Trip Report DL and Ca Adven. Feb. 29-March 1

[kiapepito]

I kind of feel silly writing out a trip report to Disneyland as this was probably my 60th visit... but after visiting Disney World this past summer I can't help but to compare and notice little things here and there...

First and foremost, I missed wearing and having a magic band... there is something of a tad annoyance of having to pull out your ticket each time you want to get a fast pass or a CM asks for your photocard when taking pictures.. again.. not a big deal, but I missed feeling like a superhero and putting my arm up to be scanned!

I was a big fan of Touringplans.com when we did our trip to WDW and really took the crowd calendar to heart and it was fairly accurate when we went. The complete OPPOSITE happened this week when we went to DL and Ca. Adventures. It was a predicted a 2 and in fact was, I believe a 7 as well as the next day...

Paint the Night parade was AMAZING... glad we finally had a chance to see this beautiful parade!

I want to reinforce the importance of being present for rope drop! The park opened at 10 am and by 10:30 am my daughter and I had ridden Star Tours, Matterhorn and pictures with Storm Troopers in front of Hyperspace Mountain. By noon, we could feel the large crowds coming in.

I did not go through with my touring plan for rides as I did at WDW because we visit DL on a regular basis so the need to not ride every ride was not very important. We mostly focused on being leisurely with two little girls. Every time we saw a character we were well on our way!

No trip is complete without lunch at Ariel's Grotto. Yes, it is pricey but so worth paying to see the princesses and having that interaction and being able to eat.

My favorite purchase of the trip was my Dooney and Burke handbag that is all 60th Anniversary decked out in a blue and white pattern. I was going to purchase the Star Wars one but realized that in the long run the anniversary bag is more special because of what it represents!.. Besides.. I plan to be sporting it to the 100th Anniversary party when I will be a young age of 74... hahahaha...

I bought the purse at Elias and Co. in Ca. Adventures and low and behold even received my 10% discount for using my Disney Visa... I thought that Dooney and Burke items were excluded... but the CM gave me the discount! No complaints here! My second favorite purchase was my 60th Anniversary/Starbucks Grande mug... I have an obsession with mugs... ask my husband!

Lastly, speaking of the Disney Visa card we utilized getting our free 5x7 photo at both parks. We literally walked into both pictures with no line! Disneyland it was Kylo Ren.. the man is enormously tall and he talks!! Side note, I could have hugged Chewbacca all day long... his interaction was so much fun! At Ca. Adv. our photo was with Minnie. I love how Disney Visa offers this incentive!

Two summers ago, my mom and I stood in line for Anna and Elsa for more than 3 hours... this trip... 10 minutes.. my how times have changed... Loved the Frozen and Forever sing a long as well!

Eggstravaganza was so much fun!! We did the opening day hunt in Downtown Disney!

Overall, it's Disney and I loved our trip. Short and sweet but excited to know that we'll be able to spend my 35th birthday at the Halloween party in October! Can't wait for those tickets to come out!

 

[LizzyS]

I like to see trip reports from frequent visitors, too, because they have a different sort of insight into the trip than less frequent travelers do, so thanks!

Speaking of Dooney & Burke, I just ordered one I fell in love with on disneystore.com this past weekend and it will be my first D&B bag! It's the vintage Mickey and Minnie pattern in gray that is apparently new. The only thing I don't like about the 60th pattern is that it's mostly WHITE. I got the sketch pattern in a cosmetic case for $29 with my handbag purchase. I'm excited to try D&B out as I've heard a lot of good things about their durability.

 

[sherilaine]

You are right about TouringPlans - I was surprised to see they still had low crowd predictions for last week, we went in expecting the crowds to be much higher and sure enough they were. I notice they have adjusted their predictions for next year accordingly. It's been mentioned on this forum very often that Touring Plans is not to be trusted - and sadly it's true.

 

[kiapepito]

I like to see trip reports from frequent visitors, too, because they have a different sort of insight into the trip than less frequent travelers do, so thanks!

Speaking of Dooney & Burke, I just ordered one I fell in love with on disneystore.com this past weekend and it will be my first D&B bag! It's the vintage Mickey and Minnie pattern in gray that is apparently new. The only thing I don't like about the 60th pattern is that it's mostly WHITE. I got the sketch pattern in a cosmetic case for $29 with my handbag purchase. I'm excited to try D&B out as I've heard a lot of good things about their durability.

That is such a cute pattern! They are very good bags to have that last a long time! That was one of my hesitations of how much white there is on it but I'm hoping that I can keep it on the clean side! Ha!

 

[kiapepito]

You are right about TouringPlans - I was surprised to see they still had low crowd predictions for last week, we went in expecting the crowds to be much higher and sure enough they were. I notice they have adjusted their predictions for next year accordingly. It's been mentioned on this forum very often that Touring Plans is not to be trusted - and sadly it's true.

Interesting! I had not noticed their next years predictions yet! Ugh.. it must have been pure luck when we planned out our WDW trip!

 

[sherilaine]

Interesting! I had not noticed their next years predictions yet! Ugh.. it must have been pure luck when we planned out our WDW trip!

I think they have a much better reputation with WDW predictions for some reason - perhaps the tourists to local ratio difference is a factor?

 

[cmpeter]

I found them very accurate for WDW, but avoid them at DL based on reviews here. I have had good luck with RideMax at DL, but it's been a couple years since I used them.

 

[jfk4]

I was there from the 2/28 through 3/3 and was also a little surprised by how far off the Touring Plans and IsItPacked predictions were. That said, I wasn't completely shocked either. The Disney resort hotels were completely full, and it was more difficult than usual to get dining reservations.

I wonder how much of this was caused by the extensive refurbs being made. Losing attractions reduces Disneyland's overall capacity (I'd guess that they lost about 4000 people/hr of attraction capacity), and people have to go somewhere.