Taking a First Time Visitor (follow up to autograph question)

DVC Daisy

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It has been so long since we have taken a first timer to a Disney park, I am not sure if I could be more excited :thumbsup2. I had always just assumed it would be when we were finally blessed with a DGC old enough to go.

However, will be taking DS & his 23yo GF to DL and she has never been to ANY amusement park! EVER! So, as avid Disney fans whose son had his first DL trip at three and WDW trip at seven, it is so hard to remember all of the really cool, exciting things to do with a first time visitor.

I now have the answer to the shirt autographs (AWESOME)! Any other ideas? We will only be there for Sat and Sun 8-9th of Nov. However if we plan to spend all day there both days, I think we will be ok. We won't have to work around nap times LOL.

Any suggestions welcome! We have been to both DL & WDW so many times that I really do not even remember newbie stuff. I think I will get her a My First Visit button :woohoo: anything else?

Oh, and any DL restaurant recommendations welcome as well! We prefer to stay away from the buffets, however one character one might be fun. I would have no idea what would be best however. I would describe DS & his GF as adventurous (mostly vegetarian) eaters. I am struggling with restaurant choices. Most of our trips have been to WDW!

All help and advice very much appreciated!

As a DL & WDW super veteran, I am amazed that I am even asking these questions LOL! SO EXCITED :banana: I guess it is the little things in life.
 
We were in almost the identical situation last year with ds and his gf. I got the photo pass plus and they had a great time posing at all the photo locations and with the characters! I was surprised how much fun they had with this as ds isn't a photo guy. Btw he was 23 and she was 21 at the time. And now they have a great keepsake of her first visit.
 
We were in almost the identical situation last year with ds and his gf. I got the photo pass plus and they had a great time posing at all the photo locations and with the characters! I was surprised how much fun they had with this as ds isn't a photo guy. Btw he was 23 and she was 21 at the time. And now they have a great keepsake of her first visit.

I was actually thinking of doing just that! But our son is not a photo guy either :confused3 and I did not know how available the photographers are around the parks are recently. I think our last couple of trips to DL, maybe 4-5 years ago, there we only around the super popular places. Park entry places, etc. Of course, we did not even meet the characters! We stopped getting to do that when he was about eight or so :rolleyes2.

Excellent suggestion! As I am no longer familiar with the DL Photopass system, is it best to pre-order as it is for WDW? I assume it would be the same process with using a lanyard? And are ride photos included?

I swear, I feel like I am asking questions like I have never even been to a Disney park! Pleas excuse me! My only defense is that I have spent years of answering questions for newbies :goodvibes

Oh - and a BIG YES on the Firs Visit Button! Thank you!
 

I was actually thinking of doing just that! But our son is not a photo guy either :confused3 and I did not know how available the photographers are around the parks are recently. I think our last couple of trips to DL, maybe 4-5 years ago, there we only around the super popular places. Park entry places, etc. Of course, we did not even meet the characters! We stopped getting to do that when he was about eight or so :rolleyes2.

Excellent suggestion! As I am no longer familiar with the DL Photopass system, is it best to pre-order as it is for WDW? I assume it would be the same process with using a lanyard? And are ride photos included?

I swear, I feel like I am asking questions like I have never even been to a Disney park! Pleas excuse me! My only defense is that I have spent years of answering questions for newbies :goodvibes

Oh - and a BIG YES on the Firs Visit Button! Thank you!

It's amazing what young men will do to make the gf happy! And once she got him to do it a few times it became a game for them. I believe it is much cheaper to preorder. Yes to the lanyard. All the ride photos are included as well, which makes them a lot more fun to do as well!
 
It's amazing what young men will do to make the gf happy! And once she got him to do it a few times it became a game for them. I believe it is much cheaper to preorder. Yes to the lanyard. All the ride photos are included as well, which makes them a lot more fun to do as well!

Thank you! Much appreciated :cool1:

Also amazing is how there are young adults that have never even visited a Disney park! As a Disney fanatic it is :confused3. Glad I get to take her on her first visit! WOOT! Oh, and they live in SoCal less than an hour away! :rotfl2:
 
Nov 8th and 9th will be the Christmas parade taping days in DL. You might want to look at some trip reports so you know what to expect from those days.
 
Nov 8th and 9th will be the Christmas parade taping days in DL. You might want to look at some trip reports so you know what to expect from those days.

ACK! Does that mean it will be packed? We switched from Nov 15-16 because it was race weekend! Grrr......

Ugh.
 
Nov 8th and 9th will be the Christmas parade taping days in DL. You might want to look at some trip reports so you know what to expect from those days.

Thanks for the info! I looked at some reviews, and info. It does look like some things may be inaccessible during that weekend and on the crowd calendar that I could find even though the race weekend will be packed, it looked like it would be slightly less packed than the weekend before.

Now I am rethinking the dates. Hmmm.... Finding out now if DS & GF are free the following weekend.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for the information! I had absolutely no idea! :worship:
 
Race weekend crowds are different than parade filming crowds. This is the first Avengers and November race, so crowds will be hard to predict. But that race did sell out very quickly, in a matter of hours. Although runDisney doesn't make the capacity public, I think it will be popular. On parade weekend, holiday decorations will be partially up (no tree), and a good chunk of the crowds will be camped out on Main St or lined up to see the performances. But for many people the fact that the castle will be blocked by a stage and walking paths will be closed is more of a turn off than the crowds, which are actually pretty contained to the front of the park. If at all possible, you might want to shift your trip by a day, not a week. Do most of your DL touring on Friday and concentrate on DCA on Saturday.
 
Race weekend crowds are different than parade filming crowds. This is the first Avengers and November race, so crowds will be hard to predict. But that race did sell out very quickly, in a matter of hours. Although runDisney doesn't make the capacity public, I think it will be popular. On parade weekend, holiday decorations will be partially up (no tree), and a good chunk of the crowds will be camped out on Main St or lined up to see the performances. But for many people the fact that the castle will be blocked by a stage and walking paths will be closed is more of a turn off than the crowds, which are actually pretty contained to the front of the park. If at all possible, you might want to shift your trip by a day, not a week. Do most of your DL touring on Friday and concentrate on DCA on Saturday.


Unfortunately shifting our plans by a day is not an option as both DS & GF both work full time, and as they are both just a year out of college, pretty long hours. So they will not even get off of work until after 6:00-6:30ish Fri night and they each live about an hour away from Anaheim. Mon-Fri Nov 10-14th DH & I will be on a cruise out if LA so we are also trying to work around that if possible.

I do know that the two RunDisney races that I did I did not tour the parks. Which means both that not all runners go to the parks, and I have no idea how crowded it will be!

So much to try to figure out! Go figure, until now, I have not had to think about a thing before planning a trip in ages!
 
Unfortunately shifting our plans by a day is not an option as both DS & GF both work full time, and as they are both just a year out of college, pretty long hours. So they will not even get off of work until after 6:00-6:30ish Fri night and they each live about an hour away from Anaheim. Mon-Fri Nov 10-14th DH & I will be on a cruise out if LA so we are also trying to work around that if possible.

I do know that the two RunDisney races that I did I did not tour the parks. Which means both that not all runners go to the parks, and I have no idea how crowded it will be!

So much to try to figure out! Go figure, until now, I have not had to think about a thing before planning a trip in ages!

You could always ask them if they want to see the parade filming. They might be excited by the idea.
 
I have gone that parade filming weekend a few times. It is mostly crowded on Main St. with people sitting around waiting for the parade and then watching the filming (lots of "retakes"!). There is a stage set up in front of the Castle, so you cannot walk through it, but other than that, it is not bad crowd-wise. Lots of locals will go just for the filming, so there is not a big impact other than Main Street. The times I went there were no fireworks, but lines at rides were not long. It is a fun weekend as you start to see some of the holiday decorations.
 
I'm also taking my friend and her 2yr old son for they're first visit next week. We will be attending MHP too I can't wait I think I'm more excited then she is
 
Thank you for all of the replies! Especially the info on the difference between the two weekends that we were considering. Extremely helpful!!!

I did ask DS & GF and they both would prefer to go the weekend of Nov 15-16th. They want to see the decorations, DS did not want to have all of the Main Street stuff blocked off if possible, and GF is a runner! I am hoping that she will catch the RunDisney bug and enter a race with me in the future LOL! :cool1:

So, back to first timer stuff! Or any other things that I did not know (like the choice of weekend, that turned out to be huge)!

PhotopassPlus - check

First Time Button - check

Characters CAN sign T shirts (not worn) - check

Still looking for food recommendations. Possibly a character meal, however with 4 adults and all on the more whole foods, vegetarian, and Paleo eating types we will be difficult to accommodate everyone. DS & GF are adventurous eaters. She is mostly vegetarian. DS & I are mostly Paleo and Hubby eats junk :rotfl2:

I am completely sure we will all be very off track for the weekend and eat more like DH, but I still need any and all restaurant suggestions! I am really struggling :confused3

Any and all help would be appreciated :cheer2::cheer2::cheer2:
 


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