Summer Vacation Time - San Diego, Hotel Del Coronado, Catalina, and of course DL

[Mazel]

Loving the trip report and pictures. I hope the lines calm down by the time we get there in January. I'm so not a rope drop kind of girl.

Looking forward to more updates.

 

[kaoden39]

That was the first time I say that one. We also got the stickers for the car (and I am so not a car sticker person!). We got the "my other car is a monorail...its an inside peel on sticker. I also wanted to get the "my family is a nightmare! sticker from Nightmare before Christmas.

I need the "my family is a nightmare" sticker. They would all get a good laugh out of it. I have one decal on my van and it is on the rear drivers side window and it is Maleficent.


A 270 minute wait? Crazy. I hope it's not that bad in November.

 

[KCmike]

270 minutes? Yikes. Just yikes. Great call to go single rider. I'd have to do that too. I still want to find a way to get there next year, long waits or not. My first thought after seeing the preview photos of it were that it looked like an awesome mix of fast fun ride and dark ride. So glad you thought so too!

I've also been a little curious how the LM ride will go over at WDW. Really, that's the only new ride that will open with the first phase of the expansion. The exteriors all look STUNNING, but how long will people want to just hang around and look at the exteriors? Well, I know I'll want to hang out and take a lot of photos, but I would think most won't. The Beast's castle will be cool, but if you don't plan to eat there, it might be a non-issue. I still think I'll enjoy it, but am secretly bracing myself for a little potential disappointment at how little new there is to do.

It sure looks like DCA didn't disappoint though. And what a glorious sky you had that day to enjoy while in the park!

I have really high hopes for the WDW expansion. They are due for something special to happen in the magic kingdom. I'm going to date myself but the last big thing happening in that park was the Splash Mountain debut. My wife and I drove down there that year for our first true vacation by ourselves.

 

[KCmike]

Hi Mike, joining in late but just finished catching up. I'm really enjoying your TR! Your experience in single rider line for RSR gives me hope for October.

We were in San Diego a couple of weeks earlier than you and had a blast as well. Didn't luck out with the weather and am jealous of the blue skies and great sunsets you got to experience. We stayed at Pacific Terrace Hotel further up north and enjoyed it. I tried to convince my family traveling with me to take a side trip to DLR but was shot down. Which is what led me to my solo trip planning for October while I'm down at SD for a conference.

Can't wait to read and see more of your TR!

We had heard from the people at the Del that the weather was miserable just days before we arrived. They said it was so hot. I thought I had been checking the weather and never saw what they spoke of. I am very thankful of what we got. It was never over the low 80's for a high and the nights got cool.

 

[KCmike]

Catching up!

Over 4 hours to ride RSR? What's more incredible is that people are waiting for that time......


It is interesting to read how you feel about DLR/WDW. I love DLR because of the nostalgia and the details. And there is just so much else to do in California.
I love WDW for the immersion factor...I don't always appreciate the size of the World and how there just seems to be so much more travel time needed to get to the parks. Sometimes, I just need to disconnect from real life for a while and WDW gives me that.

As always....great pictures. I'm enjoying seeing the parks through your lenses.

I am a bit defensive of Disneyland these days. I love it so. As for some of my harsh words for WDW they probably go a little undeserved. I do love the immersion factor that you spoke of. I just wish the parks were up to the standard they are in Anaheim.

Thanks for the comments on my pictures.

 

[KCmike]

Fantastic update Mike, love the carsland pics, cant wait to see it myself.
About the little mermaid, we found the ride to be a bit disappointing also,
maybe if the cars were to move a little slower and the lighting not so bright
it could be more enjoyable.

I'm glad you thought the same thing Mike about Lil Mermaid. I didn't want to be super critical over it. I just thought there should have been more. More rooms and more story to it. They have such a huge building and it felt like they left alot of story out of it. I'm glad they didn't screw up Carsland!

 

[KCmike]

I need the "my family is a nightmare" sticker. They would all get a good laugh out of it. I have one decal on my van and it is on the rear drivers side window and it is Maleficent.


A 270 minute wait? Crazy. I hope it's not that bad in November.

Those stickers had me cracking up. My wife tonight saw a V8 sign on a Chevy car and thought they might be Disneyland fans. Had to tell her its the real deal.

Loving the trip report and pictures. I hope the lines calm down by the time we get there in January. I'm so not a rope drop kind of girl.

Looking forward to more updates.

Thanks. Strange I use to be a commando park goer and now I'm a let's just enjoy it kind of guy. Guess I'm getting old? Nah.

 

[kylie71]

Thanks for the update!
Looking forward to Carsland over Labor Day... so do you think we should head straight to RSR, and not the fastpass machine??

Little Mermaid was disappointing to me as well... not a fave of mine.

Love your pics as usual... cannot wait for more!

Lori

 

[KCmike]

Rivers of America and the Mark Twain

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I've also been a little curious how the LM ride will go over at WDW. Really, that's the only new ride that will open with the first phase of the expansion. The exteriors all look STUNNING, but how long will people want to just hang around and look at the exteriors? Well, I know I'll want to hang out and take a lot of photos, but I would think most won't. The Beast's castle will be cool, but if you don't plan to eat there, it might be a non-issue. I still think I'll enjoy it, but am secretly bracing myself for a little potential disappointment at how little new there is to do.

That's my concern over the WDW Fantasyland update. It's going to look wonderful, but I'm not convinced that 2 new rides (7 Dwarfs mine car), rethemed rides, some new buildings, and new meet and greet locations are going to make it equal to Disneyland's brilliant Fantasyland.

I tend to view The Little Mermaid for what it is. A very elaborate Fantasyland style dark ride. As such I enjoy, but I do think that Disney oversold it. It's not Pirates of the Carribean or The Haunted Mansion, but I think Disney sold it as such. I think you can tell what they considered the big draw last year to be since Darth Vader was the star of the ad campaign.

Mike, I share some of your feelings about WDW. Sometimes I probably bash WDW more than it deserves, but I think that's a reaction on my part to the "why visit Disneyland when WDW is superior" mentality. Sometimes in order to explain why Disneyland is worth doing, you have to explain that it often contains superior versions of the same ride. Or in other words, I feel sorry for those who have only experienced the 5 minute highlights version of POTC and don't want to see the real one.

 

[KCmike]

Thanks for the update!
Looking forward to Carsland over Labor Day... so do you think we should head straight to RSR, and not the fastpass machine??

Little Mermaid was disappointing to me as well... not a fave of mine.

Love your pics as usual... cannot wait for more!

Lori

Thanks Lori. Your always so kind with your comments. How exciting that your going so soon! Hard to say what to do until you get inside the gate. Where are you staying?

 

[LovintheLodge]

Another great update Mike! Just love all your pictures especially the RSR ones! I am hoping for the same single rider relief when I get there! I am bummed to hear about LM...especially since they are putting one in at WDW. I wonder if it will be exactly the same as the one in DL?

Kerry

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[kylie71]

Thanks Lori. Your always so kind with your comments. How exciting that your going so soon! Hard to say what to do until you get inside the gate. Where are you staying?

Mike, staying at the Residence Inn Maingate, it's actually cheaper than the FI for the Labor Day weekend! I have never stayed there, so I'm looking forward to trying it.
I hope to get some nice pics to share.
Thanks for asking.

Lori

 

[KCmike]

Day 2 Continued:

After Little Mermaid we went to the Golden Zephyr (I'm not really a fan of this ride but love the look of it when looking towards the Paradise Pier. I decided to take some shots of them on the ride and some other things. I also secretly wanted to get a lemonade slushy. I got my youngest daughter hooked on them this trip as well.

From there we ran towards Silly Symphony Swings. I have to say that I really do enjoy this ride. It's alot of fun and gives great views of the park. I think they did a great job of changing it from the Orange Stinger. On the other hand I am not a fan at all of the Goofy Sky School. What were they thinking?

AT this point the Wife and kids decided to head back and take a break and just hang out at the FFI. I was like what? They went back and I went photographing! We only get 5 days at the "land" and I going tour de force. I decided to head back to the front of the gates of DCA and take in all the new stuff. I spent a good hour wandering through that area and then decided to head out into the esplanade and then eventually into Disneyland. I spend probably another hour there and then went back inside DCA. I got some really productive shots out of those few hours. When everyone arrived back for the afternoon/evening it was time for Aladdin. We've always enjoyed this show so much. It was good and almost great but the missing flying carpet scene was sorely missed.

Later that night we rode Monsters Inc, witnessed the Mad T Party which I thought was ok. I was super critical of the costumes I saw when they first talked about this show but it was ok. I wished I could have seen the ElecTRONica. We saw Glow Fest and it was ok as well. That night we saw World of Color from the third level in the blue section. I get more hooked on this show the more times we see it. The pure power of the water is amazing. I've got some photos of the day time show with Goofy showing how powerful the water shoots up in the daytime. I will post those when I get to that day. I have to say that the Brave scene they added was fantastic as well. They really did a good job with it. We had just saw the movie back in Denver and really had lowered our expectations of the movie before seeing it and we're quite surprised. We ended up seeing World of Color twice on this trip. The second time (Sunday night) we saw it from the railing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was unbelievable from down there. You can't see all of the images as good as from a few levels back but everyone has to see it from down there at least one more time. Again I will give a full report on the Sunday edition when I get to it.

Here are some shots.

Thanks everyone for sticking with the report.

 

[KCmike]

Another great update Mike! Just love all your pictures especially the RSR ones! I am hoping for the same single rider relief when I get there! I am bummed to hear about LM...especially since they are putting one in at WDW. I wonder if it will be exactly the same as the one in DL?

Kerry

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

I think its suppose to be a carbon copy except for the outside areas around it. I will post some more random RSR shots tonight!

 

[KCmike]

Mike, staying at the Residence Inn Maingate, it's actually cheaper than the FI for the Labor Day weekend! I have never stayed there, so I'm looking forward to trying it.
I hope to get some nice pics to share.
Thanks for asking.

Lori

Awesome Lori. Where is that in relation to Harbor Blvd?

 

[Mazel]

Mike, do you have all your pictures somewhere that we can look at them? I love your shots.

We're doing 3 days and when I saw you did 5 and didn't have enough time, I'm worried. We can't get our hotel for another night it's sold out. We're staying BWPPI. I'd change if I thought we really needed that extra day.

 

[KCmike]

Mike, do you have all your pictures somewhere that we can look at them? I love your shots.

We're doing 3 days and when I saw you did 5 and didn't have enough time, I'm worried. We can't get our hotel for another night it's sold out. We're staying BWPPI. I'd change if I thought we really needed that extra day.

5 days was plenty for us this time around. I say that because we had such a long vacation before hand. 5 days I would say is perfect for most new visitors. 4 might be ok but to see everything and take your time I would stay the week. With 3 (and I don't mean to scare you!) your probably going to feel rushed. The location of the hotel is great because its the closest hotel outside the park. If you plan it right you will be fine. Just go early, take a break, and stay late. Do you get any early entries?

All my photos I've uploaded are on photobucket.

My user name is KCmike1969. I believe anyone can view them. I don't have any blocks on them. Your free to visit it if you would like. Thanks for the nice comments.

 

[KCmike]

Here are some more Radiator Springs Racers shots in no particular order.

This one was in the que.

Interesting name, huh?

I've got several inside the ride but don't want to give too much away for those that still haven't ridden it yet.

Stay Tuned.

 

[onelilspark]

So what exactly is the Mad T Party?

To me it just seems like one big dance party...and I don't get it. Is it worth planning on checking out?