Hi there. I haven't posted much, but the information on this board was very very useful, and I wanted to do what I could to share. Sorry I didn't post sooner, but like most folks, when getting back from vacation, things were pretty nuts for a while, and they've only recently settled down.
We stayed at the Grand Californian, which I think was an excellent choice. There was a promo going on which gave us a room rate of 25% off. More importantly, with two adults and three kids, we could get one standard room, with bunk beds (and trundle bed under them) and so the overall cost wasn't bad when compared to two rooms in some other properties OR a suite at an off site hotel.
I can't even begin to stress how great it was to be able to leave the park midday, when it was getting crowded, and head back to the hotel for food, nap, pool, change of clothes, whatever. This was especially true for our youngest, who is 5 and did great.
With the location, we were able to be at the park for park open, go fairly hard up until 1 or 2 PM, leave the park for a while, and come back in time for a parade, fireworks, Fantasmic as well as using up FastPasses that we got earlier in the day.
While we were there, FP for Star Tours would routinely run out by 10:30 AM or so. The 2 additional FP per person, for staying at a Disney property, were very useful in getting multiple Star Tour rides in one day. Typically I'd hit the FP machine first thing on entering the park, or get in line for FP before the end of Magic Morning, and usually the FP return window was pretty quick, generally 9 AM or earlier, so it didn't really affect FP gathering too much.
I can't stress enough the importance of grabbing FP as the return time for the previous comes up -- basically wherever we were in the park, I'd take a detour and grab an FP whenever I could. We liked all the FP rides at least somewhat and so that was always a good move for later.
Magic Morning was great but we did notice that our first Magic Morning Tuesday the 12th had a really abnormally crowded day once it got to be 11 AM or so. By comparison, the 11th, 13th and 14th were not crowded at all.
For the curious, we arrived the evening of the 10th and made it to the main park for fireworks and a few rides. We were able to get a couple of rides on the Matterhorn in which was great as it wasn't open again while we were there. (Nice to have a midnight closing time.) I thought it would be worth it to pay the extra to go from 4 day hopper to 5 day hopper in order to be able to go in that first night, and I was right, it was totally worth it. Our kids would have gone nuts to be that close to DL and not be able to go in.
Monday the 11th we were among the first in the park at 8 AM and had a full morning, followed by a three hour nap, then made it back for the Soundsational parade and more of everything. I thought the parade was great! We made a point of avoiding Fantasyland as I knew we'd take care of that the next day...
Tuesday the 12th was our first Magic Morning. We were again among the first in the park and rode everything in Fantasyland in about 40 minutes, then went over to Space Mountain and FP for Star Tours. Buzz Lightyear was a walk on, which was fun. The park was CROWDED and so we left fairly early, probably 12:30, and had a long afternoon at the pool with some great food from Whitewater Snacks. We went back in the evening and saw Fantasmic! and enjoyed it, using the "middle light pole" trick as we hadn't really intended to watch the show, were just passing through on the way to Haunted Mansion, but realized it was starting soon and we could get a pretty decent spot without too much trouble.
(In retrospect, given how crowded DL was, we could have hopped over to DCA, but at this point, we hadn't been to DCA at all, or ever hopped, so it seemed a bit daunting.)
Wednesday the 13th we spent at DCA. The Grand Californian perks are pretty nice. We used the GCH entrance, there was a bit of a line at 9 AM but were in the park by 9:15 or so. The Worlds of Color FP are at Grizzly River Rapids right as you get into DCA, so we had our first show Blue FP in hand immediately. We walked over to Soarin' and were in the first group to ride at 9:30. (They open the gates to the park at 9:30, but it takes a little while for those people to filter in, by the time we got out, there was a bit of a line for Soarin', but not bad.) I grabbed an FP for Soarin' right then, and the return time was 10:10 LOL so I figured that was good for later.
We walked over to Little Mermaid and the sign said that anyone staying at a Disney property could ride, so we did. I was underwhelmed. It was nice, and obviously expensive, but didn't have much soul. I liked Peter Pan more, for comparison... even the Pooh ride was a bit more adventurous in terms of what was going on art-wise.
Anyhow, it was nearing 10 AM, and I made a big error, probably the worst of the trip, in that the map did not show any direct route to TSMM, and I assumed that we had to go right, past Goofy's Sky School, and around the lagoon that way. Of course, there's a bridge, and you can go straight from that plaza to CA Screamin', but I didn't know that. So, by the time we got to TSMM, there were a good chunk of people there already, and we ended up waiting probably 20 minutes. Oh, well. Good ride though.
(Aside, it does say something about how well we did overall that a wait of 20 minutes was memorable. That was one of two times we had a "long" wait, given the strategies that are discussed here and elsewhere in terms of gathering and using FP and which rides are good to ride anytime...)
We really liked California Screamin' and the Tower of Terror. Some of us had other things we liked too, but everyone really enjoyed those two. We enjoyed the Aladdin stage presentation very much, and also It's Tough to be a Bug was a welcome surprise, we weren't expecting much, and thought it was a hoot. Turtle Talk and the zoetrope were enjoyed, as was what little of ElecTRONica that we saw one evening.
Worlds of Color, I did some scouting of the blue area early on, and there is a green metal awning frame that arcs over one area, near the "BEST" location on the map. After talking with a few of the cast members, who were hopelessly disorganized, I lined up at about 7:50, there was already a big mob, in between two giant palm trees. It wasn't until much closer to 8 that they finally put up a sign saying "Blue Seating" near the trees. When they let us in, I made a beeline for the spot, and everyone joined me a few minutes later. Folks were pretty polite about people coming and going for the bathroom, snacks, and so on, but we did make a point of bringing some sweatshirts to put up on the rail to help. We were aligned really nicely with the center projection unit, and had rail... and just had to wait.
I was REALLY impressed with WoC and felt that it was worth all of the effort. We hadn't put nearly that much effort into anything else -- the parade we were on the curb, just a random spot on Main Street, and if I had to do that one again, we'd be farther down so we could get out to the rides easier once the parade went past. The fireworks we saw from a weird angle, then ended up being forced to walk -- apparently where we were standing was a pathway, though I couldn't tell this when we had stopped earlier -- and then ended up being "encouraged" by a CM to get into a roped area, so while we saw them, and they were cool, we didn't put that much effort into it. Fantasmic! was kind of a happy accident, and while it was a cool show, and we had good spots, it didn't blow me away.
WoC was totally worth hanging around for 75 minutes for. Surprised I feel that way, but yes, absolutely worth it.
I felt sorry for the 2nd showing people, they were in a massive queue waiting to come in, and I was sure that it would be a total nightmare, with so many thousands streaming out...
Thursday July 14th was our last day and the only day we park hopped. We checked out first thing so we didn't have to go back to the hotel if we didn't want to. We were in DL for MM and used that time to hit Peter Pan and Space Mountain. We headed over to DCA for opening and went straight to TSMM and rode it, grabbing CA Screamin' FP when walking by it, and then rode CA Screamin' twice in standby then once with the FP. We got a quick ride in on Tower of Terror by grabbing FP, then watching Tough to be a Bug, and Muppet 3D, then hitting ToT with the FP. Eventually we made it back to DL and among other things got to see Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, very good show. Finally, back to the hotel, claimed our pool stuff, had a quick swim, some food from Whitewater Snacks, and a cab to the airport around dinner.
I think the attraction that we were most surprised by was Enchanted Tiki Room. Everyone enjoyed it, we visited it Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and when we didn't have time on Thursday, everyone was disappointed.
Two of my three kids were violently upset by Small World and basically refused to ever go anywhere near that ride, again.
There was one 30+ minute wait for Roger Rabbit -- it had been closed at 9 AM when we arrived at Toontown at opening, which screwed up that plan, and then somehow I forgot that RR doesn't share FP with the rest of the park and so since I was waiting for an FP window to open, we did standby, which was terrible. Took forever, and tainted our view of the ride, probably. We enjoyed Alice riding with zero wait on a MM, but thought RR was "eh" at best after 30+ minutes waiting.
We had one 20+ minute wait for TSMM because we went around the lagoon instead of across it.
On the whole, I think it's notable that these were the only long waits we endured. We probably did wait 20 minutes in some of the FP lines, like for Star Tours later in the day, but considering standby was 80+ minutes, and we were moving, it never felt like it was all that long.
I wouldn't change much about how we approached the trip. There was no point in having a rental car, once we got to the hotel. I would have liked to explore some of the food options at Downtown Disney. We didn't really eat significant food at either park, and there are a few things I'd like to try for in park food. The pool at GCH is awesome and we should have tried to get more time in it. If DL is crowded, we should have been more aggressive about leaving and going to DCA, where some of the attractions can absorb crowds more easily.
Again, I've been lurking here for a while, since a month or so before our trip, and did a lot of reading and comparing and sorting things out, and it was invaluable. There were days where we made 15 or 20 rides by 1 PM, and left the park with four sets of FP to boot! To come back in at 6 PM or 7 PM refreshed and see all the people who were tired, hot, frustrated, hungry... and know they would all leave after the fireworks, or Fantasmic!, well, we got a lot of good rides in late, and while we were waiting, we'd use the FP and mix in stuff like Pirates or Haunted Mansion or Tiki Room.
The kids are still singing songs from Aladdin, and have asked if we can go to Disneyland every year...
Feel free to ask questions, and I'll do what I can to flesh out the details, it's the least I can do.
Thanks again, to everyone, for all the awesome posts!
We stayed at the Grand Californian, which I think was an excellent choice. There was a promo going on which gave us a room rate of 25% off. More importantly, with two adults and three kids, we could get one standard room, with bunk beds (and trundle bed under them) and so the overall cost wasn't bad when compared to two rooms in some other properties OR a suite at an off site hotel.
I can't even begin to stress how great it was to be able to leave the park midday, when it was getting crowded, and head back to the hotel for food, nap, pool, change of clothes, whatever. This was especially true for our youngest, who is 5 and did great.
With the location, we were able to be at the park for park open, go fairly hard up until 1 or 2 PM, leave the park for a while, and come back in time for a parade, fireworks, Fantasmic as well as using up FastPasses that we got earlier in the day.
While we were there, FP for Star Tours would routinely run out by 10:30 AM or so. The 2 additional FP per person, for staying at a Disney property, were very useful in getting multiple Star Tour rides in one day. Typically I'd hit the FP machine first thing on entering the park, or get in line for FP before the end of Magic Morning, and usually the FP return window was pretty quick, generally 9 AM or earlier, so it didn't really affect FP gathering too much.
I can't stress enough the importance of grabbing FP as the return time for the previous comes up -- basically wherever we were in the park, I'd take a detour and grab an FP whenever I could. We liked all the FP rides at least somewhat and so that was always a good move for later.
Magic Morning was great but we did notice that our first Magic Morning Tuesday the 12th had a really abnormally crowded day once it got to be 11 AM or so. By comparison, the 11th, 13th and 14th were not crowded at all.
For the curious, we arrived the evening of the 10th and made it to the main park for fireworks and a few rides. We were able to get a couple of rides on the Matterhorn in which was great as it wasn't open again while we were there. (Nice to have a midnight closing time.) I thought it would be worth it to pay the extra to go from 4 day hopper to 5 day hopper in order to be able to go in that first night, and I was right, it was totally worth it. Our kids would have gone nuts to be that close to DL and not be able to go in.
Monday the 11th we were among the first in the park at 8 AM and had a full morning, followed by a three hour nap, then made it back for the Soundsational parade and more of everything. I thought the parade was great! We made a point of avoiding Fantasyland as I knew we'd take care of that the next day...
Tuesday the 12th was our first Magic Morning. We were again among the first in the park and rode everything in Fantasyland in about 40 minutes, then went over to Space Mountain and FP for Star Tours. Buzz Lightyear was a walk on, which was fun. The park was CROWDED and so we left fairly early, probably 12:30, and had a long afternoon at the pool with some great food from Whitewater Snacks. We went back in the evening and saw Fantasmic! and enjoyed it, using the "middle light pole" trick as we hadn't really intended to watch the show, were just passing through on the way to Haunted Mansion, but realized it was starting soon and we could get a pretty decent spot without too much trouble.
(In retrospect, given how crowded DL was, we could have hopped over to DCA, but at this point, we hadn't been to DCA at all, or ever hopped, so it seemed a bit daunting.)
Wednesday the 13th we spent at DCA. The Grand Californian perks are pretty nice. We used the GCH entrance, there was a bit of a line at 9 AM but were in the park by 9:15 or so. The Worlds of Color FP are at Grizzly River Rapids right as you get into DCA, so we had our first show Blue FP in hand immediately. We walked over to Soarin' and were in the first group to ride at 9:30. (They open the gates to the park at 9:30, but it takes a little while for those people to filter in, by the time we got out, there was a bit of a line for Soarin', but not bad.) I grabbed an FP for Soarin' right then, and the return time was 10:10 LOL so I figured that was good for later.
We walked over to Little Mermaid and the sign said that anyone staying at a Disney property could ride, so we did. I was underwhelmed. It was nice, and obviously expensive, but didn't have much soul. I liked Peter Pan more, for comparison... even the Pooh ride was a bit more adventurous in terms of what was going on art-wise.
Anyhow, it was nearing 10 AM, and I made a big error, probably the worst of the trip, in that the map did not show any direct route to TSMM, and I assumed that we had to go right, past Goofy's Sky School, and around the lagoon that way. Of course, there's a bridge, and you can go straight from that plaza to CA Screamin', but I didn't know that. So, by the time we got to TSMM, there were a good chunk of people there already, and we ended up waiting probably 20 minutes. Oh, well. Good ride though.
(Aside, it does say something about how well we did overall that a wait of 20 minutes was memorable. That was one of two times we had a "long" wait, given the strategies that are discussed here and elsewhere in terms of gathering and using FP and which rides are good to ride anytime...)
We really liked California Screamin' and the Tower of Terror. Some of us had other things we liked too, but everyone really enjoyed those two. We enjoyed the Aladdin stage presentation very much, and also It's Tough to be a Bug was a welcome surprise, we weren't expecting much, and thought it was a hoot. Turtle Talk and the zoetrope were enjoyed, as was what little of ElecTRONica that we saw one evening.
Worlds of Color, I did some scouting of the blue area early on, and there is a green metal awning frame that arcs over one area, near the "BEST" location on the map. After talking with a few of the cast members, who were hopelessly disorganized, I lined up at about 7:50, there was already a big mob, in between two giant palm trees. It wasn't until much closer to 8 that they finally put up a sign saying "Blue Seating" near the trees. When they let us in, I made a beeline for the spot, and everyone joined me a few minutes later. Folks were pretty polite about people coming and going for the bathroom, snacks, and so on, but we did make a point of bringing some sweatshirts to put up on the rail to help. We were aligned really nicely with the center projection unit, and had rail... and just had to wait.
I was REALLY impressed with WoC and felt that it was worth all of the effort. We hadn't put nearly that much effort into anything else -- the parade we were on the curb, just a random spot on Main Street, and if I had to do that one again, we'd be farther down so we could get out to the rides easier once the parade went past. The fireworks we saw from a weird angle, then ended up being forced to walk -- apparently where we were standing was a pathway, though I couldn't tell this when we had stopped earlier -- and then ended up being "encouraged" by a CM to get into a roped area, so while we saw them, and they were cool, we didn't put that much effort into it. Fantasmic! was kind of a happy accident, and while it was a cool show, and we had good spots, it didn't blow me away.
WoC was totally worth hanging around for 75 minutes for. Surprised I feel that way, but yes, absolutely worth it.
I felt sorry for the 2nd showing people, they were in a massive queue waiting to come in, and I was sure that it would be a total nightmare, with so many thousands streaming out...
Thursday July 14th was our last day and the only day we park hopped. We checked out first thing so we didn't have to go back to the hotel if we didn't want to. We were in DL for MM and used that time to hit Peter Pan and Space Mountain. We headed over to DCA for opening and went straight to TSMM and rode it, grabbing CA Screamin' FP when walking by it, and then rode CA Screamin' twice in standby then once with the FP. We got a quick ride in on Tower of Terror by grabbing FP, then watching Tough to be a Bug, and Muppet 3D, then hitting ToT with the FP. Eventually we made it back to DL and among other things got to see Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, very good show. Finally, back to the hotel, claimed our pool stuff, had a quick swim, some food from Whitewater Snacks, and a cab to the airport around dinner.
I think the attraction that we were most surprised by was Enchanted Tiki Room. Everyone enjoyed it, we visited it Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and when we didn't have time on Thursday, everyone was disappointed.
Two of my three kids were violently upset by Small World and basically refused to ever go anywhere near that ride, again.
There was one 30+ minute wait for Roger Rabbit -- it had been closed at 9 AM when we arrived at Toontown at opening, which screwed up that plan, and then somehow I forgot that RR doesn't share FP with the rest of the park and so since I was waiting for an FP window to open, we did standby, which was terrible. Took forever, and tainted our view of the ride, probably. We enjoyed Alice riding with zero wait on a MM, but thought RR was "eh" at best after 30+ minutes waiting.
We had one 20+ minute wait for TSMM because we went around the lagoon instead of across it.
On the whole, I think it's notable that these were the only long waits we endured. We probably did wait 20 minutes in some of the FP lines, like for Star Tours later in the day, but considering standby was 80+ minutes, and we were moving, it never felt like it was all that long.
I wouldn't change much about how we approached the trip. There was no point in having a rental car, once we got to the hotel. I would have liked to explore some of the food options at Downtown Disney. We didn't really eat significant food at either park, and there are a few things I'd like to try for in park food. The pool at GCH is awesome and we should have tried to get more time in it. If DL is crowded, we should have been more aggressive about leaving and going to DCA, where some of the attractions can absorb crowds more easily.
Again, I've been lurking here for a while, since a month or so before our trip, and did a lot of reading and comparing and sorting things out, and it was invaluable. There were days where we made 15 or 20 rides by 1 PM, and left the park with four sets of FP to boot! To come back in at 6 PM or 7 PM refreshed and see all the people who were tired, hot, frustrated, hungry... and know they would all leave after the fireworks, or Fantasmic!, well, we got a lot of good rides in late, and while we were waiting, we'd use the FP and mix in stuff like Pirates or Haunted Mansion or Tiki Room.
The kids are still singing songs from Aladdin, and have asked if we can go to Disneyland every year...
Feel free to ask questions, and I'll do what I can to flesh out the details, it's the least I can do.
Thanks again, to everyone, for all the awesome posts!
