SOOO packed this week!

[SOCALMouseMommy]

At 7am on Monday, I selected an 8:05am return time for Jolly Holiday (for breakfast and cookies), and it took my money and then it wouldn't go through. I immediately did it again for 8:15am, and again it took my money and did not go through. I was so irritated. It took 45 minutes to be refunded.

That is exactly what happened to me!

 

[LAS2AMS]

The parking garages were at capacity by early this evening.

The Toy Story parking lot had to be the worst managed operation of any Disney property. Because of the volume of traffic, people making a left hand turn into the parking lot would turn on red and block the through traffic on Harbor. It took nearly 50 minutes to turn from Orangewood onto Harbor into the lot (1/3 of a mile). In the olden days they would open the Katella entrance up…. But of course that section of the lot (old CM) has been closed off for a few days. You’d think they’d at least direct traffic on Harbor….

We waited another 50 minutes for a bus. It was more crowded during the Halloween evening scene, but six consecutive busses - yes, six - went out of service. The line built up and some people report waiting nearly 90 minutes.

When we returned lot, the family in front of us waited until they boarded the bus to fold their stroller. So instead of asking them to step aside, they sent the bus on its way, 1/2 full, with tons of people waiting. When we boarded the next bus, the lady’s child - who was around 4-5yo - screamed at the top of her lungs the whole way back.

When I turned around and politely asked the mother if she could at least try to calm her child, mom suddenly decided she couldn’t understand English. And some other girl told me ‘you shouldn’t say things like that, you don’t know what she’s going through.’ If mom had made an attempt to calm the girl, I’d understand. But mom didn’t. Our girls understood that if they threw a tantrum, we’d walk back rather than take the bus. I noticed that mom walked out to Harbor, not her car. It would be faster to walk. Sorry if you were on the bus with me!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Wowie, it really just goes to show that what time you arrive matters! And the overall experience can vary so much from person to person even in the same park on the same day!

We got to DL at 3pm on Thursday, 12/18–the last day for Believe Magic Key holders. It was very quick to park at the structure, security lines were extremely short, there were no lines at the turnstile (do we still call it that?).

One of my priorities was watching A Christmas Fantasy parade since we had not yet seen it this season and this would likely be our last opportunity. Although people were lined up on the curb for some time, we were able to grab a spot on Main Street in front of the Emporium and the Firehouse at the front of the rope (after conferring with an awesome CM, we lined up where the rope would eventually be put up before it was set up and it worked out perfectly!). This was exactly one hour before the second parade and we had a great view four our party of three adults and four kids. We also had a perfect view of the Main Street tree lighting.





After the parade, the kids wanted to ride Indy, which had a 35-minute posted wait time but it was less than that. Then the big kids wanted to ride Incredicoaster so we park hopped for that, also a 35-minute wait that was accurate.

Crowds felt moderate in both parks and the park experience was very enjoyable from the time we arrived until about one hour prior to fireworks and then holy cow did the vibe change!

We had a later dinner at 8pm at the Carnation Cafe. The food was great! It was busy though! We had to wait a good amount of time for the food but we were happy to sit down and relax for a while. We actually didn’t pay and leave our table until 9:29, which is a pretty long time for a meal at Carnation Cafe but it worked out great since we got to see the snow on Main Street while we waited (we went out to dance around in it while waiting for our food) and we slipped under the rope as we left the restaurant and watched the fireworks.

I had the holiday dinner at Carnation and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a great value at $28.



I had to use the restroom while we were there and the line was super long so I decided to walk up Main Street to the bathroom by City Hall and there were so many people waiting for fireworks I could barely get through the crowd (and that was just one adult, no stroller). It definitely felt like people came just for the fireworks and maybe that is what caused the congestion at the parking lots.

After the fireworks we grabbed some ice cream at Gibson Girl then walked to the parking structure. DTD was mobbed. The lines for the trams were nuts. And when we exited the parking stricture they were redirecting traffic so oddly, we had to make a u-turn to get back the way we wanted to go. I’ve never seen it. Traffic was very congested.

So … did it thousands of locals descended on Disneyland just to watch a 15-minute fireworks show? It really did feel that way based on what happened with the crowds and traffic. It’s baffling but we had a fantastic time and I ate my weight in gingerbread so we all left happy!