Vacation Dad
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2007
- Messages
- 148
Cast of Characters: Myself, my wife, and our 3 teenaged children (19, 17, 14)
Flew from Seattle to John Wayne/Orange County Airport. Got our rental car (right across the airport drive, no shuttle bus needed), stopped by a grocery store and were at our hotel about 90 minutes from when we landed.
Best Western Park Place Inn; Nov 18-23. We stayed in one of their mini-suites. The room has 2 queen beds and a queen fold-out sofa. Also in the room is a small fridge and microwave. Included is a decent (although some people disagree about this!) continental breakfast: danishes, donuts, toast, a few kinds of cereals, juice, hard boiled eggs, coffee etc. That really isnt much different from what we eat for breakfast at home. The place is great for us: very close to the park entrance, clean, and a decent sized room. The breakfast also started early at 6:30 which allowed us to get to the park extra early. The pool is small, but on previous trips when the kids were younger we managed to have fun in the pool for an hour here and there. So while the pool might not be the best, the location cant be beat. We stayed in room 369. This was on the top floor, north side of the building and about 7 or 8 rooms from the front of the building. Definitely one of the better locations in this hotel.
It has been said many times before, but get there early and learn how the fastpass system works! By noon or so, we had ridden many major rides and gathered several fastpasses for use later in the day. I was pretty much a commando on getting fastpasses as soon as possible as the window opened, but the few minutes spent doing this saved us hours later in the day. My kids caught on to how useful they were, and they were quite happy to remind me when to get the next fastpass. We went to our hotel to eat lunch and take a short break (a benefit to a close-in hotel with a fridge), and went back to the parks later in the day.
As best as I can recall, here is some information from Monday 11/19/07 (Monday of Thanksgiving week), an early entry day:
Arrived in line @ 6:45, in park at 7:07am (general park opening was at 8:00am). Went on Peter Pan twice, Teacups, Matterhorn (twice), BLAB and in line for SM during EE. We probably could have been more efficient during this time, but there were some family favorites on this list. This was the first and only time we went on BLAB, I was surprised how little my family enjoyed it. I thought they would have liked it much more than they did. We went on the following rides from 8:00am to noon (mostly in this order):
SM, Indy (twice), Splash, BTMRR (twice), Haunted Mansion, POTC, Small World, SM (using a FP), and maybe Star Tours.
Got the following Fastpasses:
SM at 8:00am
Splash at 8:45am
Indy at 9:30am
BTMRR 10:25
Haunted Mansion at 11:15
SM at 12:25pm
We then headed over to DCA where we got FPs for GRR and CA Sreamin and also went on the ride (about a 20 minute wait). We then headed over to ride ToT with only a few minutes wait. We then went on GRR because we were heading back to our hotel for lunch following the ride. Who cares if you get wet (and we got soaked) then! My family headed back to the hotel to take a break and have lunch. I gathered a FP for Soarin & headed into Disneyland to gather a FP for Autopia. So when I headed over to the hotel about 2:30 for lunch, I had 8 fastpasses in my pocket to use that night. After lunch we headed to DCA to use the FPs I had, and then over to Disneyland to stay until midnight. I believe that by the time the day was done, we went on 24 rides (mostly the e-ticket type rides), saw Fantasmic!, and the fireworks. We walked over 14 miles that day, and other than the entrance line in the morning we never spent more 20 minutes in any line.
I thought I would mention our Nemo experience. We went on Wed., 11/21, and were the 2nd family though one of the gates on this non early-entry day. People were running up Main Street (including people with strollers), and there were probably 15 CMs along the way trying to get people to slow down. For the most part, people eventually realized they were quite far up in the line and they did stop running. A CM met us where you leave the hub to go past the Matterhorn, stated that the line for Nemo starts here, and then slowly walked the line to the left of the Matterhorn and through the Nemo queue. It really slowed the line down, and seemed to work quite well. We were probably on the 4th or 5th sub of the day, and were off the ride by 8:40am. There were CMs telling people going on the right (Tomorrowland) side of the Matterhorn that the Nemo queue was on the other side of the mountain. We saw a few people who still tried to go around to Nemo that way (there are also other rides that direction), and the CMs at the Nemo queue made them go all the way back around the Matterhorn to get in line properly.
While my family was glad they went on the ride, they all said that they wouldnt want to spend more than 20 minutes waiting to ride it in the future. They felt it was on the level of rides such as Star Tours, Autopia, and the Jungle Cruise. To them, the experience of getting to the ride was more fun than actually going on the ride. It was fine to ride once during a visit to the park, but definitely not a we have to ride this experience. They are teenagers though, so if your kids are younger then your experience might be different.
Miscellaneous things we noticed:
The standby line in DCA for Soarin Over California was always long. It always seemed to be about 60 minutes.
The standby line for California Screamin was usually shorter than we anticipated. We waited in the standby line 3 times at different times of the day, and the wait was never more than 20 minutes. We didnt spend that much time in DCA, and we used the fastpass time there for Soarin.
The line for Tower of Terror was never more than just a few minutes long. We got a fastpass for the ride a couple times, but we really didnt need it.
Splash Mountain was a walk-on ride past about 9:30pm all 3 evenings we were there. I guess the cooler evening weather makes a difference as to when people want to go on the ride.
We saw very few people with Dream items. In 2.5 days in the park we saw about 5 people with dream fastpasses, and maybe 8 people with the dream ears. I had not anticipated seeing any of the white-vested CMs handing the stuff out, but I thought I would see more winners in the parks.
We also saw fewer characters than I would have thought. We didnt spend a lot of time in areas where the characters often show up, but we also didnt see as many as I would have expected.
Flew from Seattle to John Wayne/Orange County Airport. Got our rental car (right across the airport drive, no shuttle bus needed), stopped by a grocery store and were at our hotel about 90 minutes from when we landed.
Best Western Park Place Inn; Nov 18-23. We stayed in one of their mini-suites. The room has 2 queen beds and a queen fold-out sofa. Also in the room is a small fridge and microwave. Included is a decent (although some people disagree about this!) continental breakfast: danishes, donuts, toast, a few kinds of cereals, juice, hard boiled eggs, coffee etc. That really isnt much different from what we eat for breakfast at home. The place is great for us: very close to the park entrance, clean, and a decent sized room. The breakfast also started early at 6:30 which allowed us to get to the park extra early. The pool is small, but on previous trips when the kids were younger we managed to have fun in the pool for an hour here and there. So while the pool might not be the best, the location cant be beat. We stayed in room 369. This was on the top floor, north side of the building and about 7 or 8 rooms from the front of the building. Definitely one of the better locations in this hotel.
It has been said many times before, but get there early and learn how the fastpass system works! By noon or so, we had ridden many major rides and gathered several fastpasses for use later in the day. I was pretty much a commando on getting fastpasses as soon as possible as the window opened, but the few minutes spent doing this saved us hours later in the day. My kids caught on to how useful they were, and they were quite happy to remind me when to get the next fastpass. We went to our hotel to eat lunch and take a short break (a benefit to a close-in hotel with a fridge), and went back to the parks later in the day.
As best as I can recall, here is some information from Monday 11/19/07 (Monday of Thanksgiving week), an early entry day:
Arrived in line @ 6:45, in park at 7:07am (general park opening was at 8:00am). Went on Peter Pan twice, Teacups, Matterhorn (twice), BLAB and in line for SM during EE. We probably could have been more efficient during this time, but there were some family favorites on this list. This was the first and only time we went on BLAB, I was surprised how little my family enjoyed it. I thought they would have liked it much more than they did. We went on the following rides from 8:00am to noon (mostly in this order):
SM, Indy (twice), Splash, BTMRR (twice), Haunted Mansion, POTC, Small World, SM (using a FP), and maybe Star Tours.
Got the following Fastpasses:
SM at 8:00am
Splash at 8:45am
Indy at 9:30am
BTMRR 10:25
Haunted Mansion at 11:15
SM at 12:25pm
We then headed over to DCA where we got FPs for GRR and CA Sreamin and also went on the ride (about a 20 minute wait). We then headed over to ride ToT with only a few minutes wait. We then went on GRR because we were heading back to our hotel for lunch following the ride. Who cares if you get wet (and we got soaked) then! My family headed back to the hotel to take a break and have lunch. I gathered a FP for Soarin & headed into Disneyland to gather a FP for Autopia. So when I headed over to the hotel about 2:30 for lunch, I had 8 fastpasses in my pocket to use that night. After lunch we headed to DCA to use the FPs I had, and then over to Disneyland to stay until midnight. I believe that by the time the day was done, we went on 24 rides (mostly the e-ticket type rides), saw Fantasmic!, and the fireworks. We walked over 14 miles that day, and other than the entrance line in the morning we never spent more 20 minutes in any line.
I thought I would mention our Nemo experience. We went on Wed., 11/21, and were the 2nd family though one of the gates on this non early-entry day. People were running up Main Street (including people with strollers), and there were probably 15 CMs along the way trying to get people to slow down. For the most part, people eventually realized they were quite far up in the line and they did stop running. A CM met us where you leave the hub to go past the Matterhorn, stated that the line for Nemo starts here, and then slowly walked the line to the left of the Matterhorn and through the Nemo queue. It really slowed the line down, and seemed to work quite well. We were probably on the 4th or 5th sub of the day, and were off the ride by 8:40am. There were CMs telling people going on the right (Tomorrowland) side of the Matterhorn that the Nemo queue was on the other side of the mountain. We saw a few people who still tried to go around to Nemo that way (there are also other rides that direction), and the CMs at the Nemo queue made them go all the way back around the Matterhorn to get in line properly.
While my family was glad they went on the ride, they all said that they wouldnt want to spend more than 20 minutes waiting to ride it in the future. They felt it was on the level of rides such as Star Tours, Autopia, and the Jungle Cruise. To them, the experience of getting to the ride was more fun than actually going on the ride. It was fine to ride once during a visit to the park, but definitely not a we have to ride this experience. They are teenagers though, so if your kids are younger then your experience might be different.
Miscellaneous things we noticed:
The standby line in DCA for Soarin Over California was always long. It always seemed to be about 60 minutes.
The standby line for California Screamin was usually shorter than we anticipated. We waited in the standby line 3 times at different times of the day, and the wait was never more than 20 minutes. We didnt spend that much time in DCA, and we used the fastpass time there for Soarin.
The line for Tower of Terror was never more than just a few minutes long. We got a fastpass for the ride a couple times, but we really didnt need it.
Splash Mountain was a walk-on ride past about 9:30pm all 3 evenings we were there. I guess the cooler evening weather makes a difference as to when people want to go on the ride.
We saw very few people with Dream items. In 2.5 days in the park we saw about 5 people with dream fastpasses, and maybe 8 people with the dream ears. I had not anticipated seeing any of the white-vested CMs handing the stuff out, but I thought I would see more winners in the parks.
We also saw fewer characters than I would have thought. We didnt spend a lot of time in areas where the characters often show up, but we also didnt see as many as I would have expected.
