, BTMRR--all walk-ons that early. On our MM day we rode all of Fantasyland plus the Matterhorn and were walking into Space when the park opened (no line)
**We did the Discover the Magic tour on Saturday morning. It was SO much fun for my kids (ages 10 and 11). We were on the tour with another family with twin 3 year old girls and they got nothing out of it (the girls) IMO this tour is excellent for about 5 years old and up, and not if you are scared of POTC (which both of those girls were). I will give a full report of that tour later also. I highly recommend it, my daughter said "I am SO glad we did this, it was so much fun!"
**We met my sister and her family (sister, husband, kids ages 3, 5, 8, 10) and we had to adjust our expectations with the younger kids there. We didnt' see nearly the number of shows that we had planned or wanted to see.
**During Fantasmic, Splash Mountain is totally a walk-on ride. We took the oldest cousin with us and the three kids went on the ride four times in a row with no wait.
**Loved our Fantasmic Dessert seating as always. It was a big highlight of our trip. They do have two areas for seating now, so more seating is available than when we did it before. There were only three families in
our section and room for many more. Food was EXCELLENT and plentiful. I would do it again over the WOC premium seating in a heartbeat.
**Last year when we were there, we got photos taken with the photopass photographers every time we could. This year there weren't nearly as many, especially at DCA. When I asked about it, the lady at the photopass store in DCA said that many photographers are now used for crowd control for WOC--for fastpasses and then again for the shows, so they aren't available to take photos. They are quite bummed about it (as were we, the night photos are our favorites)
I know this is really long, but I haven't even scratched the surface. If you have any questions or want clarification, please feel free to ask!
