Trip Report from an Indonesian Family (12/17/2024-12/21/2024)

[indoshakespeare]

Hello. I'd like to give my Trip Report from our December 2024 trip. Most of the people here are Americans so maybe I can give a different perspective.

A bit of a background:
Me: 44 years old, been to all 6 resorts. You can say that I'm Americanized. I went to the University of Colorado from 1998 to 2003. I've been going to both Tokyo Disneyland and Anaheim Disneyland since I was a kid. After leaving university, I visited the USA less frequently and this trip was only my second trip back after going back home in 2003 (last one was in 2017 during a business trip.) The rest you can see in my signature

The rest of the family (Wife-45 years old, Daughter-12 years old, Son-8 years old) had never been to America. This is their first time. We're a regular to Tokyo Disney Resort and to a lesser degree, Hong Kong Disneyland. We've only been to Shanghai once pre-Zootopia.

We arrived at LAX 12/14 evening and stayed three nights in LA to shake off the jet lag before the Disneyland part of our trip. I will skip that part. We drove to Anaheim 12/17 stopping at South Coast Plaza. We checked in to Pixar Place Hotel. The lady at the reception asked if this is our first time. I told her that it's the kids' first time. She asked how old they were, I told him that the girl is 12 and the boy is 8. She gave me two activity kits. My daughter was not interested in it so my son took both. My daughter is actually growing up into her pre-teen/teen phase now. She's beginning to care about skincare and make up and less interested with toys and kids' activity. I think she's actually less enthusiastic about Disney than me now.

We went to our room, put our luggage and went out to explore Downtown Disney. We had dinner at Din Tai Fung at 6.30 pm which I booked one month in advanced. Din Tai Fung is a popular chain back home too so we're familiar with the restaurant. The menu in America is a bit different. In Indonesia and Singapore, there are more Fried Rice and Noodles items. We ordered Cucumber Salad, Kurobuta XLB, Spicy Wonton, Hot and Sour soup, a noodle soup and 2 fried rice. Delicious. We like trying local food but Asians, we love to at least get Asian food once or twice in our travels. After dinner, we walked some more but didn't find the merch appealing. What everyone agreed during the trip is the Asian Disney (and Universal) resorts have better merch than Anaheim Disneyland (and Universal Hollywood).

We had early entry 12/18 DCA, 12/19 DL, 12/20 DCA but ended up only using it on 12/28. We didn't have park hopper and we went DCA, DL, DL. We went to bed early in preparation for the next day's early entry.

(will continue later)

 

[indoshakespeare]

12/18
The food at the Sketchpad Cafe didn't look appealing to my kids (they're picky eaters) so I ordered McDonald's breakfast via UberEats (one advantage that Disneyland have over Disney World is you have easy access to non-Disney restaurants). We went out of the hotel at around 6.54 and reached the DCA special entrance for Pixar Place guests around 7.15. There were already a rather long queue ahead of us. At 7.30 they started to let people in and we didn't get in until about 7.39 or so. My original plan was to ride Webslinger 1 time, then queue for RSR without having to buy LLSP for RSR. That didn't work out because by the time we finished, RSR was 60 minutes. We probably could've queued for RSR right away but I didn't mind spending money for LLSP.

We rode Webslingers, which the kids love but it hurt my hand/wrist. If I ever ride it again, I would probably just enjoy the ride and not do the hand thing. On the way to RSR, me and my son rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. My daughter was not interested in this kind of ride anymore but my son still likes them. I ended up buying LLSP for RSR. My kids don't like roller coasters or anything with drops so they were a bit anxious with RSR. I told them it's mostly fast and flat and no big drops. They're mostly ok with it but I can tell they don't want to ride it ever again. After RSR, we rode Toy Story Mania with LLMP and the Inside Out spinner ride. After that we rode Luigi's and Little Mermaid before going to the front of the park.

My parents join us at this time and we rode Soarin' with Lightning Lane, followed by Little Mermaid again (with my parents this time) and then lunch at San Fransokyo. My parents had Clam Chowder while we ordered food from the Asian quick service. During lunch, I excused myself to ride Incredicoaster on single rider by myself. We planned to ride Monsters Inc. before my parents had to go back to their hotel. My mom has a back problem that prevents her from walking too long without resting. I thought I picked the LLMP for Monsters Inc. for 1.20 PM but I forgot to click confirm. When we reached the Monsters Inc. entrance, I realized we didn't have the LLMP and the standby line was surprisingly 50 minutes. We decided to just get a new LLMP which was for 2.40. We just walked around some more while my mom sat down. We eventually rode it, then we rode the trolley to Cathay Circle and my parents returned to the hotel.

We didn't spend that much more time in DCA. We planned to ride Webslingers again but for some reason we skipped (I remember now, it was down for hours that afternoon). We went to several stores but were not impressed with the merch. Overall, DCA was easy to plan since there aren't that many rides and with kids who don't like coasters/drops, the list of ridable rides are even smaller. No GotG, Incredicoaster (other than my single rider), Grizzly River Run and Goofy Sky School. We decided to call it and went back to the hotel. We had dinner at Tony Roma's with my parents (since they're there too, I had to cater to them and they don't believe in the Disney bubble).

My wife and kids agreed to sleep in a bit and not do the early entry for DL the next day so my plan is to go to early entry by myself and ride some rides that they weren't going to ride.

One thing about the Little Mermaid Ride: the storytelling is lacking the Eric vs Ursula fight scene. They went from Kiss the Girl, a silhouette of Vanessa and Eric, then Ariel and Eric getting married. It feels disconnected a bit. Otherwise it's a decent ride with almost no line.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Interesting report. My niece is currently in your country serving with the Peace Corps. She is enjoying Indonesia and has a lot of interesting stories about her experiences.

 

[LKing]

Interesting that Din Tai Fung is popular at home as well. Did the food taste the same as when you ordered it at home?

We rode Webslingers, which the kids love but it hurt my hand/wrist. If I ever ride it again, I would probably just enjoy the ride and not do the hand thing.

The first time I rode it, my triceps hurt the next day. Now I just punch my fists.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[indoshakespeare]

Interesting report. My niece is currently in your country serving with the Peace Corps. She is enjoying Indonesia and has a lot of interesting stories about her experiences.

Cool. Do you know which city / region? What kind of local food has she tried?

Interesting that Din Tai Fung is popular at home as well. Did the food taste the same as when you ordered it at home?


The first time I rode it, my triceps hurt the next day. Now I just punch my fists.

Looking forward to reading more.

The taste is very very similar. You have to nitpick to find the difference. We actually had lunch at Din Tai Fung earlier today before I wrote this. We do not have the spicy wonton here but much more noodle selections as you can see here:

https://www.dintaifung.co.id/noodlect.html

 

[indoshakespeare]

12/19

My parents were supposed to join us for Disneyland but my dad didn't feel well so I changed their reservation for 12/20 (They had 2-day tickets). I lined up for early entry and was let into the park at 7:15. Different people went to different rope drop spots based on what they wanted to ride first. My plan was to ride Space Mountain and Matterhorn before returning to the hotel and picking up my family. Space Mountain is still my favorite Disney ride of all time after all these years although my favorite iteration is the Hyperspace Mountain. The Hong Kong Disneyland version still has the Hyperspace Mountain layover to this day (after at least 6 years) and they might as well make it permanent. Matterhorn was under refurb when I went in 2017 so it's nice to get a ride on it.

No matter how good Tokyo Disney is, the original Disneyland still has the biggest charm for me. It's Walt's park and nothing can beat it. It just feels different and special compared to the other 5 castle parks. I went back to the hotel at 8.45 and they're still asleep! I knew I'm the biggest Disney fan in the family . Everyone woke up at 9.00 and decided to have brunch at the park. I looked at available dining and chose River Belle Terrace for our brunch.

The monorail was down that they so we couldn't ride it into the park. We went in the traditional way and had brunch at River Belle Terrace. Was not crowded at all and the food was decent, and they had menu that's palatable to the kids. Got LLMP for Haunted Mansion Holidays. The kids actually never been to the regular Haunted Mansion because every time we go to Tokyo Disney, it's always Christmas. After that we went to It's a Small World on Standby. Took about 20 minutes. LLMP for Buzz, then Alice on Standby. We had a hard time going from Buzz to Alice because the Parade was about to start. We had to circle through Matterhorn and navigate some roped-off one way paths. We managed to catch some of the parades while queuing for Alice. It's my favorite of the 5 Fantasyland dark rides because it goes up and outside and it's exclusive to Anaheim.

We went to Bayou County next and Tiana's was down (not that we're going to ride it). Rode Winnie the Pooh and I swear the ride is very different from what I remember. We rode the Hong Kong version and it has the Tigger scene where the ride vehicle bops up and down and the rain/flood scenes where the ride vehicle moves in a wavy up and down manner. I thought the Hong Kong version was the exact copy of the Anaheim version.

Afterwards, we went to Galaxy's Edge. It's my first time in that land, as it was not open in 2017 and 2018 when I went to Disneyland and WDW. As someone who liked The Force Awakens but hated The Last Jedi, I'm happy that the timeline of Galaxy's Edge is right after TFA but before TLJ. We just roamed around the land while waiting for our LLMP for Millennium Falcon. We didn't buy anything but we tried the Green Milk with popping boba, which was rather nice. For Millenium Falcon, we were joined by 2 single riders who were actually together. My daughter took the left pilot seat, I took the right pilot seat and my wife and son took the gunners spot. Both my kids later said that Millenium Falcon was their favorite ride.

After Millennium Falcon, we took the railroad from Fantasyland to Main Street. We caught the last few floats of the parade and went to the shops. For dinner that night, we decided to stay in the Disney bubble so I checked the app for available reservations and went for Storyteller's Cafe in GCH. My wife was a bit reluctant at first because it's a buffet and she's very financially conservative. But I convinced her that it will be alright, and it helped that I got a huge raise in 2024 so she's been less strict when it comes to expenses.

At the storytellers cafe, at first we were told that it would be 3 adults and 1 child because I told them my daughter is 12, but she's rather small in stature and could easily pass for 9 (especially in America where people are generally bigger than Asians). In the final check, we were charged 2 adults and 2 children.. The food was great. The selections were not that numerous but what they had was good. I also love the decor in the restaurants.

We went back to the hotel and went to the Pixar Place pool deck to watch the fireworks. They piped in the music but the view from there were not great. An employee let us used the staff elevator when we returned to our room because the guest elevators had long queues. Oh, about that elevator in Pixar Place Hotel. It's the one where you press your floor outside and it tells you which elevator to take. No button inside the elevator. I've seen this before in an office building back home so I'm familiar with it. We also used the laundry room twice.

(will edit and continue later).

 

[citruscurtis]

What where you emotions about entering Disneyland by your self... relief.. sad ...energetic ... overjoyed???

 

[MonocularVision]

Love this report so far. Thanks for sharing!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Cool. Do you know which city / region? What kind of local food has she tried?


The taste is very very similar. You have to nitpick to find the difference. We actually had lunch at Din Tai Fung earlier today before I wrote this. We do not have the spicy wonton here but much more noodle selections as you can see here:

https://www.dintaifung.co.id/noodlect.html

I know that she is on the Island of Java, west Java I believe. I think it is near Surabaya. I also can't remember the names of the foods she has tried. But she is an adventurous eater and has tried many local foods. The pictures she has shared of the food all look good, although she is tired of rice. She is enjoying the country a lot though.

 

[indoshakespeare]

What where you emotions about entering Disneyland by your self... relief.. sad ...energetic ... overjoyed???

I've always explored new places by myself in the morning when we're on a vacation. My wife understands there are places I'd love to visit that she and the kids are not interested in so she let me wake up early and explore then come back to the hotel around 9-10 am so this is nothing new to me. As for entering Disneyland by myself...it was nostalgic and mostly exciting to be able to ride a couple of nostalgic rides and walk around the area without the crowd.

 

[LKing]

We have Magic Keys and, while most of the time I go with my spouse, I really enjoy the days that I go by myself.

 

[indoshakespeare]

12/20

I woke up early again, grabbed breakfast at Sketchpad Cafe, then went to rope drop at Disneyland (no early entry). The plan was Big Thunder Mountain, Tiana's then maybe Rise of the Resistance if the standby wasn't too long. All three turned out to be down. So I went to Pirates instead. The bayou scene is really special and nostalgic. The Tokyo version has the Bayou scene too. In fact the two versions are very very similar. After Pirates, I checked out Tiana's, still down, then went to Rise to see that the line was 50 minutes. I went back to Frontierland and Big Thunder just opened and I was able to walk on to it. Another classic. Can never get tired of it. I also like the Big Grizzly Mountain version in Hong Kong. It has a backward section like Expedition Everest but the rest of the ride is not as intense as Big Thunder.

I went back via the monorail (it was running that day) and my family decided that they wanted McDonald's breakfast again. So we had that with UberEats again. When we were ready, we went to the Monorail. It dropped us at Tomorrowland, which was perfect because we planned to do Autopia and Submarine before meeting up with my parents. I think we had lunch at Alien Pizza Planet.

After lunch we rode It's a Small World with LLMP, then took the whole loop on the railroad from the Fantasyland Station. Next, I got LLMP for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. The ride is better than I expected. I thought it would be a simple trackless dark ride but the screen fills your whole view and there are some exciting moments that they do with the vehicles.

My parents went back to rest while we made plans to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant called Hanagi inside the Majestic Garden Hotel. We rode the Storybook Canal Boat which was kinda lame. The skipper didn't sound enthusiastic. My son refused to ride Casey Jr. Circus Train because it "looked like a Roller Coaster". We then rode Mr. Toad because it's exclusive to Anaheim (10 minutes queue). They were both confused at what the storyline is supposed to be, and I'm also not sure what it's supposed to be but it was kinda fun. Pinocchio was also only 10 minutes so we rode that. We didn't ride Peter Pan and Snow White. Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Snow White exist in Tokyo Disney so they were not priorities.

We had an LLMP for Millenium Falcon but we decided not to ride it again. We went to Jungle Cruise instead. My daughter was not impressed at the skipper's jokes and I was laughing the whole ride...not at the jokes but at my daughter's reactions to the jokes. The skipper's voice was kinda soft so my wife didn't understand any of the jokes.

After that they decided to sit in Main Street to wait for the parade and I took the time to buy LLSP for Rise of the Resistance. It was a walk on with Lightning Lane (70 minutes standby) and the ride was great. If it wasn't for the drop at the end, the kids would've loved this ride but they saw the Youtube video but refused to ride it because of that one drop.

I managed to catch the parade from inside one of the stores, then we left Disneyland to join my parents at Hanagi restaurant. It was pretty good although the Majestic Garden hotel looks old. After that we went back to the hotel and I used the laundry room at Pixar Place to get some clothes washed.

That was the end of our park adventures but wait...I'm not done yet. There's a secret fourth day I'm going to report.

 

[indoshakespeare]

12/21

So, the secret fourth day is....I signed up for Adventure Boot Camp!

The description from the website is:
Unleash the beast! Participate in a spirited high intensity boot camp class in Disney California Adventure Park before the park opens. This class includes pushups, squats, sit-ups, and maintains a 12-15 min per mile pace when you jog/run around the park. Wear a good pair of exercise shoes!

It cost me $35 but money is not a problem. I'm willing to spend money on Disney experiences (not merchandise). It also gave me one more entry to DCA before leaving Disneyland Resort. There were only 5 participants including me 3 men, 2 women. We met up right at the GCH entrance to DCA. The trainer gave us water and protein bars and instructed us not to take pictures and videos because there were pre-opening activities (cleaning, food deliveries etc) inside DCA. We went in and the exercise was quite intense. We were all sweating by the end of it. The varieties were pretty good. Agility ladder, resistance bands, body weight exercises, joggings. We went counter clockwise around DCA, stopping at various location to do exercises. The trainer also gave us quizzes and trivias about World of Colors and showed us hidden Mickeys. It's really a fun activity to add to a Disney vacation.

I went back to my room to finish packing and check out of the hotel. That was the end of the Disneyland part of our vacation.

Compared to the Asian resorts, the Cast Members in the American resorts (both Disneyland and Walt Disney World) are fantastic. They're more outgoing and willing to engage in conversations. They really make a huge difference in my experience. Asian cast members are generally more reserved but they're both equally helpful and knowledgeable. The merchandise are better in Asia though. We didn't spend as much here than in the Asian resorts. Also Pixar Place Hotel rooms have thin walls and we can here people in the next room. Otherwise, the location is perfect. There's a big difference in price though. Both Disneyland and WDW are way more expensive than Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and that's before including plane tickets from Indonesia. We probably won't visit America soon but our visas last 5 years so we might visit one more time (probably East Coast next time)

 

[blabbermouth]

Great report, thanks for your perspective! Good for you, doing the DCA bootcamp