calilou
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2014
- Messages
- 607
My daughters (11 and 9) and I made a quick visit last Friday 6/30, and I wanted to share some observations.
- We started our day lining up before the 8am park opening at California Adventure with the goal of getting on Guardians of the Galaxy before needing to get over to Disneyland at noon. Once we were allowed through the gates at 7:30 those of us wanting to get to GOTG (the vast majority) were allowed to line up in one of two lines entering Hollywoood Land - standby and fastpass. We opted for the fastpass line and were about 20th in line. At exactly 8am our line was then led to a behind-the-scenes queue especially set up for the GOTG fastpass and after about 5/10 minutes we had our fastpasses with a 9:25-10:25 return time. Perfect! It was a Magic Hour morning so other guests were already in the park and riding rides and were allowed to get their own GOTG fastpasses early. Everything was extremely well organized and orderly. I was impressed. I'm glad we opted to fastpass as standby was already well over an hour at 8am and quickly increased to a three hour wait. We then walked on Radiator Racers in the single rider line, went on California Screamin' with about a 20 minute wait, then went on Soarin' with about a 20 minute wait. By this time, it was about 10am and we headed back to GOTG. The fastpass line ended up taking nearly 55 minutes, but the ride was worth it - lots of fun! We are not GOTG fans; none of us could make it through watching all of the first movie, but the ride was totally entertaining and worth the wait. It was different enough from Tower of Terror, a favorite of ours which we were sad to see go. FYI they only had two of what looked like four elevators operating? I'm sure that greatly contributed to the extremely long wait. Not sure why not all elevators were operational. After GOTG, we did a little shopping and got drinks and snacks at Carthay Circle lounge, which was lovely, before heading to Disneyland park.
- The main purpose of our trip was to do the Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps tour. We have done three other guided tours and are big fans - love learning interesting park info and stories, getting to do a couple rides without a wait and receiving perks like limited edition pins, parade seats, treats, etc. I like to do the afternoon tour time when the park tends to be at its peak crowd time - I find the crowds not bothersome at all when you're following a guide with a clear agenda. We ended up being a little late to the tour because I mistakenly put the start time as 12:30 instead of 12:00 for some reason. The guides at the Tour Gardens handled this wonderfully and quickly took our lunch order and caught us up with the group. We didn't miss much, just orientation and a description of Town Square. Our plaid was J'Amy and she was fantastic! The best of the guides we've had, extremely knowledgeable and friendly. We toured the park and learned a lot about Walt's plans, inspiration, dreams, etc. We rode on Alice in Wonderland and were scheduled to also ride It's a Small World, but couldn't due to time constraints so were given a fastpass to use on any ride we wanted that day. The flow of the tour would be much better if we actually got to ride these rides; without one of them it seemed like a lot of listening and walking. Another ride would have kept everyone more excited, I think. We then watched Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln which we had done on one of our more recent trips so were a little disappointed, but it was interesting to hear the background of the experience and why it was so important to Walt. I think tour time would be better used doing something else in the park though. Before eating lunch from Jolly Holiday back at the Tour Gardens, was the highlight of the tour - Walt's apartment! We were expecting to tour the Dream Suite (which they are now back to referring to as the Royal Suite so expect some changes there, in my opinion), but discovered that we would be the first to once again tour Walt's apartment after some refurbishments had recently been completed. I was delighted, but I must say that my daughters were a little disappointed - they really, really wanted to see inside the Dream Suite. It will be interesting to see if they rotate which location will be seen on future tours. We'd do the tour again if it meant seeing the suite. Anyway, I loved visiting the apartment. Two different plaids took over the tour at this point (one was obviously "in training" and honestly struggled with presenting the information). We stayed in there for nearly 20 minutes and got to ask questions and take a picture. It was special!
- By the time the tour concluded and we enjoyed our leisurely lunch and visited with J'Amy who was happy to talk and answer questions, we went to our hotel for a nap before returning around 9pm for fireworks and some rides. We got a Star Tours fastpass and then stalled near the hub in order to find a spot for fireworks after the parade passed (we had front row spots for the Main Street Electrical Parade in April so were happy just to watch it pass by this trip). We were lucky enough to get a great fireworks spot right in front of the rope to the right of the hub near the entrance to Tomorrowland. Loved it! I cried as usual! We then rode on Star Tours, had a corn dog, used our tour fastpass on Big Thunder (LOVE this ride at night!) and finished the night on Pirates of the Caribbean at 11:30 before heading to our hotel.
- My girls' passes were blocked on Saturday (they have the Deluxe, I have the Signature) so we couldn't do the parks the next day. Instead, I made reservations for the Classic Tea at Disneyland Hotel which was lovely! I definitely recommend this experience. My girls loved getting to feel fancy and try different teas. Our server was very knowledgeable about which ones we should try. We planned to also do some shopping in Downtown Disney, but found everything we needed (wanted!) in the hotel shops. Our three hours of valet parking were validated by the restaurant.
- Final note: it was much less crowded in the parks on a Friday in June than I was expecting! It was definitely less crowded than when we were there in April and in March. I'm sure it has a lot to do with passes being blocked in summer, especially the Southern California passes. However, I think far fewer families are visiting in the summer. I was pretty surprised, and this is definitely a change from a couple of years ago, in my opinion. We weren't planning to go again this summer, but I think we'll do another trip in August and hope for this trend in crowds to continue.
- We started our day lining up before the 8am park opening at California Adventure with the goal of getting on Guardians of the Galaxy before needing to get over to Disneyland at noon. Once we were allowed through the gates at 7:30 those of us wanting to get to GOTG (the vast majority) were allowed to line up in one of two lines entering Hollywoood Land - standby and fastpass. We opted for the fastpass line and were about 20th in line. At exactly 8am our line was then led to a behind-the-scenes queue especially set up for the GOTG fastpass and after about 5/10 minutes we had our fastpasses with a 9:25-10:25 return time. Perfect! It was a Magic Hour morning so other guests were already in the park and riding rides and were allowed to get their own GOTG fastpasses early. Everything was extremely well organized and orderly. I was impressed. I'm glad we opted to fastpass as standby was already well over an hour at 8am and quickly increased to a three hour wait. We then walked on Radiator Racers in the single rider line, went on California Screamin' with about a 20 minute wait, then went on Soarin' with about a 20 minute wait. By this time, it was about 10am and we headed back to GOTG. The fastpass line ended up taking nearly 55 minutes, but the ride was worth it - lots of fun! We are not GOTG fans; none of us could make it through watching all of the first movie, but the ride was totally entertaining and worth the wait. It was different enough from Tower of Terror, a favorite of ours which we were sad to see go. FYI they only had two of what looked like four elevators operating? I'm sure that greatly contributed to the extremely long wait. Not sure why not all elevators were operational. After GOTG, we did a little shopping and got drinks and snacks at Carthay Circle lounge, which was lovely, before heading to Disneyland park.
- The main purpose of our trip was to do the Walk in Walt's Disneyland Footsteps tour. We have done three other guided tours and are big fans - love learning interesting park info and stories, getting to do a couple rides without a wait and receiving perks like limited edition pins, parade seats, treats, etc. I like to do the afternoon tour time when the park tends to be at its peak crowd time - I find the crowds not bothersome at all when you're following a guide with a clear agenda. We ended up being a little late to the tour because I mistakenly put the start time as 12:30 instead of 12:00 for some reason. The guides at the Tour Gardens handled this wonderfully and quickly took our lunch order and caught us up with the group. We didn't miss much, just orientation and a description of Town Square. Our plaid was J'Amy and she was fantastic! The best of the guides we've had, extremely knowledgeable and friendly. We toured the park and learned a lot about Walt's plans, inspiration, dreams, etc. We rode on Alice in Wonderland and were scheduled to also ride It's a Small World, but couldn't due to time constraints so were given a fastpass to use on any ride we wanted that day. The flow of the tour would be much better if we actually got to ride these rides; without one of them it seemed like a lot of listening and walking. Another ride would have kept everyone more excited, I think. We then watched Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln which we had done on one of our more recent trips so were a little disappointed, but it was interesting to hear the background of the experience and why it was so important to Walt. I think tour time would be better used doing something else in the park though. Before eating lunch from Jolly Holiday back at the Tour Gardens, was the highlight of the tour - Walt's apartment! We were expecting to tour the Dream Suite (which they are now back to referring to as the Royal Suite so expect some changes there, in my opinion), but discovered that we would be the first to once again tour Walt's apartment after some refurbishments had recently been completed. I was delighted, but I must say that my daughters were a little disappointed - they really, really wanted to see inside the Dream Suite. It will be interesting to see if they rotate which location will be seen on future tours. We'd do the tour again if it meant seeing the suite. Anyway, I loved visiting the apartment. Two different plaids took over the tour at this point (one was obviously "in training" and honestly struggled with presenting the information). We stayed in there for nearly 20 minutes and got to ask questions and take a picture. It was special!
- By the time the tour concluded and we enjoyed our leisurely lunch and visited with J'Amy who was happy to talk and answer questions, we went to our hotel for a nap before returning around 9pm for fireworks and some rides. We got a Star Tours fastpass and then stalled near the hub in order to find a spot for fireworks after the parade passed (we had front row spots for the Main Street Electrical Parade in April so were happy just to watch it pass by this trip). We were lucky enough to get a great fireworks spot right in front of the rope to the right of the hub near the entrance to Tomorrowland. Loved it! I cried as usual! We then rode on Star Tours, had a corn dog, used our tour fastpass on Big Thunder (LOVE this ride at night!) and finished the night on Pirates of the Caribbean at 11:30 before heading to our hotel.
- My girls' passes were blocked on Saturday (they have the Deluxe, I have the Signature) so we couldn't do the parks the next day. Instead, I made reservations for the Classic Tea at Disneyland Hotel which was lovely! I definitely recommend this experience. My girls loved getting to feel fancy and try different teas. Our server was very knowledgeable about which ones we should try. We planned to also do some shopping in Downtown Disney, but found everything we needed (wanted!) in the hotel shops. Our three hours of valet parking were validated by the restaurant.
- Final note: it was much less crowded in the parks on a Friday in June than I was expecting! It was definitely less crowded than when we were there in April and in March. I'm sure it has a lot to do with passes being blocked in summer, especially the Southern California passes. However, I think far fewer families are visiting in the summer. I was pretty surprised, and this is definitely a change from a couple of years ago, in my opinion. We weren't planning to go again this summer, but I think we'll do another trip in August and hope for this trend in crowds to continue.
