mdmost
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2021
Flew back last night from our 4 days in San Diego and 4 days at Disneyland. Finished the trip with a brunch at Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in Anaheim before driving back to San Diego. I'll take that car ride over getting to LAX any day.
We had a fantastic trip. We've never done four full days and it really made this last blowout for a time really special. Wife thinks we rode every ride in Disneyland except the Monorail and every ride in CA except the Grizzly River Run.
Genie+ was fantastic. Never had many issues with it. If a ride went down, we'd get the multipass. Bought all the individual lightning lane ones which helped us breeze through each ride. Radiator Racers was down for maintenance for the day we went to CA so we park hopped and rode it on one of our Disneyland days before heading back to the hotel for a swim and nap. It really pays to rope drop and have a good plan going in. Most of ours worked exactly as we needed them to.
When we drove in from San Diego, we got to the Courtyard Theme Park hotel and went to the pool. It was hot out so that was nice especially after a long morning of driving. We then went to downtown Disney to shop, have Salt & Straw, and get a feel of things. It was nice to let the kids shop with no worry about missing out on rides. My wife loved the Dress Shop but not enough to buy a dress there.
First Day, we started off in Disneyland. We rope dropped Hyperspace Mountain which was great. Got right on. Made our way around Tomorrowland and then had breakfast at Jolly Holiday. Then went around Fantasyland before making our Genie+ for Indy. Ride went down so we converted it to a multipass. Rode Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion next with the Genie+. When Indy finally went up, I remembered something I saw from Fresh Baked (YouTuber with great DLR content) which was if the queue for Indy is barren in the lower outside area, don't use your Genie+ for Indy because you only get to skip that outdoor queue. Funny enough, we got off the ride and the Fresh Baked guy was there at the exit looking at Jungle Cruise. I thanked him as I walked by and told him how much we enjoyed his content. Fun to see a Disney celebrity. Was hoping to see him or Casey from Disneyland Daily while we were there. Ate lunch at Plaza Inn so we could get our Main Street Electrical Parade spot. We headed back to the hotel as it was getting pretty hot. Used our Genie+ to book the morning rides again. Came back in the evening and did a few more rides before MSEP. Walked right up when it was time and got a great spot.
2nd day, started at DCA. Radiator Racers was down so we rope dropped Incredicoaster. DD14 loves roller coasters so we walked on 3 straight times before hitting our TSMM Genie+ pass. Went clockwise around Pixar Pier and then made our way to Avengers Campus to do Web Slingers and Guardians. DD11 is a Tower of Terror truther and wore her ToT shirt in protest. She loved Guardians. We ate lunch at Pym's Test Kitchen. Rode Mater's and then headed back to the hotel. Returned in the evening to ride Soarin and have dinner at Lamplight. Loved my wife's Kung Pao Bao. Rode Luigi's and walked around Car's Land at night before checking in for our WOC dessert party. That was the best extra we paid for on the trip. Set up right in front of the bushes so no one in front of us.
3rd day, started at Galaxy's Edge. We did not rope drop Rise as I don't want to wait in that long of a line and don't trust it to not go down and waste our time. Instead, we rope dropped Millenium Falcon and got on twice with a walk on. Ate our Ronto Roasters breakfast before heading over to ride Big Thunder again since we didn't want to ride Rise and maybe miss our Oga's reservation at 10:25. Rise was up and down all morning so we saved it from after Oga's at 11am. Oga's was great. Glad we did that at least once. We walked over to DCA since Radiator Racers was finally back online. It was great. After a break at the hotel, we returned to ride some rides before our Fantasmic dining. That's when we experienced some unique that nearly broke me. We thought we'd ride the Matterhorn since our reservation was at 7:!5 and it was 6:45. Then we got stuck on the Matterhorn while almost near the bottom at 7pm. They had to come up and take us off the ride through the bowels of the mountain which was kinda cool. I was panicking a bit as it was now 7:30 and we still had to walk over to New Orleans Square. The cast members were great and gave us 3 anytime LLs each for our trouble which was great as the LL were mostly taken at that point (7pm). So we got to ride Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder, and Hyperspace Mountain again after our dinner. Fantasmic was fun but we were a right of stage with both trees and a light pole in the way so we were somewhat obscured. We've done the right in front viewing before with Blue Bayou so it wasn't a huge loss but I would argue that it's not worth the cost unless you can sit on the front portion that faces towards Haunted Mansion and doesn't have poles in the way.
On the final day, the wife and I just wanted to relax and do things we don't normally do like ride the train, have a sit down breakfast, and just take in the fun parts of Disneyland we're normally rushing past. We rode the double decker bus to the Castle and then the fire truck back to the train. The nice lady driving us let my wife sit in the driver's seat and honk the duck horn. We then took the train around the park before then taking the horse trolley to get breakfast. We sat on the little cafe seating near Casey Jr. We then did some Fantasyland rides before meeting up with the kids for lunch.
I set the kids up on our account and showed them how to do the Genie+ selections. They rode about 8 rides in the first hour of the park opening with minimal wait. Disneyland is infinitely more navigable with Genie+ if you rope drop. There's so many rides you don't need to bother with booking until after 10am. So the kids rode Hyperspace Mountain, Buzz, Big Thunder twice, Indy twice, Haunted Mansion and Matterhorn all before 9am. They then did the same at California Adventure. They were about to board the Incredicoaster when it went down. They were given 4 anytime LL selections which we used to ride Guardians at night. Before that, the wife and I went to Trader Sam's at 6pm which was great. I highly advise everyone to try it at least once. I got the Zombie since it looked cool and they washed it out and boxed up the mug so I could take it home to my brother who does a big Halloween decoration at his house. The final day was the real highlight of our trip and something we never got to do previously. DD14 and I finished the night with our tradition of staying till park closing and finishing with Space Mountain.
We had a great trip and this will probably be our last one for a few years. But it was a great time and we got most of what we wanted outside of Pirates not being open during our trip. We plan on returning after Princess and the Frog is added over Splash Mountain.
Overall, I thought the cast members were great. Some were surly but it was with guests who weren't listening. I do think Disney has a massive problem with rides going down. They also have to take some rides down and work on them. Little things weren't working like Gigi in the Enchanted Tiki Room, the flowers on the Alice ride, the Yeti at the bottom of the Matterhorn, the boulder on Indy. There's lots of things needing refurbishment. The park is still beautiful and I still prefer it to WDW. But it needs some love.
Some complaints, not enough merchandise diversity. It really stinks a bit that Adventureland seems to be the only land that has unique items to it now, besides Galaxy's Edge First Order shop. It's really annoying that Oswald is completely gone from the parks minus some pins. We have a pair of Oswald ears that I got back in 2016 and we had so many people asking about them. Feels like a Figment or Duffy Bear situation. Even the shop with his name on it had no Oswald merchandise. I get it, supply chain but come on, that's a bankable commodity for Disney that's unique to CA. I still feel the picture at park scanning needs to be improved. Luckily, we didn't see any people get messed up on their reservations or lack thereof. I think Magic Bands will greatly improve the check in both at the booth and with Genie+.
As far as Disney Magic, we had some instances of it. Minnie Mouse in DCA pulled my daughter aside when she saw her wearing the Oswald ears. She gave her a kiss and had her take pictures together. Same daughter and I were looking at Star Traders orbiting Mickey neon at night when a Photopass photographer asked us if we wanted a picture together at the point where the neon is fully across. In DCA, we also saw a little girl crying desperately about wanting to meet Maribel from Encanto. The line had just been cut off and this poor 5 year old was just sobbing. The cast member came over and told her they would bring Maribel over to see her in a little bit. It's still a magical place.
We had a fantastic trip. We've never done four full days and it really made this last blowout for a time really special. Wife thinks we rode every ride in Disneyland except the Monorail and every ride in CA except the Grizzly River Run.
Genie+ was fantastic. Never had many issues with it. If a ride went down, we'd get the multipass. Bought all the individual lightning lane ones which helped us breeze through each ride. Radiator Racers was down for maintenance for the day we went to CA so we park hopped and rode it on one of our Disneyland days before heading back to the hotel for a swim and nap. It really pays to rope drop and have a good plan going in. Most of ours worked exactly as we needed them to.
When we drove in from San Diego, we got to the Courtyard Theme Park hotel and went to the pool. It was hot out so that was nice especially after a long morning of driving. We then went to downtown Disney to shop, have Salt & Straw, and get a feel of things. It was nice to let the kids shop with no worry about missing out on rides. My wife loved the Dress Shop but not enough to buy a dress there.
First Day, we started off in Disneyland. We rope dropped Hyperspace Mountain which was great. Got right on. Made our way around Tomorrowland and then had breakfast at Jolly Holiday. Then went around Fantasyland before making our Genie+ for Indy. Ride went down so we converted it to a multipass. Rode Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion next with the Genie+. When Indy finally went up, I remembered something I saw from Fresh Baked (YouTuber with great DLR content) which was if the queue for Indy is barren in the lower outside area, don't use your Genie+ for Indy because you only get to skip that outdoor queue. Funny enough, we got off the ride and the Fresh Baked guy was there at the exit looking at Jungle Cruise. I thanked him as I walked by and told him how much we enjoyed his content. Fun to see a Disney celebrity. Was hoping to see him or Casey from Disneyland Daily while we were there. Ate lunch at Plaza Inn so we could get our Main Street Electrical Parade spot. We headed back to the hotel as it was getting pretty hot. Used our Genie+ to book the morning rides again. Came back in the evening and did a few more rides before MSEP. Walked right up when it was time and got a great spot.
2nd day, started at DCA. Radiator Racers was down so we rope dropped Incredicoaster. DD14 loves roller coasters so we walked on 3 straight times before hitting our TSMM Genie+ pass. Went clockwise around Pixar Pier and then made our way to Avengers Campus to do Web Slingers and Guardians. DD11 is a Tower of Terror truther and wore her ToT shirt in protest. She loved Guardians. We ate lunch at Pym's Test Kitchen. Rode Mater's and then headed back to the hotel. Returned in the evening to ride Soarin and have dinner at Lamplight. Loved my wife's Kung Pao Bao. Rode Luigi's and walked around Car's Land at night before checking in for our WOC dessert party. That was the best extra we paid for on the trip. Set up right in front of the bushes so no one in front of us.
3rd day, started at Galaxy's Edge. We did not rope drop Rise as I don't want to wait in that long of a line and don't trust it to not go down and waste our time. Instead, we rope dropped Millenium Falcon and got on twice with a walk on. Ate our Ronto Roasters breakfast before heading over to ride Big Thunder again since we didn't want to ride Rise and maybe miss our Oga's reservation at 10:25. Rise was up and down all morning so we saved it from after Oga's at 11am. Oga's was great. Glad we did that at least once. We walked over to DCA since Radiator Racers was finally back online. It was great. After a break at the hotel, we returned to ride some rides before our Fantasmic dining. That's when we experienced some unique that nearly broke me. We thought we'd ride the Matterhorn since our reservation was at 7:!5 and it was 6:45. Then we got stuck on the Matterhorn while almost near the bottom at 7pm. They had to come up and take us off the ride through the bowels of the mountain which was kinda cool. I was panicking a bit as it was now 7:30 and we still had to walk over to New Orleans Square. The cast members were great and gave us 3 anytime LLs each for our trouble which was great as the LL were mostly taken at that point (7pm). So we got to ride Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder, and Hyperspace Mountain again after our dinner. Fantasmic was fun but we were a right of stage with both trees and a light pole in the way so we were somewhat obscured. We've done the right in front viewing before with Blue Bayou so it wasn't a huge loss but I would argue that it's not worth the cost unless you can sit on the front portion that faces towards Haunted Mansion and doesn't have poles in the way.
On the final day, the wife and I just wanted to relax and do things we don't normally do like ride the train, have a sit down breakfast, and just take in the fun parts of Disneyland we're normally rushing past. We rode the double decker bus to the Castle and then the fire truck back to the train. The nice lady driving us let my wife sit in the driver's seat and honk the duck horn. We then took the train around the park before then taking the horse trolley to get breakfast. We sat on the little cafe seating near Casey Jr. We then did some Fantasyland rides before meeting up with the kids for lunch.
I set the kids up on our account and showed them how to do the Genie+ selections. They rode about 8 rides in the first hour of the park opening with minimal wait. Disneyland is infinitely more navigable with Genie+ if you rope drop. There's so many rides you don't need to bother with booking until after 10am. So the kids rode Hyperspace Mountain, Buzz, Big Thunder twice, Indy twice, Haunted Mansion and Matterhorn all before 9am. They then did the same at California Adventure. They were about to board the Incredicoaster when it went down. They were given 4 anytime LL selections which we used to ride Guardians at night. Before that, the wife and I went to Trader Sam's at 6pm which was great. I highly advise everyone to try it at least once. I got the Zombie since it looked cool and they washed it out and boxed up the mug so I could take it home to my brother who does a big Halloween decoration at his house. The final day was the real highlight of our trip and something we never got to do previously. DD14 and I finished the night with our tradition of staying till park closing and finishing with Space Mountain.
We had a great trip and this will probably be our last one for a few years. But it was a great time and we got most of what we wanted outside of Pirates not being open during our trip. We plan on returning after Princess and the Frog is added over Splash Mountain.
Overall, I thought the cast members were great. Some were surly but it was with guests who weren't listening. I do think Disney has a massive problem with rides going down. They also have to take some rides down and work on them. Little things weren't working like Gigi in the Enchanted Tiki Room, the flowers on the Alice ride, the Yeti at the bottom of the Matterhorn, the boulder on Indy. There's lots of things needing refurbishment. The park is still beautiful and I still prefer it to WDW. But it needs some love.
Some complaints, not enough merchandise diversity. It really stinks a bit that Adventureland seems to be the only land that has unique items to it now, besides Galaxy's Edge First Order shop. It's really annoying that Oswald is completely gone from the parks minus some pins. We have a pair of Oswald ears that I got back in 2016 and we had so many people asking about them. Feels like a Figment or Duffy Bear situation. Even the shop with his name on it had no Oswald merchandise. I get it, supply chain but come on, that's a bankable commodity for Disney that's unique to CA. I still feel the picture at park scanning needs to be improved. Luckily, we didn't see any people get messed up on their reservations or lack thereof. I think Magic Bands will greatly improve the check in both at the booth and with Genie+.
As far as Disney Magic, we had some instances of it. Minnie Mouse in DCA pulled my daughter aside when she saw her wearing the Oswald ears. She gave her a kiss and had her take pictures together. Same daughter and I were looking at Star Traders orbiting Mickey neon at night when a Photopass photographer asked us if we wanted a picture together at the point where the neon is fully across. In DCA, we also saw a little girl crying desperately about wanting to meet Maribel from Encanto. The line had just been cut off and this poor 5 year old was just sobbing. The cast member came over and told her they would bring Maribel over to see her in a little bit. It's still a magical place.
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