Just returned from our 3 day stay at Disney!! It was wonderful. Here are some of our experiences. Our group was myself, DD21, DD16 and DD13.
We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel. We really liked the hotel room, very spacious, nice decor. We weren't high enough to see world of color but that didn't matter as we were in the parks 'till midnight anyway. We were, however, not thrilled with the pool. Very crowded, never any lounge chairs available, but the slide was fun. I think it would be a great choice for families with young kids as they can slide even with their life jackets on. The walk to the parks was not bad. My kids felt that it was longer than the walk they are used to (DLH to the momorail station). The staff was great. I think we will probably go back to the DLH once the construction is complete.
The parks were crowded!!!!! Probably the most crowded I can remember in the past many years we've been going @ this time of year. I will definitely factor in the effect the AP blackout dates have in the future. That being said, I have to really thank Hydroguy and everyone who posted tips on this forum. We took full advantage of our 2 MM and rode everything in FL at least twice each day. Wonderful!!!!! Hadn't been on PP in way too long - it was fabulous. Also rode Dumbo, which we had not ridden since DD16 was 3!!!!! So awesome!! We used our 2/person FPs from the hotel for star tours, so our FP collection each day was Space, Splash, Indie, Space, Indie etc. We were so proud to have our fistful of fastpasses by the time we went back to the hotel for our swim/rest break. My kids couldn't believe we could save the FPs to use after their "return time" had expired. Mom was pretty cool for knowing all this cool stuff
Fantasmic was awesome, fireworks delighted, (watched them from Thunder one night) and the parade was cute (even my DD21 was dancing around and singing).
For California Adventure, we did the early entry thru the hotel entrance and rode Soaring and little mermaid, then at rope drop rode Screamin as a walk on. Rode it, got off, turned around and got right back on. My DD21 has been waiting for a Little Mermaid ride since she was 5. Loved it!!We were able to ride everything at Cal Adventure multiple times using the early entry and pulling FPs as soon as we could.
We ate ALL of our favorite foods and tried some new things. I have to admit that the food is a big part of the experience for me and my kids. By the way, you have to get a Dole Whip - just sayin'. We were so grateful to use the tip about the chilled, filtered water faucet at the Mexican food place in frontier land. We just periodically swung by there to refill our bottles - just great!
The only bad experience we had happened on our first day as we were leaving the park returning to the hotel for our swim break. As we exited the park, the cast member at the gate must have stepped away (IDK) we waited around for a bit but people behind us were getting impatient so we all pushed thru the turnstyles and left WITHOUT GETTING OUR HAND STAMPED. OMG!! When we came back that evening all #@$% broke loose!!! They scanned our ticket and looked for the hand stamp, we told them that there was no cast member stamping hands when we left etc etc. A supervisor was called - absolutely the rudest person in the world. She questioned us, demanded to see some proof that we had been in the park earlier. We showed her our beautiful collection of fast passed, to which she said "they would not have let you get that many fast passes". Well at that point we had been holding up the line for quite some time, so I just kind of pitched a fit telling her it was not our fault that there was no cast member manning the hand stamp thingie and yes they do let you get that many fast passes and here are our $#@$ tickets, one of which is an Annual pass. Anyway, long story short, they finally let us back in. MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR HAND STAMPED!
All in all, it was a wonderful Disney adventure (as always) and we can't wait to go back. Again, special thanks to Hydroguy and everyone for the tips, they really helped us manage a very crowded time at the park.
We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel. We really liked the hotel room, very spacious, nice decor. We weren't high enough to see world of color but that didn't matter as we were in the parks 'till midnight anyway. We were, however, not thrilled with the pool. Very crowded, never any lounge chairs available, but the slide was fun. I think it would be a great choice for families with young kids as they can slide even with their life jackets on. The walk to the parks was not bad. My kids felt that it was longer than the walk they are used to (DLH to the momorail station). The staff was great. I think we will probably go back to the DLH once the construction is complete.
The parks were crowded!!!!! Probably the most crowded I can remember in the past many years we've been going @ this time of year. I will definitely factor in the effect the AP blackout dates have in the future. That being said, I have to really thank Hydroguy and everyone who posted tips on this forum. We took full advantage of our 2 MM and rode everything in FL at least twice each day. Wonderful!!!!! Hadn't been on PP in way too long - it was fabulous. Also rode Dumbo, which we had not ridden since DD16 was 3!!!!! So awesome!! We used our 2/person FPs from the hotel for star tours, so our FP collection each day was Space, Splash, Indie, Space, Indie etc. We were so proud to have our fistful of fastpasses by the time we went back to the hotel for our swim/rest break. My kids couldn't believe we could save the FPs to use after their "return time" had expired. Mom was pretty cool for knowing all this cool stuff
Fantasmic was awesome, fireworks delighted, (watched them from Thunder one night) and the parade was cute (even my DD21 was dancing around and singing).For California Adventure, we did the early entry thru the hotel entrance and rode Soaring and little mermaid, then at rope drop rode Screamin as a walk on. Rode it, got off, turned around and got right back on. My DD21 has been waiting for a Little Mermaid ride since she was 5. Loved it!!We were able to ride everything at Cal Adventure multiple times using the early entry and pulling FPs as soon as we could.
We ate ALL of our favorite foods and tried some new things. I have to admit that the food is a big part of the experience for me and my kids. By the way, you have to get a Dole Whip - just sayin'. We were so grateful to use the tip about the chilled, filtered water faucet at the Mexican food place in frontier land. We just periodically swung by there to refill our bottles - just great!
The only bad experience we had happened on our first day as we were leaving the park returning to the hotel for our swim break. As we exited the park, the cast member at the gate must have stepped away (IDK) we waited around for a bit but people behind us were getting impatient so we all pushed thru the turnstyles and left WITHOUT GETTING OUR HAND STAMPED. OMG!! When we came back that evening all #@$% broke loose!!! They scanned our ticket and looked for the hand stamp, we told them that there was no cast member stamping hands when we left etc etc. A supervisor was called - absolutely the rudest person in the world. She questioned us, demanded to see some proof that we had been in the park earlier. We showed her our beautiful collection of fast passed, to which she said "they would not have let you get that many fast passes". Well at that point we had been holding up the line for quite some time, so I just kind of pitched a fit telling her it was not our fault that there was no cast member manning the hand stamp thingie and yes they do let you get that many fast passes and here are our $#@$ tickets, one of which is an Annual pass. Anyway, long story short, they finally let us back in. MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR HAND STAMPED!
All in all, it was a wonderful Disney adventure (as always) and we can't wait to go back. Again, special thanks to Hydroguy and everyone for the tips, they really helped us manage a very crowded time at the park.
