ChurroGirl
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2021
- Messages
- 39
Hello all! My family just came back from an amazing trip to Disneyland & DCA, thanks to this forum and all of your advice/strategies. I wanted to share a detailed trip report, specifically focused on our hotel stay and logistics, which can hopefully help someone with their own trip planning. Planning is half the fun 
My family (husband, daughter (8), son (5) and myself) flew into Long Beach airport (LGB) on Wednesday 4/12 from the Bay Area. My kids were on Spring Break that week and I was prepared for big crowds (turns out it was very manageable and not packed at all, especially on Saturday & Sunday). My sister and her husband were joining us for our trip, which was so fun for everyone. They live in Southern California, so they had a 2 hour drive and met us there in the afternoon. We had a super smooth fight and easy Lyft ride to the hotel - about 31 minutes total of drive time. We usually fly into Orange County airport (SNA) but it was considerably cheaper to fly into LGB. We were dropped off at the Grand Californian Hotel which is always so breathtaking and gorgeous. We all feel incredibly lucky to be able to stay there.
The lobby was pretty quiet (this was around 1pm) and I was checked in without a wait. We booked a standard room for 5 nights. My son loves the pull-down sofa daybed and I had requested that during our initial booking and had also called a few days prior to check-in to make sure the request was on our reservation. We were kindly upgraded to a woods-courtyard view room, but it only had 2 queen beds. The receptionist made a few phone calls and found a room with a daybed in it, phew! It also happened to be a woods-courtyard view, which was nice. The room wasn't ready so we gave our bags to Bell Service, and went off exploring the hotel. We visited the lobby, 6th floor Parkview terrace overlooking DCA, the 5th floor terrace overlooking the pools (there were 2 ping pong tables which my kids were so excited about, but no ping pong paddles or balls - maybe we had to ask for these?), the grand outdoor fireplace, the pools (asked for a pool key from the lobby so we could access it), and the “secret” entrance into DCA for Paradise Pier guests.
We were all feeling pretty hungry so we headed to Downtown Disney for lunch at Naples. It was delicious. While at lunch, I got a text saying our room was ready! So we headed to our room and used our digital key to enter (Room 2114). My sister’s room was right next door to us, room 2112. We had nice view of the courtyard and monorail zipping by. The kids got a kick out of it. I will note that this room is very close to the monorail and you could hear it buzzing by, even with the balcony door closed. It never bothered us, but it was noticeable. I think there is one room even closer to it, probably 2116, then it’s a dead end with an exit to a staircase with the monorail on the other side of the staircase.
Our room had a bathtub, which was new to us. Last year, we stayed in a standard view room (Room 4123) and it only had a stall shower. There was a slight difference in layout as well - the coffee bar setup & mini fridge was separated by a wall - it wasn’t a seamless transition from the desk & TV/dresser. This wasn’t the case in the other room. I also believe the closet was larger in our previous room. Before I forget, I have to say, the housekeeping staff was incredible. They visited our rooms twice a day (morning and evening) to make our beds, empty the trash, replenish towels, etc. We very much appreciated them and they really went above and beyond, such as tidying our room and the kids’ toys, wrapping our cords up so neatly, putting our toothbrushes on little towels before bed, and more. We didn’t have housekeeping during our last visit in February 2022, and boy it sure makes a difference now that we’ve experienced it! As a mom who’s used to doing all of that, it was a nice reprieve to not have to worry about any of it.
We hit up the pools that afternoon and the kids had a blast. It was a chillier day but the pools were heated. The waterslide was a hit, and so was the hot tub! It was easy to find loungers, in fact, there were plenty available around the Mariposa pool. It was more lively around the Redwood pool (the one with the waterslides) and lots of families were using the poolside service for drinks and food.
That evening, we had a quick, light dinner at the Craftsman Grill since we had a later lunch. I personally love the Craftsman Grill. It’s tucked away so I’m not sure how many people know about it, because whenever I’ve popped in there, it’s pretty empty. The food is good (the kids' meals are tiny, just FYI) and it's so convenient. After dinner, our kids got to do their first ever pin trade at Acorns Gifts & Goods! We bought a random collection of pins from Etsy, and pin trading became one of the highlights of our trip! It was so much fun for them. We all went to bed early that night, not only because we were exhausted from our travel day, but we also had early entry into Disneyland the next morning!
6am rolled around quickly, and we were out the hotel door at 6:45am to line up in the Grand Californian courtyard for security, which opened at 7am. My husband and I don’t eat breakfast, so I packed some muffins for the kids to eat while we waited. After getting through security, we lined up at the main gate and they started letting guests enter around 7:20am. Originally I thought we weren't able to enter the main gates until 7:30, so I appreciated the extra time that allowed us to get lined up at the hub before our early entry time began (because 30 minutes goes by quickly!). Early entry guests are directed to the right side of main street, and they have a checkpoint for everyone to scan their hotel keys or phones to access the early entry section (near the Little Red Wagon). The rope drops at 7:30am for early entry guests (right between the Plaza Inn and Astro Orbiter) and we made our way into Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan!
Since I’ve already focused A LOT on our hotel and logistics, I’ll briefly review the rides and places we ate and add in any tips/comments that may be helpful. We bought Genie+ for one day - our third day of the trip in Disneyland. For all four days in the parks, we would leave by 2pm to take a break at the hotel for a few hours. Both kids took naps (which they don’t ever take at home - we went hard and we all needed that down time!). I much prefer doing this, because we not only get a break from the parks and all the people, but we are rested so we can stay up late and see all the nighttime entertainment.
Day 1 - Disneyland - Thursday 4/13 (the first 4 rides we did during early entry)
-Peter Pan
-Dumbo
-Alice in Wonderland
-Buzz Astro Blasters
-Star Tours
-Space Mountain
-Finding Nemo
-Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (it had been temporarily closed, and opened back up right as we entered ToonTown - got super lucky with a 5 minute wait! Also, such a fun and cute ride! We all LOVED it)
-Explored and played in ToonTown
-Chip n Dale’s Gadget Go Coaster
-Left ToonTown and encountered a WOOHOO box - where cast members yell out “Wooohoo!!!” if you step in the box - very cute!
-Stopped for a Mickey Pretzel near Small World
-Small World
-Caught the Train at the ToonTown station to New Orleans station
-Lunch at the Hungry Bear (we mobile ordered almost all of our food - so easy and efficient! Love that you can get beignets there.)
-Pirates of the Caribbean
-Dole whips and Tiki Room
-Left for rest time at the hotel
-Came back for the Magic Happens parade @ 6:30pm! Got spots on the ground near Pixie Hollow around 5:45pm. We all loved it so much and have been listening to that song on repeat!
-Dinner at Bengal BBQ (YUM!)
-Winnie the Pooh
-Treats from Pooh’s Corner (chocolate marshmallow wand and cake pops)
-Buzz Astro Blasters (yes- again, you’ll see a theme here, my son LOVES this ride)
-Walked to Small World to watch the fireworks but unfortunately it was too windy for fireworks, but we got to see the Wondrous Journey projections and it was beautiful! Fortunately we got to see the fireworks 2 nights later!
Day 2 - DCA - Friday 4/14
-We lined up for security by the direct entrance into DCA at 6:45am - we were maybe the 10th family lined up. They open security on that side at 7:20am, and we waited in a holding section right after the turnstiles until 7:30am. The first 2 rides were done during early entry.
-Web Slingers
-Stopped at Cappuccino Cart for coffee (I starting needing more caffeine at this point in the trip)
-Incredicoaster
-Toy Story Midway Mania
-Little Mermaid
-Luigi’s Rollickin Roadsters
-Tow Mater Jamboree
-Monster’s Inc
-Mickey’s Philharmagic
-Early lunch at Pym’s Test Kitchen (love the theming! Kids had fun watching the tiny pretzels turn into huge pretzels. Also, they open right at 10:30am for lunch and the line was long. I recommend mobile ordering there!)
-Soarin’
-Frozen banana treat
-Entered the Virtual Queue for World Of Color showing @ 9pm (we got it!)
-Radiator Racers (bought Individual Lightening Lanes to bypass the hour wait)
-Grizzly River Rapids (not a hot day at all, but we all enjoyed it and got some good laughs, and were able to walk to our room right after to change out of our wet clothes.)
-Rest time at the hotel (since we had an early lunch, I got some snacks from Craftsman Grill after the kids woke up- chicken strips, fries, fruit. All very tasty!)
-Entered DCA around 5:30pm using the Paradise Pier hotel guest entrance- very quiet there!
-Golden Zephyr
-Redwood Creek Challenge
-Animation Academy (we drew Stitch)
-Sorcerer’s Workshop (had a lot of fun finding out which character we would be)
-Jumpin’ Jellyfish
-Lined up at the Blue section to enter the viewing area for WOC at 8:15pm
-Brought back food to eat while we waited for the show (strong remarks for the chicken teriyaki from Lucky Fortune Cookery from my daughter, my son got a kids burger from Flo’s)
-Watched WOC (amazing show!!! I heard the kids say “Wow” over and over!)
-Our kids convinced us to do one last run on the Grizzly River Run (fun mom deserves some points here). Saw the fireworks as we were on the ride which was pretty cool.
-Headed to bed
Day 3 - Disneyland - Saturday 4/15 (used Genie+ today to tackle the bigger rides)
-Security line was considerably shorter this morning, much less people lined up for early entry. We noticed that Saturday and Sunday were less busy than Thursday & Friday. Especially Sunday afternoon and evening. You could get on almost any ride in less than 20 minutes. It was great. I watched Fresh Baked and he said the same thing. Sunday afternoons are blissful in the parks. It has something to do with discouraging magic key holders to come on weekends by limiting reservations.
-Entered Fantasyland at 7:30am thru the same early entry process
-Pinocchio
-Snow White
-Carousel
-Tea cups
-Loved MMRR so much that we lined up outside of ToonTown to rope drop it, rode MMRR right at 8am. Early Entry guests get a nice head start.
-Matterhorn
-Buzz Astro Blasters (again)
-Haunted Mansion
-Splash Mountain
-Smuggler’s Run Millenium Falcon (used Genie+)
-Rise of the Resistance (bought ILL for this)
-Lunch at Rancho del Zocolo (tostada salad was fresh and tasty! Kids got food from Village Haus)
-Pirates
-Mint Juleps (first time, very good!)
-Castle walk through
-Matterhorn again (my son wanted to try it, and ended up loving it -used Genie+)
-Autopia (used Genie+)
-My husband got the Chermoula Chicken & Rice dish from Troubadour Tavern and RAVED about it, so I had to add that in here.
-Left for rest at hotel
-We had the Hungry Bear Fantasmic Dining package this evening at 5:30pm. Showed up and it was a very smooth process. If the kids didn’t like the three options (mac n cheese, impossible sloppy joe, or ribs) they could substitute it with either a cheeseburger or chicken tenders & fries. My daughter got the chicken tenders and my son got the mac n cheese. I ordered the half chicken and my husband got the ribs. All of it was really good! We thought the half chicken was the winner- it was very tender and flavorful. Unfortunately, our timing wasn't the greatest because we weren’t very hungry and it was A LOT of food. But we saved it in our stroller and snacked on it later during the show.
-Indiana Jones was down for most of the day, so by the time it reopened, the standby line was 80 minutes and lightning lanes were unavailable past 5:30pm, so this is one we’ll have to do on our next trip ;-)
-My husband wanted to utilize our Genie+ as much as possible, so he booked Goofy’s Sky School after dinner - on the way out of the park, we caught Magic Happens again!
-Goofy’s Sky School (used Genie+)
-Little Mermaid
-Back to Disneyland for a Gibson Girl ice cream treat and Fanstasmic!
-None of us had ever seen Fanstamic. The Hungry Bear dining package provided an incredible view (we got there around 8:15pm for the 9pm show - you enter next to the Harbour Galley). We loved being able to sit down and relax and eat the rest of our dinner. You can enter and exit to use the restroom or get popcorn like we did. The show was spectacular. Another one that brought out the “oooooohhs” and “ahhhhhhs” and “wowwwwwws”. We stayed in our spot to watch the fireworks and projections on the Rivers of America @ 9:30pm. Stunning! We saw Mickey’s Mix Magic in Feb 2022 and while it is a fun and catchy song, Wondrous Journey has so much emotion and heart to it.
-Had to finish our day strong with one last ride request from my son, Star Tours (used Genie+), and a churro for me and my daughter
Day 4 - DCA - Sunday 4/16
-We knew our limits and figured we’d take it a lot slower on our last day, so we slept in and had a reservation for breakfast at Storyteller’s Café at 8:50am (you can use the app to check in for your reservation).
-At Storyteller’s, the kids liked seeing the characters and the breakfast was good. My husband and my daughter prefer the dinner buffet which we had last year. My son loved the fruit loops, haha. It was expensive (as were most things on this trip) but we knew that going into it and enjoyed our slow morning there, but probably wouldn’t do it again. My kids aren’t into meeting the characters in the parks, as they’d much rather ride rides or pin trade. So it was nice to finally get personal interactions with the characters.
-Sunday was Dapper Day in the parks and it was so fun and festive! We loved seeing all of the unique costumes and dresses and accessories! This was our last day to re-ride any favorite rides and get to those that we hadn’t done, so it was kind of a jumbled up day, still fun nonetheless.
-After breakfast, we started in DCA around 10:15am:
-Web Slingers
-Over the Disneyland to ride:
-Thunder Mountain
-Matterhorn
-Back to DCA for Alice’s Wonderland Bakery experience (this was really cute and I highly recommend it for kids who watch the show) We didn’t make it in time for the first show (they allow 42 kids in per show to decorate a cupcake, for free!) so we watched Mickey’s Philharmagic again to pass the time until the next show. Make sure you line up early if you want a spot! Lots of people were turned away.
-Lunch at Pacific Wharf area (I got one of my favorite meals from the whole trip - the tacos dorados de papa - so crispy and fresh and flavorful!)
-Back to hotel from rest
-Souvenir shopping at the Emporium
-Magic Happens for the third time (can you tell we like it?), saw it from the curb on Main St. which is my favorite spot to watch parades.
-Buzz Astro Blasters
-Star Tours
-Storybook Canal
-Finding Nemo
-Dinner at Pizza Planet (I really liked the chicken fusilli pasta dish, and my son loved the kids pizza)
-My husband and son headed to Astro Orbiter for their very last ride while my daughter and I went to Main St. to finish our souvenir shopping while simultaneously watching the Fireworks. My daughter ended up picking out a Minnie Mouse Munchlings ornament that she had personalized with her name - this was a new find for us! You can have items from the Holiday Shoppe personalized for a nominal fee.
-Back to our room around 10pm for our final night at GCH
-Packed up the next morning and headed to the lobby to catch our Lyft ride around 9:30am. Back to LGB airport for a quick and easy flight back home.
All in all, we all had a fantastic and magical trip. Staying onsite really allowed us to escape the “real world” and become encompassed in the Disney bubble. We have zero complaints about the hotel (well, it’s very pricey, but there’s no getting around that) and our time in the parks (we got lucky that we didn’t experience a single ride breakdown, and not many rides were closed for refurbishment while we were there). We learned new things on this trip, and we were lucky to have medium-light crowds. Sunday was amazing, crowd-wise, so for anyone looking for a light crowd day, I’d recommend going to the parks on a Sunday.
We already can’t wait for our next trip, which may not be for another year or so, but in the meantime we’ll be listening to Wondrous Journey and Magic Happens on repeat
My family (husband, daughter (8), son (5) and myself) flew into Long Beach airport (LGB) on Wednesday 4/12 from the Bay Area. My kids were on Spring Break that week and I was prepared for big crowds (turns out it was very manageable and not packed at all, especially on Saturday & Sunday). My sister and her husband were joining us for our trip, which was so fun for everyone. They live in Southern California, so they had a 2 hour drive and met us there in the afternoon. We had a super smooth fight and easy Lyft ride to the hotel - about 31 minutes total of drive time. We usually fly into Orange County airport (SNA) but it was considerably cheaper to fly into LGB. We were dropped off at the Grand Californian Hotel which is always so breathtaking and gorgeous. We all feel incredibly lucky to be able to stay there.
The lobby was pretty quiet (this was around 1pm) and I was checked in without a wait. We booked a standard room for 5 nights. My son loves the pull-down sofa daybed and I had requested that during our initial booking and had also called a few days prior to check-in to make sure the request was on our reservation. We were kindly upgraded to a woods-courtyard view room, but it only had 2 queen beds. The receptionist made a few phone calls and found a room with a daybed in it, phew! It also happened to be a woods-courtyard view, which was nice. The room wasn't ready so we gave our bags to Bell Service, and went off exploring the hotel. We visited the lobby, 6th floor Parkview terrace overlooking DCA, the 5th floor terrace overlooking the pools (there were 2 ping pong tables which my kids were so excited about, but no ping pong paddles or balls - maybe we had to ask for these?), the grand outdoor fireplace, the pools (asked for a pool key from the lobby so we could access it), and the “secret” entrance into DCA for Paradise Pier guests.
We were all feeling pretty hungry so we headed to Downtown Disney for lunch at Naples. It was delicious. While at lunch, I got a text saying our room was ready! So we headed to our room and used our digital key to enter (Room 2114). My sister’s room was right next door to us, room 2112. We had nice view of the courtyard and monorail zipping by. The kids got a kick out of it. I will note that this room is very close to the monorail and you could hear it buzzing by, even with the balcony door closed. It never bothered us, but it was noticeable. I think there is one room even closer to it, probably 2116, then it’s a dead end with an exit to a staircase with the monorail on the other side of the staircase.
Our room had a bathtub, which was new to us. Last year, we stayed in a standard view room (Room 4123) and it only had a stall shower. There was a slight difference in layout as well - the coffee bar setup & mini fridge was separated by a wall - it wasn’t a seamless transition from the desk & TV/dresser. This wasn’t the case in the other room. I also believe the closet was larger in our previous room. Before I forget, I have to say, the housekeeping staff was incredible. They visited our rooms twice a day (morning and evening) to make our beds, empty the trash, replenish towels, etc. We very much appreciated them and they really went above and beyond, such as tidying our room and the kids’ toys, wrapping our cords up so neatly, putting our toothbrushes on little towels before bed, and more. We didn’t have housekeeping during our last visit in February 2022, and boy it sure makes a difference now that we’ve experienced it! As a mom who’s used to doing all of that, it was a nice reprieve to not have to worry about any of it.
We hit up the pools that afternoon and the kids had a blast. It was a chillier day but the pools were heated. The waterslide was a hit, and so was the hot tub! It was easy to find loungers, in fact, there were plenty available around the Mariposa pool. It was more lively around the Redwood pool (the one with the waterslides) and lots of families were using the poolside service for drinks and food.
That evening, we had a quick, light dinner at the Craftsman Grill since we had a later lunch. I personally love the Craftsman Grill. It’s tucked away so I’m not sure how many people know about it, because whenever I’ve popped in there, it’s pretty empty. The food is good (the kids' meals are tiny, just FYI) and it's so convenient. After dinner, our kids got to do their first ever pin trade at Acorns Gifts & Goods! We bought a random collection of pins from Etsy, and pin trading became one of the highlights of our trip! It was so much fun for them. We all went to bed early that night, not only because we were exhausted from our travel day, but we also had early entry into Disneyland the next morning!
6am rolled around quickly, and we were out the hotel door at 6:45am to line up in the Grand Californian courtyard for security, which opened at 7am. My husband and I don’t eat breakfast, so I packed some muffins for the kids to eat while we waited. After getting through security, we lined up at the main gate and they started letting guests enter around 7:20am. Originally I thought we weren't able to enter the main gates until 7:30, so I appreciated the extra time that allowed us to get lined up at the hub before our early entry time began (because 30 minutes goes by quickly!). Early entry guests are directed to the right side of main street, and they have a checkpoint for everyone to scan their hotel keys or phones to access the early entry section (near the Little Red Wagon). The rope drops at 7:30am for early entry guests (right between the Plaza Inn and Astro Orbiter) and we made our way into Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan!
Since I’ve already focused A LOT on our hotel and logistics, I’ll briefly review the rides and places we ate and add in any tips/comments that may be helpful. We bought Genie+ for one day - our third day of the trip in Disneyland. For all four days in the parks, we would leave by 2pm to take a break at the hotel for a few hours. Both kids took naps (which they don’t ever take at home - we went hard and we all needed that down time!). I much prefer doing this, because we not only get a break from the parks and all the people, but we are rested so we can stay up late and see all the nighttime entertainment.
Day 1 - Disneyland - Thursday 4/13 (the first 4 rides we did during early entry)
-Peter Pan
-Dumbo
-Alice in Wonderland
-Buzz Astro Blasters
-Star Tours
-Space Mountain
-Finding Nemo
-Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (it had been temporarily closed, and opened back up right as we entered ToonTown - got super lucky with a 5 minute wait! Also, such a fun and cute ride! We all LOVED it)
-Explored and played in ToonTown
-Chip n Dale’s Gadget Go Coaster
-Left ToonTown and encountered a WOOHOO box - where cast members yell out “Wooohoo!!!” if you step in the box - very cute!
-Stopped for a Mickey Pretzel near Small World
-Small World
-Caught the Train at the ToonTown station to New Orleans station
-Lunch at the Hungry Bear (we mobile ordered almost all of our food - so easy and efficient! Love that you can get beignets there.)
-Pirates of the Caribbean
-Dole whips and Tiki Room
-Left for rest time at the hotel
-Came back for the Magic Happens parade @ 6:30pm! Got spots on the ground near Pixie Hollow around 5:45pm. We all loved it so much and have been listening to that song on repeat!
-Dinner at Bengal BBQ (YUM!)
-Winnie the Pooh
-Treats from Pooh’s Corner (chocolate marshmallow wand and cake pops)
-Buzz Astro Blasters (yes- again, you’ll see a theme here, my son LOVES this ride)
-Walked to Small World to watch the fireworks but unfortunately it was too windy for fireworks, but we got to see the Wondrous Journey projections and it was beautiful! Fortunately we got to see the fireworks 2 nights later!
Day 2 - DCA - Friday 4/14
-We lined up for security by the direct entrance into DCA at 6:45am - we were maybe the 10th family lined up. They open security on that side at 7:20am, and we waited in a holding section right after the turnstiles until 7:30am. The first 2 rides were done during early entry.
-Web Slingers
-Stopped at Cappuccino Cart for coffee (I starting needing more caffeine at this point in the trip)
-Incredicoaster
-Toy Story Midway Mania
-Little Mermaid
-Luigi’s Rollickin Roadsters
-Tow Mater Jamboree
-Monster’s Inc
-Mickey’s Philharmagic
-Early lunch at Pym’s Test Kitchen (love the theming! Kids had fun watching the tiny pretzels turn into huge pretzels. Also, they open right at 10:30am for lunch and the line was long. I recommend mobile ordering there!)
-Soarin’
-Frozen banana treat
-Entered the Virtual Queue for World Of Color showing @ 9pm (we got it!)
-Radiator Racers (bought Individual Lightening Lanes to bypass the hour wait)
-Grizzly River Rapids (not a hot day at all, but we all enjoyed it and got some good laughs, and were able to walk to our room right after to change out of our wet clothes.)
-Rest time at the hotel (since we had an early lunch, I got some snacks from Craftsman Grill after the kids woke up- chicken strips, fries, fruit. All very tasty!)
-Entered DCA around 5:30pm using the Paradise Pier hotel guest entrance- very quiet there!
-Golden Zephyr
-Redwood Creek Challenge
-Animation Academy (we drew Stitch)
-Sorcerer’s Workshop (had a lot of fun finding out which character we would be)
-Jumpin’ Jellyfish
-Lined up at the Blue section to enter the viewing area for WOC at 8:15pm
-Brought back food to eat while we waited for the show (strong remarks for the chicken teriyaki from Lucky Fortune Cookery from my daughter, my son got a kids burger from Flo’s)
-Watched WOC (amazing show!!! I heard the kids say “Wow” over and over!)
-Our kids convinced us to do one last run on the Grizzly River Run (fun mom deserves some points here). Saw the fireworks as we were on the ride which was pretty cool.
-Headed to bed
Day 3 - Disneyland - Saturday 4/15 (used Genie+ today to tackle the bigger rides)
-Security line was considerably shorter this morning, much less people lined up for early entry. We noticed that Saturday and Sunday were less busy than Thursday & Friday. Especially Sunday afternoon and evening. You could get on almost any ride in less than 20 minutes. It was great. I watched Fresh Baked and he said the same thing. Sunday afternoons are blissful in the parks. It has something to do with discouraging magic key holders to come on weekends by limiting reservations.
-Entered Fantasyland at 7:30am thru the same early entry process
-Pinocchio
-Snow White
-Carousel
-Tea cups
-Loved MMRR so much that we lined up outside of ToonTown to rope drop it, rode MMRR right at 8am. Early Entry guests get a nice head start.
-Matterhorn
-Buzz Astro Blasters (again)
-Haunted Mansion
-Splash Mountain
-Smuggler’s Run Millenium Falcon (used Genie+)
-Rise of the Resistance (bought ILL for this)
-Lunch at Rancho del Zocolo (tostada salad was fresh and tasty! Kids got food from Village Haus)
-Pirates
-Mint Juleps (first time, very good!)
-Castle walk through
-Matterhorn again (my son wanted to try it, and ended up loving it -used Genie+)
-Autopia (used Genie+)
-My husband got the Chermoula Chicken & Rice dish from Troubadour Tavern and RAVED about it, so I had to add that in here.
-Left for rest at hotel
-We had the Hungry Bear Fantasmic Dining package this evening at 5:30pm. Showed up and it was a very smooth process. If the kids didn’t like the three options (mac n cheese, impossible sloppy joe, or ribs) they could substitute it with either a cheeseburger or chicken tenders & fries. My daughter got the chicken tenders and my son got the mac n cheese. I ordered the half chicken and my husband got the ribs. All of it was really good! We thought the half chicken was the winner- it was very tender and flavorful. Unfortunately, our timing wasn't the greatest because we weren’t very hungry and it was A LOT of food. But we saved it in our stroller and snacked on it later during the show.
-Indiana Jones was down for most of the day, so by the time it reopened, the standby line was 80 minutes and lightning lanes were unavailable past 5:30pm, so this is one we’ll have to do on our next trip ;-)
-My husband wanted to utilize our Genie+ as much as possible, so he booked Goofy’s Sky School after dinner - on the way out of the park, we caught Magic Happens again!
-Goofy’s Sky School (used Genie+)
-Little Mermaid
-Back to Disneyland for a Gibson Girl ice cream treat and Fanstasmic!
-None of us had ever seen Fanstamic. The Hungry Bear dining package provided an incredible view (we got there around 8:15pm for the 9pm show - you enter next to the Harbour Galley). We loved being able to sit down and relax and eat the rest of our dinner. You can enter and exit to use the restroom or get popcorn like we did. The show was spectacular. Another one that brought out the “oooooohhs” and “ahhhhhhs” and “wowwwwwws”. We stayed in our spot to watch the fireworks and projections on the Rivers of America @ 9:30pm. Stunning! We saw Mickey’s Mix Magic in Feb 2022 and while it is a fun and catchy song, Wondrous Journey has so much emotion and heart to it.
-Had to finish our day strong with one last ride request from my son, Star Tours (used Genie+), and a churro for me and my daughter
Day 4 - DCA - Sunday 4/16
-We knew our limits and figured we’d take it a lot slower on our last day, so we slept in and had a reservation for breakfast at Storyteller’s Café at 8:50am (you can use the app to check in for your reservation).
-At Storyteller’s, the kids liked seeing the characters and the breakfast was good. My husband and my daughter prefer the dinner buffet which we had last year. My son loved the fruit loops, haha. It was expensive (as were most things on this trip) but we knew that going into it and enjoyed our slow morning there, but probably wouldn’t do it again. My kids aren’t into meeting the characters in the parks, as they’d much rather ride rides or pin trade. So it was nice to finally get personal interactions with the characters.
-Sunday was Dapper Day in the parks and it was so fun and festive! We loved seeing all of the unique costumes and dresses and accessories! This was our last day to re-ride any favorite rides and get to those that we hadn’t done, so it was kind of a jumbled up day, still fun nonetheless.
-After breakfast, we started in DCA around 10:15am:
-Web Slingers
-Over the Disneyland to ride:
-Thunder Mountain
-Matterhorn
-Back to DCA for Alice’s Wonderland Bakery experience (this was really cute and I highly recommend it for kids who watch the show) We didn’t make it in time for the first show (they allow 42 kids in per show to decorate a cupcake, for free!) so we watched Mickey’s Philharmagic again to pass the time until the next show. Make sure you line up early if you want a spot! Lots of people were turned away.
-Lunch at Pacific Wharf area (I got one of my favorite meals from the whole trip - the tacos dorados de papa - so crispy and fresh and flavorful!)
-Back to hotel from rest
-Souvenir shopping at the Emporium
-Magic Happens for the third time (can you tell we like it?), saw it from the curb on Main St. which is my favorite spot to watch parades.
-Buzz Astro Blasters
-Star Tours
-Storybook Canal
-Finding Nemo
-Dinner at Pizza Planet (I really liked the chicken fusilli pasta dish, and my son loved the kids pizza)
-My husband and son headed to Astro Orbiter for their very last ride while my daughter and I went to Main St. to finish our souvenir shopping while simultaneously watching the Fireworks. My daughter ended up picking out a Minnie Mouse Munchlings ornament that she had personalized with her name - this was a new find for us! You can have items from the Holiday Shoppe personalized for a nominal fee.
-Back to our room around 10pm for our final night at GCH
-Packed up the next morning and headed to the lobby to catch our Lyft ride around 9:30am. Back to LGB airport for a quick and easy flight back home.
All in all, we all had a fantastic and magical trip. Staying onsite really allowed us to escape the “real world” and become encompassed in the Disney bubble. We have zero complaints about the hotel (well, it’s very pricey, but there’s no getting around that) and our time in the parks (we got lucky that we didn’t experience a single ride breakdown, and not many rides were closed for refurbishment while we were there). We learned new things on this trip, and we were lucky to have medium-light crowds. Sunday was amazing, crowd-wise, so for anyone looking for a light crowd day, I’d recommend going to the parks on a Sunday.
We already can’t wait for our next trip, which may not be for another year or so, but in the meantime we’ll be listening to Wondrous Journey and Magic Happens on repeat
