cptmemo
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2013
- Messages
- 140
Cast:
Me, sending our oldest off to College
DH, only in CA for about 32 hours
DS18, college freshman!
Me and DS18 arrived in LA via Burbank on 8/15 in order to get him settled in at his university for his freshman year. On 8/16 DS and I got all the shopping out of the way, and when I talked to my husband (he was arriving 8/17 at 11am via Ontario), he said he thought for sure that we would have gone to Disneyland. That got the ball rolling and at about 10pm on 8/16 DS and I decided that we’d go on Saturday the 17th. I bought 1 day 1 park tickets with MaxPass for the 3 of us. DS and I decided that we should get up early and go at opening since we all know that’s when we can actually see a lot of stuff, and DH doesn't arrive until later.
Normally I’m a big planner. I read tons of trip reports and hang out on the disboards in the months leading up to our trip (lurker not a poster). To decide less than 12 hours ahead of time to go was weird, and I now know I will be resistant to ever surprising someone with a trip to DL. It’s just not my style. I like the planning and anticipation too much!
Alarm went off at 530am, and we left the hotel by 630am. Our hotel didn’t have an included breakfast, so we stopped by the Mcdonald’s on Ball and saw several other families getting some food before heading to the park.
It was a first for us to park in a garage…In the past we’ve always stayed within walking or shuttle distance, so I did some research Friday night and headed towards Mickey and Friends. We ended up parking on the roof of the Pixar garage right by the escalators. By 715am we were boarding the tram to the front gates. Love going through security at the garage…quick and easy! We waited in line about 10 minutes before they started letting non-magic morning guests in. Again, the cast members were all very efficient and the lines moved very quickly! We were walking down Main Street by 740am. Crazy because it was so last minute and not anticipated.

After doing some reading and checking the touring plans app (I had reupped my membership earlier in the year on a trip planning whim), we decided we would start with Indy and get FP for BTMRR. If Indy was down we would have gone straight for BTMRR.
Luckily for us Indy was up and running and we walked on to the second car of the day. This made me happy as last trip I only got to ride Indy once, as I usually took our youngest to do something else as she was still too short at that time.

Our FP for BTMRR was for 835-935, but the standby time was 5 minutes so we walked on to that and it’s safe to say that it is still my favorite rollercoaster hands down (or up lol). Since we still had about 15 minutes before our window opened up we decided to walk over to Star Tours as the wait time was listed at 5 minutes. Same as the Indy and BTMRR, we walked right on. By the time we were done with Star Tours I could get another FP, so I grabbed Hyperspace passes for us. I believe the return time was 945-1045am.
Since we were there we walked on to Buzz then decided to do some dark rides. We started with Mr. Toad (5 min wait), and the ride broke down when we were near the end and had to be walked off. While they told us to come back later and go in through the exit, we never made it back to ride again, but not a huge deal because we go to see almost all of it.
We headed over to Pinocchio and rode that, but Snow White was down and the Peter Pan line was of course too long, so we walked back over to BTMRR to use our FPs. We did stop and have some picture with Peter Pan who was out and about. After that we decided to use our BTMRR FPs, and by that point standby was 20 mins I believe. We headed over to hyperspace mountain. About now was when we noticed it was starting to get crowded (it was about 945am). Now it’s been 2.5 years since our last trip, but Space seemed much more jerky than I remember. I didn’t really enjoy it.
After Space I needed to leave to drive out to the Ontario Airport to get DH. In hindsight I should have made him uber, but since this 1 day trip was already costing $492 for tickets, it made better financial sense for me to go get him, rather than spend $50 plus to have him get a ride.
to be continued. Also I didn't take many pictures, most are just selfies
Me, sending our oldest off to College
DH, only in CA for about 32 hours
DS18, college freshman!
Me and DS18 arrived in LA via Burbank on 8/15 in order to get him settled in at his university for his freshman year. On 8/16 DS and I got all the shopping out of the way, and when I talked to my husband (he was arriving 8/17 at 11am via Ontario), he said he thought for sure that we would have gone to Disneyland. That got the ball rolling and at about 10pm on 8/16 DS and I decided that we’d go on Saturday the 17th. I bought 1 day 1 park tickets with MaxPass for the 3 of us. DS and I decided that we should get up early and go at opening since we all know that’s when we can actually see a lot of stuff, and DH doesn't arrive until later.
Normally I’m a big planner. I read tons of trip reports and hang out on the disboards in the months leading up to our trip (lurker not a poster). To decide less than 12 hours ahead of time to go was weird, and I now know I will be resistant to ever surprising someone with a trip to DL. It’s just not my style. I like the planning and anticipation too much!
Alarm went off at 530am, and we left the hotel by 630am. Our hotel didn’t have an included breakfast, so we stopped by the Mcdonald’s on Ball and saw several other families getting some food before heading to the park.
It was a first for us to park in a garage…In the past we’ve always stayed within walking or shuttle distance, so I did some research Friday night and headed towards Mickey and Friends. We ended up parking on the roof of the Pixar garage right by the escalators. By 715am we were boarding the tram to the front gates. Love going through security at the garage…quick and easy! We waited in line about 10 minutes before they started letting non-magic morning guests in. Again, the cast members were all very efficient and the lines moved very quickly! We were walking down Main Street by 740am. Crazy because it was so last minute and not anticipated.

After doing some reading and checking the touring plans app (I had reupped my membership earlier in the year on a trip planning whim), we decided we would start with Indy and get FP for BTMRR. If Indy was down we would have gone straight for BTMRR.
Luckily for us Indy was up and running and we walked on to the second car of the day. This made me happy as last trip I only got to ride Indy once, as I usually took our youngest to do something else as she was still too short at that time.

Our FP for BTMRR was for 835-935, but the standby time was 5 minutes so we walked on to that and it’s safe to say that it is still my favorite rollercoaster hands down (or up lol). Since we still had about 15 minutes before our window opened up we decided to walk over to Star Tours as the wait time was listed at 5 minutes. Same as the Indy and BTMRR, we walked right on. By the time we were done with Star Tours I could get another FP, so I grabbed Hyperspace passes for us. I believe the return time was 945-1045am.
Since we were there we walked on to Buzz then decided to do some dark rides. We started with Mr. Toad (5 min wait), and the ride broke down when we were near the end and had to be walked off. While they told us to come back later and go in through the exit, we never made it back to ride again, but not a huge deal because we go to see almost all of it.
We headed over to Pinocchio and rode that, but Snow White was down and the Peter Pan line was of course too long, so we walked back over to BTMRR to use our FPs. We did stop and have some picture with Peter Pan who was out and about. After that we decided to use our BTMRR FPs, and by that point standby was 20 mins I believe. We headed over to hyperspace mountain. About now was when we noticed it was starting to get crowded (it was about 945am). Now it’s been 2.5 years since our last trip, but Space seemed much more jerky than I remember. I didn’t really enjoy it.
After Space I needed to leave to drive out to the Ontario Airport to get DH. In hindsight I should have made him uber, but since this 1 day trip was already costing $492 for tickets, it made better financial sense for me to go get him, rather than spend $50 plus to have him get a ride.
to be continued. Also I didn't take many pictures, most are just selfies
