Our return to Disneyland! A family trip to the happiest place on earth...but would it be "the same?"

[TeamUrsula]

Welcome to my trip report! I have benefited so much from these message boards and I wanted to post a quick trip report and offer to answer any questions I can answer from our recent trip to Disneyland. We were in the parks Feb 1-2 and 4-5. My family is me, my husband, and 9 and 6 year old kids. As background, I grew up in the Bay Area and went to Disneyland every year. I have also gone with my kids about 5 times over the last 7 years. This trip was originally planned for April 2020. We were joined for a few hours each day by my dad and the last two days by my sister and her husband.

I was so nervous that I would find the happiest place on earth and my personal happy place changed for the worse when compared to the before times. Did I? How was mobile ordering? Genie+ and modified character meets? Was the trash out of control? Etc. Read on!

Days 1 and 2 were on a Tuesday and Wednesday and were low crowd days. We rope dropped and stayed until the 8pm close, and did not use or need Genie+. The last two days were Friday and Saturday, had significantly higher crowd levels, and we used Genie+ and enjoyed it.

Day 1: We started in Disneyland. We arrived at security around 7:05 and ended up about 2 groups back from the turnstiles and were right at the rope on the right side of the hub towards Fantasyland. We walked purposefully with a plan to try for Peter Pan and if the line was too long to go to Snow White. Both were closed and so we kept going to Alice and walked on. When we got off the Peter Pan line was just opening, and we got on in 10 min. Snow White was also open when we left Peter Pan and we got in that line next. The changes to this ride are incredible and I love them.

Next was a bathroom break and we were in line for BTMR by 8:43. This was my 6 year old’s first roller coaster and he liked it so much, we got right back in line. Each time the line was about 8 min long. Next, we checked out Galaxy’s Edge, which is new since our last trip in 2018 and we rode Millennial Falcon. Next, I tried to convince everyone to stand in line for Rise (about 60 min) and no one else wanted to do that, but my kids really wanted to go on Space. Does it make sense to cross the park at this time? I’m not sure, but I stayed flexible when it was what everyone wanted to do. On the way, we passed a walk on Pirate line and jumped on. By the time we arrived in Tomorrowland, we decided it was time for a pretzel before SM. My first jalapeño cheese pretzel—amazing, thanks to everyone who recommended it. The SM line was about 10 min long around 10:40am. Next we walked over to Autotopia and waited for 20 min, which was longer than the app said.

Then we decided to place mobile orders for lunch. This was our first trip with mobile order and I have to say I don’t understand criticism of the system. We mobile ordered every day and it worked incredibly well and I loved skipping food lines. The 4 of us wanted food from Refreshment Corner, Jolly Holiday, and the Red Wagon, I placed 3 orders on the app, and then we stopped by Fantasy Fair and took photos with Rapunzel. We were super excited to see her as we all had Tangled shirts on today. I’ll add a post about modified character meets later. I sort of love them now? Then we headed over to Jolly Holiday and got a table and my husband walked in to get his Jolly Holiday order, the kids held the table and I walked right to Refreshment Corner to pick up that order and went straight from there to Red Wagon and picked up the corn dog order. No waiting. By Saturday, orders needed to be put in a bit early, maybe 45-60 min ahead of when you want it at peak times, but otherwise we found mobile order times to be available when we wanted them. When we were finishing I walked into Jolly Holiday and got a mickey raspberry macaron and a brownie cake thing with a penguin on top. I loved the macaron. I was curious if this would really live up to the hype—and it does. My chocolate lovers in the family enjoyed the brownie cake.

By the time we were finishing lunch a cavalcade went by, which was cute and easy to run over and watch from the curb. Grandpa joined us at lunch and we walked to the Mark Twain, stopping at the shooting range. My 6yr old really wanted to get on Dumbo next and my 9yr old declared she was too old for Dumbo. Heartbreaking! Until I asked if that meant she was ready to try Matterhorn and she agreed. Yay! I usually have to go on Matterhorn alone. After our encounter with the Yeti, it was time to join up with my son and husband in the tea cup line. Next, afternoon and evening at DCA.

 

[DLgal]

Sounds like a great first morning so far!

Mobile order has improved TREMENDOUSLY over the past several months. It was downright terrible between last April and late summer, and has had its ups and downs since, when staffing issues have cropped up. Also, it is highly dependent on the restaurant. Some are much more efficient than others.

It is never wise to ride Autopia before mid/late morning because they only run 2 lanes and the line moves SLOWLY. Same thing happens at Incredicoaster. They add the second train to the tracks around 10:30.

 

[TeamUrsula]

Day 1 afternoon and evening: we spent the rest of Day 1 at DCA. We arrived tired around 2:30pm. We saw Horace Horsecollar, Mickey and Minnie, and Pluto around Buena Vista street and Carthay Circle. I mobile ordered an affogato from Schmoozies and my husband went into Starbucks with the kids and we all got a treat. We then decided to wait for the 3pm Disney Jr. dance party. My kids really loved this when they were little and still wanted to go this trip, so we decided to do it today, when they were tired and no other adults were with us, as no one really wants to go into this baby rave After the kids danced themselves back awake we decided to brave the RSR line. It said 60 min and I thought well, many of my childhood disneyland memories are of standing in hour long splash mtn and space mtn lines, this is fine. And it was, the kids were bored of course and didn't really have much patience for lines this trip, but we were on within 45 min. Am I crazy to think its a memory making opportunity to stand in at least 1 long line for a ride everyone loves? We didn't do stand by for RSR again this trip, but most of us rode every day using single rider, and on our second day Grandpa paid the $14 for my six year old and him to use a lightening lane.

We walked around cars land and rode Mater next and then mobile ordered soup in bread bowls from Pacific Warf Cafe at about 5:15. We took photos of the sunsetting over Pixar Pier and checked out some Lunar New Year decorations and picked up our food about 10 min later. We decided to watch the 7pm Lunar New Year procession and in the meantime went on Ariel and stood on line to meet Raya. She is meeting in Redwood Creek Trail and my kids are big fans. The line was slow moving, but there wasn't much else we wanted to be doing and Raya did a great job when it was our turn. The area is also decorated with lights and flags and looks great. While waiting for the procession to start I realized one of the you tubers I follow and enjoy was livestreaming nearby, I also saw another the next day, and recognized someone from these boards later in the trip. My husband was teasing me that I consume way too much Disney content to be recognizing all these people. lol. The lunar new year procession was fun, we also caught it during the day later in the trip. I never made it to any food booths as the lines were always sooooo long. We finished the night with a little shop browsing on Buena Vista street and were out close to park closing at 8pm.

 

[TeamUrsula]

Just a post about travel and hotel arrangements. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn on Harbor. I have Bonvoy points we wanted to use and so only looked at Bonvoy hotels. We had stayed at the Park Sheraton previous trips, but with the changes to ART, the construction at that hotel, and recent reviews we stuck with the Fairfield. We loved stopping by Panera in the parking lot each morning and signed up for a free trial of the unlimited sip program through our Amex offers and got 6 months free. This gave us free coffees each day. The hotel is lacking in some ways, but we used the pool twice, did laundry, and slept well. Also the front desk staff were very friendly and helpful. We arrived from San Diego with a rental car we returned on our first day in Anaheim, and we left by booking an Uber the Sunday morning we left. We booked an Uber XL to LAX for $90.

 

[BadPinkTink]

oh wow, your days over lapped mine, I was in Downtown Disney on Tuesday 1 February and Disneyland Main Park on Wednesday 2 February.

The Lunar New Year Food Booths got busy from lunchtime onwards. The meeting area with Raya is really nice, I "rope dropped" that meet and greet and was the 3rd person to meet her when they opened up. It was ruthless lol, they didnt do an official line until she arrived and they opened the rope section, so the all the Disney moms were stood around the entrance, giving each other the evil eye while being ready to pounce and get into the roped section when the CM's appeared.

 

[TeamUrsula]

oh wow, your days over lapped mine, I was in Downtown Disney on Tuesday 1 February and Disneyland Main Park on Wednesday 2 February.

The Lunar New Year Food Booths got busy from lunchtime onwards. The meeting area with Raya is really nice, I "rope dropped" that meet and greet and was the 3rd person to meet her when they opened up. It was ruthless lol, they didnt do an official line until she arrived and they opened the rope section, so the all the Disney moms were stood around the entrance, giving each other the evil eye while being ready to pounce and get into the roped section when the CM's appeared.

That sounds intense! There were definitely a lot of very dedicated disney people in her line. I assume because she's a new character meet.

 

[BadPinkTink]

That sounds intense! There were definitely a lot of very dedicated disney people in her line. I assume because she's a new character meet.

I only did it for my niece ,lol she is a big Raya fan and I wanted to get Raya to send a video message to her.

 

[TeamUrsula]

Day 2:

This was our 1 day of 4 starting at DCA. It made sense for us to rope drop Soarin’ though I know this wouldn’t be everyone’s choice. We were the third party on the ride and then headed over to TSMM. RSR was closed at park open and remained closed for about the first hour I think? The line for TSMM then was getting crowds that I think were leaving cars land after realizing RSR was closed, so the short line quickly increased and I think we waited 20 min or so. Then my 6 year old and I rode Incredicoaster with a 10 min wait. We loved it, but agreed 1 ride per trip is enough of this intense coaster. The kids were a little cranky this morning and we rode Ariel and then Mater next and were ready for a break. We bought fruit and pretzels with hummus from the fruit cart in cars land and then mobile ordered a giant soft pretzel from Pym’s and headed over. We ate fruit and the giant pretzel and towards the end of our snack a little show started on top of the Avengers building where characters hang out. It was Black Panther and Black Widow versus Taskmaster. My kids who are not really familiar with many Avengers still thought it was awesome.

Then I decided to jump into a 15 min Guardians line and meet up with everyone after at Redwood Creek Trail--we didn’t know Redwood Creek Trail didn’t open until 12pm. When I finished Guardians the kids were back over in Avengers campus being cranky. We went to Luigis and it broke about 15 seconds into the ride, after having been closed the entire morning. This did not help the kid’s mood. At this point we felt a little trapped in DCA. Why can’t we hop before 1pm Disney?? It’s annoying and several times we wanted to go to the other park before we were allowed to go. We went to the Art of Animation building, met up with Grandpa, and did the drawing class which my 9 year loved. We drew Tigger and then went to the Beast’s library to take the personality test and be matched with our character, and made a little animation sequence --another win with the 9 year old.





Next, Grandpa and the 6 year old bought lightening lanes for RSR and the rest of us did single rider. My 9 year old chose single rider over going with her grandpa and brother because going alone was making her feel very grown up this trip. Also, the LL group was getting into their car when the single riders were getting out, which I thought was interesting. Then it was lunch time. We wanted to go sit at the same place, the kids wanted a milkshake so we went to Smoke Jumpers and got burgers and chicken sandwiches. Blergh. I knew it wasn’t great, but this was the worst food we had during our trip, and I wouldn’t go again (milkshakes were fine though). After lunch, we went to Redwood creek trail, which was just what our kids needed and they spent almost an hour running around.

Next, I bore everyone and have a great time!

 

[DLgal]

Burgers and milkshakes at Flos > Burgers and Milkshakes at Smokejumpers.

It's too bad because SJ used to be so much better. Flo's serves table service quality burgers. I was shocked at the difference in size and quality between the two places.

 

[TeamUrsula]

Day 2 afternoon/Day 3 rest day:

It was time to park hop to Disneyland and everyone had a choice to go to whatever chill afternoon activities I chose at Disneyland or go rest at the hotel. My husband went to the hotel to do work and rest and everyone else chose Disneyland. First stop, the train! We went all the way around the park starting and ending at Main Street. We then made our way to the Tiki Room, watching a Frozen float make its way down Main
Street and mobile ordering Dole Whips on the way. We ate in the area next to the Tiki Room and then went in for the show. My dad and kids truly hated the Tiki Room show, which sort of amused me even more. Its fantastic and a must do each trip! We shopped a little through Adventure land and New Orleans square afterwards, and then went to BTMRR with a 30 min posted time and a 17 min real wait. Wait times for most attractions at 4:30pm were pretty high, even on this fairly low crowd day. Afterwards, we browsed around Frontierland and sat on a bench waiting for my husband. Don’t underestimate some bench sitting at sunset by the Mark Twain and river. Then it was Rancho de Zocolo for dinner. I had cauliflower tacos which were good.

We then set out to go on attractions that are fun to do at night, before the Mickey’s Mix Magic projection show at 7pm. We went on Jungle Cruise, tea cups, the carousel (with a stop for sword in the stone pics), astro orbitor, and got a churro (from the cart in front of the castle, hot churros, best we had all trip) in time to watch the projection show. On this low crowd day it was easy to get a spot in front of the castle with room for the kids to dance with the dollar store glow sticks I brought. The kids were still going strong so we went to the two Fantasyland dark rides we hadn’t done yet—Mr. Toads and Pinocchio. Boy these rides are weird, and I love them both. We rode Buzz with a 5 min wait on the way out of the park, which was closing at 8pm.

Day 3: The next day was our much-needed rest day. We did laundry, caught up on work, spent a couple hours at the pool, met up with my sister and her husband and the 3 of us went to Trader Sams, before dinner in DTD at Ballast Point. Trader Sams is great, and don’t forget to stop by the hotel gift shop. I thought it was cute and it was totally empty. I don’t recommend Ballast Point, by the way. I’ve been to the San Diego and Long Beach locations, but this one was not great.

 

[TeamUrsula]

Day 4: Our 4th day was a Friday and we were joined by my sister and her husband. We thought we would probably buy Genie+ today to make the day go smoothly and not have to worry about lines. It was the kids’ 3rdday and my sister and BIL were only there for 2 days so it made sense. I wouldn’t say we needed Genie+, but I do think it made the day easier and more fun and was worth it? I hate saying that. It would be a lot more worth it with ride repeats allowed. I'm happy to answer any Genie+ questions from our experience.

We started with Peter Pan, and then worked through the long line Fantasyland lines and went to BTMRR. I saw a frequent Disboard poster in line and felt like a stalker…I need to lurk less and post more! That’s part of the reason for this trip report since I’ve gained so much info from others.

We then went to Haunted, then Pirates. I skipped it this time as my son didn’t want to ride and we shopped in Adventureland, he found an Indy foam sword for $9.99 (this seemed so reasonable and maybe the only time I thought that all week) and then we sat on a sunny bench by Tropical Imports. The rest of our party came back with soaked seats (if you know you know). Why is Pirates a wet ride now? We noticed on the 3 rides our party took this trip that several people ended up wet.

We ended up repeating the Tomorrowland pretzel followed by Space that we did on our first day. Then Grandpa joined us and we tried to really utilize Genie+ by sending 2 people to autotopia, 2 to star tours and two of us to Buzz with no waits. Then we all repeated our day 1 lunch orders via mobile order. Small World reopened today and we all used a lightening lane.

After my husband and son returned to the hotel for a nap, we grabbed cotton candy for my daughter and went to stand in the Rise standby line. It had a 75 posted wait, it ended up being a little shorter, and felt Much shorter than our RSR 60 min wait. The queue is great, seats, shade, things to look at and the ride is of course amazing. This is the only time we rode this trip, but my Sister and BIL rope dropped this the last day alone—I’ll write about their experience in that section. While in line I booked a LL for Millennial Falcon for when we got off Rise. My BIL and daughter did some pin trading after this and we hopped over to DCA. We saw Anna and Elsa meeting in Carthay Circle in their Frozen 2 clothes, which my daughter was excited to see.

Everyone returned to the parks and we had dinner at a waterside table in the Warf and I had the quesabirria tacos which were excellent. Afterwards my son wanted to do something with no line, so we all went on Ariel, then my daughter and sister and BIL went on single rider RSR and we hit the…golden zephyr! Ha. I’d never ridden before and thought it was going to be boring, but it was at night and the Lunar New Year parade was going and actually it was a lovely time. Afterwards we got a churro and watched the Lunar New Year parade on its way back.

The kids and husband went home and it was time for Guardians! This became my favorite ride this trip. I’d only been twice since it opened and I had only ever gotten “Hit me with your best shot.” It turns out that is the shortest seeming most boring drop sequence. Once I got Free Ride, the Jackson 5 song, and Give Up the Funk I was HOOKED. Its hard though to abandon everyone else and actually ride this alone during a family trip so I vowed to ride as many times as possible my last day and settled for 1 late night ride with my BIL. I have never laughed so hard during a ride. It was BIL’s first time on Guardians and he…well he hated it and felt he was going to die. BIL is a young, 6’4” man and well, it was very funny. I enjoyed it so much I ran back for a second ride—alone, before going home.

 

[TeamUrsula]

Day 5: Our final day at the Disneyland resort and we all got Genie+ again. My BIL and sister decided to rope drop Rise. As two in shape, tall adults, they walked quickly all the way there and were on within 10-15min. With two little kids I didn’t think we’d make it, and we were all exhausted. We slept an extra hour and arrived 5 min after park open. We took some photos on Main Street and then walked to Indy. It said 20 min wait, but we walked right on without waiting at all. We then met up with the Rise riders at the Jungle Cruise and then made our way to Pirates and Haunted and then to Pooh and Pooh corner for a Tigger tail and some shopping. I think we did BTMRR again next and booked an Indy LL for later. Then back to Fantasyland for the last rides we wanted to repeat. Alice, Dumbo, Snow White and tea cups and we did the sleeping beauty castle walkthrough. Lunch at Red Rose Tavern—mobile ordered about 20 min ahead. The enchanted cauliflower sandwich was So good, as was the grey stuff.

We then realized our Indy Genie+ had converted to a multi exp. Pass. We decided to use them on the Matterhorn, except my son didn’t want to try it, but really wanted me to ride Astro Orbitors with him. 30 min line on a hot day, no Genie+, so we went over to use our ME passes there. The attendant was funny asking me “are you sure you want to use these here??” But it was our last day, the kid very much wanted to go, and I really hate waiting in that line. We then did some magic shot photos by Snow White’s wishing well and hopped to DCA, met up with grandpa and rode Soarin with LL I booked at park open (it automatically gives you 1pm if it’s a pass for the other park). My husband then went back with our son for pool and rest time. DD and I pin traded while grandpa got some lunch and then he took DD for her second class at Art of Animation. She drew baby groot this time and again had a wonderful experience.

While DD was drawing, the 3 adults left tried to mobile order cocktails from Pym’s, but the wait was almost an hour and the line was long, so we went to get frozen margaritas at the wharf. Even with the extra shot these were extremely underwhelming, but it was nice to take a break and we sat in Avenger’s campus and people (and spider) watched. I did have it on my bucket list to try the regulator drink at Pym’s and was determined to plan ahead better later in the day. I then used a LL for Guardians. It was my goal to ride as many times as I could on this last day. We all met up after and went to cars land, planning on the single rider line. We hung out as RSR was down and just shopped, sat in the shade, bought my DD a churro. She had bought a notebook and pen and was journaling as we all relaxed. It was a nice break on a last day. I briefly considered park hopping and trying to ride Rise again with DD, but on the last day, relaxing in the parks and hanging out with family seemed more fun. I finally booked a mobile order for the “regulator” I wanted from Pym’s, went to pick it up and returned to cars land with it. This was the most “vacation-y” I felt, sitting in the sun, drinking an expensive (but strong) cocktail in a plastic beaker. It is tequila + mango ipa beer with a mango habenero syrup so its bubbly, spicy, plus it has boba. Really a fun, delicious drink.

Then we met up with the boys who went to the hotel to rest, rode Mater and then once again did dinner on the Pier. Everyone went for soup in breadbowls, except I wanted to try the ramen at Lucky Fortune. Mobile order was almost an hour out so I waited in slow moving line. When I got to the front I was told ramen was a 15 min wait. Bread bowls were already out and everyone was eating so I got whatever spicy chicken dish they had that was immediately ready. Sort of disappointing.

DS was exhausted at this point and wanted to ride 1 last ride, get ice cream, and go home. The aunt and uncle took the kids to Ariel while my husband and I enjoyed 20 entire minutes of alone time sitting by Carthay Circle. Someone explain to me why more downtowns or suburban town centers aren’t as enjoyable as the area right around Carthay Circle? Its just a car-free zone with cute décor, shops, food, and a little children’s entertainment (characters) and yet its SO nice to just hang out there at night for a while. I had booked a Guardians LL, so after the kids returned I said bye to my son and booked it over there for another ride. I went again as DD went to RSR single rider with her aunt and uncle. I was able to take care of buying the last couple of items on my list while they finished at cars land and we walked out of DCA at 8:54 and made it Main Street in time for fireworks and Mickey’s Mix Magic. We also booked a BTMRR LL. We used it after fireworks and then my daughter and I slowly walked home enjoying last looks at Disneyland at the end of a great trip!

We were out the next morning by 7am, to LAX in a $90 Uber. We were through security and in the Starbucks line in our terminal by 7:55. If anyone read this far, I hope you enjoyed the trip report!

 

[CandyMouse]

Great trip report! Sounds like a fun trip!

 

[MaleficentMe]

Sounds like a great trip - and I really feel your tagline!!

 

[limace]

You’re my kind of mom! Drinks and lots of Guardians! Thanks for the great report.

 

[blabbermouth]

Thanks for sharing, great report! I laughed at everyone hating Tiki Room. I love it! Was your 6 year old afraid of any rides?

 

[TeamUrsula]

Thanks for sharing, great report! I laughed at everyone hating Tiki Room. I love it! Was your 6 year old afraid of any rides?

Yes, though it was funny because he was afraid of totally different rides than my daughter when she was 6. She wouldn’t go on any roller coasters besides big thunder at 6, and he went on all of them including incredicoaster. However, he was scared of Pirates and Haunted and I think a little on Snow White. So, it depends on your kid.

 

[blabbermouth]

Thanks! I totally know what you mean, and it's hard to know what they will be scared of in advance I think!

 

[Jaina]

What a great first day! Sounds like the crowds were amazing! I actually agree with you on the modified character meets, and think they're super cute, even if the picture isn't always as close up. We had overlapped the second half of your trip! I was there Feb 4-5 with my sisters (and about to start that trip report, even though I'm behind on two others). I wonder if I saw you! The 5th (Friday) was very reasonable crowd-wise, but the 6th was busier for us. We did Genie+ both days, but didn't necessarily need it on Friday. It's such a good value when park hopping if it's a bit busy though! Guardians is my faaavorite, and I wish I could just ride it over and over (with 10-20 min or less wait) and see what songs I can get. I love the Jackson 5 one. But my stomach is getting old, and gets a little mad at me if I try to ride it more than twice back to back, haha. I'm so glad you had a great trip!

 

[TeamUrsula]

What a great first day! Sounds like the crowds were amazing! I actually agree with you on the modified character meets, and think they're super cute, even if the picture isn't always as close up. We had overlapped the second half of your trip! I was there Feb 4-5 with my sisters (and about to start that trip report, even though I'm behind on two others). I wonder if I saw you! The 5th (Friday) was very reasonable crowd-wise, but the 6th was busier for us. We did Genie+ both days, but didn't necessarily need it on Friday. It's such a good value when park hopping if it's a bit busy though! Guardians is my faaavorite, and I wish I could just ride it over and over (with 10-20 min or less wait) and see what songs I can get. I love the Jackson 5 one. But my stomach is getting old, and gets a little mad at me if I try to ride it more than twice back to back, haha. I'm so glad you had a great trip!

Hi! We were both in line for BTMRR at the same time that Friday
I look forward to your trip report, I’ve definitely learned a lot from and enjoyed your previous reports. The Jackson 5 song on Guardians is really good. I think Free Ride may have the craziest drop sequence and I really enjoyed that one this trip.