Please take a look at our plan!

[subtchr]

Hi, all,

I love this board for all the helpful and friendly advice you give to us infrequent DLR visitors. I'd be grateful if you could take a look at our basic plan for a short visit in a few weeks, and let me know what you think, especially if you see any glaring trouble spots!

Since we are only there a few days and the crowds will be high, I know we will not be able to see everything, so I want to ensure we do see what is important to us!

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20 - no grad night, SoCal APs blocked

11:00 - Arrive LAX, pick up rental, quick grocery stop for drinks & breakfast items

1:00 - Check in at GCH, pick up F! dessert package tickets

1:30 - DL - Exchange military ticket vouchers for 3-day hopper passes at the turnstile. We also have a voucher for my SIL, who will be joining us the following day, so we plan to get her ticket, too.

We'll play it by ear here this afternoon, as normally we would never be entering a park for the first time in the afternoon! I'm thinking of heading back to pick up a Splash FP, grabbing a light lunch or snack somewhere, riding BTMRR, catching a Billy Hill show and/or the parade, and riding Pirates, HM, etc., depending on lines/crowds. Using FP whenever possible, of course! We got very good at FP strategy at WDW (at least before they started enforcing the end time!), so hopefully we can apply that tactical thinking at DL, too.

7:00ish - CS dinner - suggestions for favorites?

7:45 - I will take our 3 F! Dessert package tickets to check in and reserve seats, DH and DD20 can continue riding, etc.

8:45 - All meet at F! for dessert package and show

9:30 - Stay in our F! seats to watch Fireworks

9:50 - Make our way (through Frontierland) to try to catch the MM&Y show on IASW at 10:15. This is not a deal-breaker, if the crowds make it too hard to get through or see the show, but we'll give it a try.

11:00 - GCH. Pass out, as we will have been awake since 2 am PDT!

THURSDAY, JUNE 21 - Grad Night, SoCal APs blocked

6:30 - MM to DL - Since we are coming from eastern time and are early risers anyway, making this will not be a problem! Our "order of attack": PP, Matterhorn, possibly another FL ride or two if we are so inclined, then Space, Star Tours, Buzz. Depending on the time at that point we may ride a few others. My understanding is that FPs are available beginning at 8:00, right?

9:00ish - DH departs to pick up his sister in Torrance. I will head to the GCH shortly after to meet the Deckert Medical rep who is dropping off my SIL's ECV. DD20 will most likely stay in the park for a while, although we do have another job for her - take our passes and go to DCA to grab some FPs! I was considering having her use SIL’s ticket to enter DCA, to activate it to be able to get a FP. But then I realized that SIL would not have a hand stamp, so she might have trouble entering the park when she arrives, using a ticket that had already been activated that day. (And in so doing I reminded myself that it’s just not worth trying to skirt the rules!)

11:30ish - All meet up at GCH, to check in SIL and have her drop off her stuff and pick up the ECV. She has a bad knee (is waiting for replacement surgery), so while she CAN walk and will be able to do so when it’s more convenient, she’d be miserable if she had to walk the parks for two days.

12:00 - Enter DCA, grab a set of FPs - probably Soarin’, but we’ll decide at the time, depending on which ones are still available and how the crowd seems, as well as which ride we decided to have my DD grab 3 FPs for earlier in the morning.

12:30 - WOC Lunch reservation at Carthay Circle

2:00 - Pixar Parade

3:20 - Aladdin Show

4:00 - 8:00 - ToT, Turtle Talk, Soarin’, California Screamin’, TSM - all dependent on lines/FP availability. We don’t usually choose to wait longer than 20-30 min, so we’ll see how it goes. If it’s hot we’ll probably do GRR in the early evening, then pop back into the GCH to change if (when?) we get soaked. The reason I have not mentioned Cars Land is that we will be doing that with EMH the following morning. I’m not sure we will be able to resist at least checking it out on this afternoon, though!

Dinner will be CS or just snacks, after a big lunch at Carthay

If lines are crazy long everywhere and we get hot or tired, we might just take a pool break at GCH at some point, too.

8:00 - Line up for WOC preferred viewing area (HC, with SIL’s ECV) with passes from lunch at Carthay.

9:00 - WOC

10:00 - Mad T Party (at least for DD - we’ll see if the rest of us are up for it or just want to crash or hit the hot tub back at the hotel!

FRIDAY, JUNE 22 - Grad Night, SoCal APs blocked

6:45 - DCA EMH

7:00 - Cars Land! RSR, Luigi’s, take pics and soak it in! Grab a FP for RSR at 8:00, then ride/do anything we did not get to the day before (TSM, other Paradise Pier rides, etc.)

CS Lunch, probably at Flo’s, we’ll see how the crowds are

Early to mid-afternoon - DL, to do things we missed earlier. How long we stay will depend on how we feel, how quickly the grad night crowd builds, etc.

Late afternoon/early evening - Depart for a few days in Santa Barbara

So it’s a short visit, but I’m sure we’ll still have a blast.

Any thoughts or advice?

thanks!!

 

[subtchr]

Shamelessly bumping...I'd love some input!

Also I wanted to add that we do want to ride Indy at some point. So I was thinking if we did PP, Matterhorn, Space, Star Tours, and Buzz during MM (realizing that might take over an hour), would Indy at that point be not too long of a line, so we could still get out of the park between 9 and 9:30?

Thanks for any advice you'd care to give!

 

[subtchr]

A couple more questions I thought of...

How early do we need to arrive at the Aladdin show (without preferred seating) to get in? Any seating is fine, upper or lower level.

Has anyone used the Walkee DLR iPhone app? It seems to have a lot of info, but I'm finding the navigation a bit confusing.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice!

 

[jennabennabofenna]

the one thing that stood out to me is that you said you usually choose not to wait longer then 20-30minutes... Most of those rides you are hoping to ride between 4-8pm will most likely be 1hr wait or more.

I went in april and crowds were low, about a 3-4 out of 10. TOT & TSM were over an hour

 

[sweethannah]

Can you pick up a pass for somebody with a voucher without them being present? I remember them asking for photo ID when we picked up our passes using vouchers.

 

[bakerudall]

I think you did you did a great job planning. At first, I was a little worried about you staying up that late on your travel day, especially with MM the next morning. But looking at the rest of your trip, it looks like you are focused mostly on entertainment, CL, and the most popular rides with fastpasses, so it's not like you'll be exhausted from rushing from ride to ride all day. It's too bad you couldn't stay later into the night on Friday.

Let us know about your experience eating at CCT! I am looking forward to eating there.

 

[subtchr]

the one thing that stood out to me is that you said you usually choose not to wait longer then 20-30minutes... Most of those rides you are hoping to ride between 4-8pm will most likely be 1hr wait or more.

I went in april and crowds were low, about a 3-4 out of 10. TOT & TSM were over an hour

I realize the standby waits will be long, I just meant that's our usual choice (not riding if the wait is longer than 30 min) at WDW, at least when we could collect FPs early and use them late! If FPs don't help us for those rides, either because they don't have FP or the return times aren't convenient, we will pick and choose which ones we want to wait a long time for. And I'm kind of hoping that Cars Land will take some of the crowd away from the other rides, but that is most likely wishful thinking. If it is totally packed and we can't get on anything we like without wasting hours, we'll just swim at the hotel that afternoon, and try to catch anything we missed the following morning after using our EMH in Cars Land.

Can you pick up a pass for somebody with a voucher without them being present? I remember them asking for photo ID when we picked up our passes using vouchers.

I had asked that question earlier on the board, and someone posted that it would not be a problem with the military ticket voucher. If it is, it's not big deal, she will just get her pass when she enters DCA on Thursday. The vouchers do have our names on them, so it's a definite possibility that she will have to get hers when she arrives.

I think you did you did a great job planning. At first, I was a little worried about you staying up that late on your travel day, especially with MM the next morning. But looking at the rest of your trip, it looks like you are focused mostly on entertainment, CL, and the most popular rides with fastpasses, so it's not like you'll be exhausted from rushing from ride to ride all day. It's too bad you couldn't stay later into the night on Friday.

Let us know about your experience eating at CCT! I am looking forward to eating there.

I will definitely be posting about our experiences - we are looking forward to our meal at CCT!

We will be tired the night of our travel day, no question, but it's such a short trip and we really love the night time shows. If we miss a few rides, that's no big deal. And we have a relaxing weekend in Santa Barbara to recover!

Thanks again for the inputs. I realize that although it's fun to predict how things will go, the opening of Cars Land is new territory. I know we'll have a blast no matter what - we're at Disneyland!