Trip report July 8th to 13th

[rramstad]

Hey all. Sorry for not writing this up earlier, took a while to recover from vacation.

I'm going to break the trip report into a few different posts, hopefully that'll make things a bit clearer and cleaner, and for folks with specific questions, easier to quote or highlight.

The main takeaway would be that Disneyland definitely is getting lighter crowds as a result of Cars Land. It's also true that for the start of the day especially, even DCA is not crowded, as long as you are away from Cars Land.

A secondary takeaway is that IMHO it's possible Magic Mornings are no longer worth the effort. I'll describe this in more detail later, but suffice to say that at a 7 AM on Thursday we had a terrible terrible time with crowds at Disneyland, and conversely at 8 AM on Wednesday and Friday we had no trouble at all! We also definitely saw crowds drop very dramatically as midnight approached... I get the sense that with Disney emphasizing EMH as a benefit that many resort goers were using that for DCA, and finding it super helpful, and then also using it at DL, which was great for them but terrible for "civilians" with one Magic Morning. I would DEFINITELY recommend a strategy of going opposite EMH, if you aren't staying on site, and regret not just ignoring our MM entirely. More on that later.

 

[rramstad]

Hotel:

We stayed at the Ramada Maingate.

We had upgraded rooms, thanks to an Internet special (book regular room through Internet, use special code, get upgraded rooms at the regular room rate).

We found this hotel was precisely exactly what we were looking for...

It was clean, close to the parks, and we were well aware that we were trading off... the hotel was definitely worn, and well used, but conversely, it had a great pool and a very serviceable breakfast that started at 6:30 AM.

For similar cost, we could have been in a nicer room up the street (Fairfield Inn) but the pool wouldn't have been nearly as nice, and no breakfast. We looked at some other alternatives, too, but they were farther away, worse pool, worse or no breakfast.

We were totally happy with our choice, and would stay there again. Very comfortable beds, good blackout shades, not a lot of noise at night (and we were at ground floor, which is usually the worst).

 

[rramstad]

Dining:

Our overall strategy was to hit the parks early, leaving in the early afternoon (typically 1 PM to 2:30 PM or so) and heading back to the hotel for late lunch, nap, swim, check email and so on. Return to the park usually around 6 PM, possibly earlier for parades... stay until closing.

Lunch therefore was a major component of the planning. We had take out from Thai Nakorn in Garden Grove on Monday (we picked up, not sure if they deliver), had lunch at Mas' Islamic Chinese on Orangethorpe Ave on Tuesday (we drove there, ate lunch specials family style), had delivery from Marri's on Wednesday (everyone should use this place!)

http://marrispizza.com/

then tried to go to Mas' again on Thursday and it was closed so ended up at El Farolito in Placentia.

All four places very highly recommended! Really worth the effort, last time we were at DLR we did not have a rental car, and we decided to have one this time for lunch, basically, and it was a great decision.

Inside DLR we had sundaes at Ghirardelli's (actually a great value, IMHO, $9 for a big sundae compares favorably to $5 for a Mickey Bar from a vendor), corn dogs from the cart on Main Street, churros... there were some other random items here and there, but those stick out at me.

We did have a breakfast at Flo's and I thought the quality and quantity of food was totally reasonable, especially considering that you're in a theme park. Did not eat other meals there, though.

We did make a stop very early in the trip, before getting to DLR, at Costco, and purchased a ridiculous quantity of every snack known to man... this is always a great move, IMHO, between that and beverages for the room, it really helps take the edge off the meal expenses. We brought snacks, sandwiches, and occasionally drinks into the park, eating the least portable stuff first.

On Friday, our last day, we took a somewhat earlier break than usual to check out of the hotel, and we brought most of the remaining food with us to the park and had a picnic on Tom Sawyer Island. It was a great way to use up the leftovers, especially drinks and things that would not pack easily... we did take a good amount of snacks back on the plane with us, including some food to eat on the flight home... so the Costco trip was totally worthwhile in many ways.

So, that was how our dining worked out. At some point I'm sure we'll end up exploring more of the DLR dining options, but we have some picky eaters, and it can be hard to get anyone to sit still for 20 minutes, so it's not easy for us to use the DLR dining options, and of course, bringing lots of snacks and having a big lunch ends up being frugal, which is nice, considering the cost of the trip.

 

[rramstad]

Overall strategy and planning:

We arrived Sunday night July 8th and entered the park around 8 PM. I'll freely admit to not recalling all the details, but we went through Adventureland and headed to Critter Country, stopping at various rides on the way. You can see the fireworks from the Pooh meet and greet area, and we were back there for that, riding Splash Mountain. When Fantasmic! runs, it's typical for POTC and HM to be walk on, same with Splash, as most people stay far away from the crowd (or join it), so it's a good place to be if you arrive late.

Monday morning we went to DCA at 7:30 and split up, with my wife standing in line for RSR FP, and the rest of us waiting for rope drop and heading to TSMM. That worked really well, we rode TSMM once, then Screamin' two or three times, she met up with us, and we stayed ahead of the crowds, riding the Fun Wheel, Swings, Goofy's, Ariel, Grizzly, Soarin... all very easily, all with zero lines. So, that strategy worked quite well. We spent most of the day in DCA, including a night time ride on RSR for the group.

Tuesday morning we went to DCA at 7:30 and split up again, with my wife standing in line for RSR FP, but this time the rest of us went to RSR and rode it single rider, meeting her at TSMM. She had just finished riding it, and again, we had no problem riding Screamin' and anything else we wanted in sequence.

Wednesday morning we went to DL and entered at 8 AM and headed straight for Fantasyland. We were fourth or fifth to load on Peter Pan, and ran off a whole sequence of rides, basically everything and anything we wanted in FL. Super easy, and fun.

Thursday was a disaster... in more ways than one. We had a Magic Morning we had not yet used, and decided to use it Thursday. We got to the entrance lines at 6:30 or so, and it was obvious that a lot of people were there... easily three to four times as many as I've ever seen for MM. When we got to Peter Pan, we spent 20+ minutes in line, and then rode Dumbo, waiting again 15+ minutes... the whole thing was a total mess! The day before we had gotten on both rides and been off them within 15 minutes! 40 minutes after starting, on Wednesday, we had done 7 rides and were walking to Tomorrowland...

I decided to push the reset button and we left and went to DCA. I got in the line for RSR FP, and my family headed to the single rider line for RSR. I met them at TSMM -- given how late I joined the RSR FP line, at this point TSMM already had a bit of line, as did Screamin'. Thankfully the RSR FP machine gave us a few Screamin' special FP, so we rode it a couple times, and left for DL, which was a madhouse all day Thursday, we were just blown away by how crowded it seemed.

When we reentered the parks Thursday night we went to DCA, rode ToT, and headed to RSR to use our FP only to find out the ride had been down for three hours, would be down at least another hour, and might not be up that night. Wow. Considering the effort we went to to get the FP, that really sucked! (As it turns out, the ride was down Friday all day as well, and so that old adage really is true, if you get a chance to ride something important, do it! You never know when something will go bad on you.) We ended up heading back to DL, and Splash was down, too, after we had walked all the way from RSR to Splash!

By contrast, Friday morning was great, we got in DL just a bit before 8, headed to Tomorrowland (some of us went to Pixie Hollow at 8 instead), got FP for Space, rode Space, rode Star Tours, got FP for Indy, rode Indy, rode PoTC, rode Splash, got FP for Splash, tried to ride BTMRR but there was only one train and the line was moving SLOW, rode Matterhorn three or four times in single rider, then hit BTMRR and with four trains rode it twice in 15 minutes... you get the idea, everything was clicking, we did all that in about an hour and a half.

I am leaving out the more expansive parts of the day... after we get through the big mornings, collecting FP and hitting the slow loading rides, we usually made it to a show or two, or checked out some of the indoor attractions, and eventually left for lunch... coming back we'd use our FP as we went around, while collecting more of them in case we needed them, saw fireworks, parades, Fantasmic, World of Color, and typically ended the night running around enjoying zero lines at Disneyland. DCA by contrast was usually pretty busy, even up to closing time at 11 PM. (There were a few times we left DCA at closing, went to DL, and managed three rides before midnight, even with all the walking.)

So, the upshot of all of this? We had five mornings at DLR and the worst morning by far was the DL morning that had MM and EMH. I suspect that the best strategy is to avoid EMH whenever possible. We had a good DCA morning when they didn't have EMH, and the results on DCA EMH mornings were decidedly more mixed.

I also think with the resort guests getting EMH and it being a "selling point" and really the only way to see Cars Land that it's entirely possible that it's now almost equally important to be in the park at the very end of the night. We had one evening in Fantasyland where the place was practically deserted! I suspect that some resort guests are coming in for EMH, either at DCA or DL, and are hitting the wall earlier, leaving the parks earlier, both because they are tired and thinking that they have to be there early the next day anyway... I know, I know, it's important to be there early, for FP collection and for short lines, but the best DLR plans involve zigging when the others zag, and it's possible that the rest of the world has caught up with the "get there early" part of the strategy...

Certainly I saw a lot more people using FP machines than in visits past, also a lot more people using single rider than in visits past... it's interesting.

 

[rramstad]

Anyhow, that's it for me for the main "thought dump" on this particular trip... Please feel free to ask questions, make comments, and so on, and I'm happy to fill in more details.

I was shocked that RSR could be down for over 24 hours like that. I can't imagine how upset I'd be if I was there on a two day hopper, staying at GCH for a gazillion dollars, with EMH, and the ride is down the whole time I'm there...

(Oh, and we didn't ride Luigi's or Mater's. Lines were too long for Luigi's, and Mater's looked kind of meh... we'll ride them some other visit. Cars Land is beautiful, especially all the neon, the kids really really enjoyed just looking around.)

 

[interstate70s]

Great trip report! Awesome details! Do you feel like Thursday was the most crowded or was it just the MM? If you did it again do you think you would have had less of a wait on other FL if you skipped PP or was everything pretty much swamped?

 

[rramstad]

Great trip report! Awesome details! Do you feel like Thursday was the most crowded or was it just the MM? If you did it again do you think you would have had less of a wait on other FL if you skipped PP or was everything pretty much swamped?

Thursday was the most crowded that DL was the entire week, throughout the entire day, in addition to the MM being particularly crowded. (Then again, I think people often tend to stay the whole day in one park.)

I was totally fed up with the MM experience and probably did not get terribly reliable information for you as a result, but that said, after riding PP and Dumbo, we looked at Matterhorn and realized that that line was at least 20+ minutes, plus the single rider lines were full, and just threw our hands up... the day before, at 8:30ish, the main line was probably 10 minutes and single rider was walk on... of course we were just being spoiled by the low crowds on other days, probably, but still, it's something you kind of get used to.

But, to put it in perspective, at 7:30 in the morning the line for Mr. Toad was easily 20 minutes (!) which is just silly, silly, silly! Again, the day before, starting at 8 AM, we had ridden PP, Alice, Matterhorn (multiple times), Toad, Snow White and that was all before 8:30.

So given that line at Mr. Toad, I think the MM was just super crowded, and unfortunately, I think a LOT of people at the MM were following the exact same suggestions all of us have in terms of sequencing and what rides to hit when... now, it's possible that Tomorrowland was empty that MM, and we just hit a particularly big group of people with younger kids at this particular MM, but boy, that FL experience has soured me on MM, big time, at least while EMH are going on.

I think the 4000+ guests using EMH on a given day are capable of making a MM seem rather ordinary, I guess is what I'm driving at. It felt like there were easily three times as many people there for MM this year as there were for our last visit in July 2011.

 

[interstate70s]

Wow! I cant imagine a 20 min line at Mr Toad that early!! Crazy.

 

[nannyz]

I was in DL for MM on the same Thursday and I totally agree that the MM's are not worth it. Won't do it again.

 

[disneydreamer74]

Thanks for reporting back. I was wondering how the EMH would effect the crowds. Now the Disney resorts are offering a EMH every day so I fear there is no escaping the morning rush! We don't use our MM, we stay til close in the parks (because the park empties out) so we sleep in a bit in the mornings. Except for off seasons, where the park does not open until 10! I agree about purchasing snacks for the room and parks. We always stop at the Target in Anahiem to stock up on bottled water and snacks for my picky eater. We usually purchase a few breakfast foods for the mornings we are running behind and do not want to have to stop for breakfast!

 

[coopersmom]

Thanks for the report. Very helpful in terms of your experience in doing things in order.

I didn't see you mention the other two Carsland rides. Did you skip those or were they easier to fit in than it appears by the wait times I've seen posted?

 

[Blue32]

Thursday was the most crowded that DL was the entire week, throughout the entire day, in addition to the MM being particularly crowded. (Then again, I think people often tend to stay the whole day in one park.)

I was totally fed up with the MM experience and probably did not get terribly reliable information for you as a result, but that said, after riding PP and Dumbo, we looked at Matterhorn and realized that that line was at least 20+ minutes, plus the single rider lines were full, and just threw our hands up... the day before, at 8:30ish, the main line was probably 10 minutes and single rider was walk on... of course we were just being spoiled by the low crowds on other days, probably, but still, it's something you kind of get used to.

But, to put it in perspective, at 7:30 in the morning the line for Mr. Toad was easily 20 minutes (!) which is just silly, silly, silly! Again, the day before, starting at 8 AM, we had ridden PP, Alice, Matterhorn (multiple times), Toad, Snow White and that was all before 8:30.

So given that line at Mr. Toad, I think the MM was just super crowded, and unfortunately, I think a LOT of people at the MM were following the exact same suggestions all of us have in terms of sequencing and what rides to hit when... now, it's possible that Tomorrowland was empty that MM, and we just hit a particularly big group of people with younger kids at this particular MM, but boy, that FL experience has soured me on MM, big time, at least while EMH are going on.

I think the 4000+ guests using EMH on a given day are capable of making a MM seem rather ordinary, I guess is what I'm driving at. It felt like there were easily three times as many people there for MM this year as there were for our last visit in July 2011.

It will be interesting to see if others report the same experience with MM and if this theory will hold up in the off season months if they change their policy on EMH or not in the fall.

 

[Blue32]

In thinking about this some more.... On site guests have always had access to every MM at DL, correct? So what has changed? Why is there such a rush to MM now? Is this ONLY because of the emphasis DLR is placing on that extra hour now?

 

[interstate70s]

In thinking about this some more.... On site guests have always had access to every MM at DL, correct? So what has changed? Why is there such a rush to MM now? Is this ONLY because of the emphasis DLR is placing on that extra hour now?

Yes hotel guests have had access to EE before same mornings as anyone with MM on their ticket, but it hasn't been advertised before. Although I've been told about it at checkin before. The only other possible thing I can think of is that its a different type of crowd? Not just your casual visitor that is unwilling to get up early on vacation?

 

[WendyandTheLostBoys]

We're heading down Saturday and will be in the parks Tues, wed and Thurs. I was really counting on the MM to get a lot of rides in on Tues. I wonder if Ridemax is taking this into consideration.

Thanks so much for your Trip Report!

 

[DLR29]

Unfortunately, a regular guest cannot go to DL on a day without EMH for the next few weeks because recently Disney released that EMH would be available at both parks every day until early September.

And technically when you entered DL on Wed and Fri, there were people already in there for Annual Pass Early Entry, but because crowds were so low for APEE, they opened up those days for onsite guests as well.

Hopefully spreading out the EMH crowds between both parks on any given day will decrease the impact.

 

[Jkpark]

With hotel guests having EE at either park, either day - should they look to avoid DL on MM days? Where before "regular" guests were trying to determine if hotel EE or APEE would be less crowded for DCA, now will hotel guests be wondering if DL will be less crowded on APEE or MM mornings?

 

[PrincessIM]

With hotel guests having EE at either park, either day - should they look to avoid DL on MM days? Where before "regular" guests were trying to determine if hotel EE or APEE would be less crowded for DCA, now will hotel guests be wondering if DL will be less crowded on APEE or MM mornings?

That's what I'm wondering. We are staying at the DLH and it sounds like we'd be best off going to DL on a day where non hotel guest don't have MM.

Thanks for taking the time to report back. It's a great help to all of us who have yet to take their trip.

 

[DLR29]

My guess is that by the time we figure out if MM or APEE days are more crowded, APEE will be over or close to being over...

 

[teachU2]

We did MM at DL on Tuesday the 10th and had no problems whipping through all the FL rides with short lines. We rode Matterhorn last and we waited maybe 10 minutes in the regular line. It was about 8:15-8:30.