Potterswife
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2007
- Messages
- 140
I've put together some answers to some questions I had before the trip, some gripes and pics for your DLR Disboard enjoyment...or not...your choice.
I'll start off with some background, there are 3 of us, husband, daughter, myself. Husband tore his achilles playing basketball and rather then sit in front of the TV to rest he wanted to head down to Disneyland. We get AP's every other year and always visit at this time.
We left Weds night (8/10) after DH was done working, we left the bay area at about 9:00. Along I-5 we went through a few construction zones before hitting the grapevine, it went down to one lane, we were constantly moving at about 50 mph. We hit more construction zones after the grapevine and that continued until we got through Burbank. We never stopped but we did slow. We arrived at the Sheraton Park hotel at 2am.
We had called to have our ecv rental (scooter chair $40 a day) delivered to the hotel earlier that day. The check in lady said it was never delivered. She let us know that the hotel has ones we can borrow (for free!!), since we had already been charged for the one we had reserved we decided to take it up with that company, it was great to know we could have gotten one for free(maybe next time). Wouldn't you know it, as I was lugging all of our bags upstairs the bell hop zoomed around the corner of the parking lot on our ecv! Yay. We had planned on driving to the parks each day but ended up walking...well 2 walked, 1 of us scootered in his chair. The weather was great, in the 80's and it got cooler at night...shorts and a sweater usually.
Hotel pool
Back of Sheraton Park with it's glass elevator (we just love this place and always stay here or at the HoJo) This year with a 4 night stay we got a $100 gift card. Nice.
(*to the family that came up behind us while we were waiting for the hotel elevator and then jumped in the elevator in front of us making it impossible for us to get in with the ecv, you suck. To everybody else who held the doors/gates for us and waited and smiled, thank you!! To the people who decided to cut in front of my DH to use the wheelchair exits off the rides while I hold the gates open for my husband, you suck, even a thank you, sorry or excuse me, would have made me feel better but to just ignore the fact that you cut my DH off and I was holding the gate open for *him*...ugh!)
Day 1: We had finally gotten to bed at 4am, up at 6am for MM. We arrived right before 7am and stood at the gates with a small crowd, we were behind about 20 people. As soon as they counted down the opening of the gates, people were off and running. Literally. A grown man ran around my husband and almost knocked my daughter over, not cool. We headed over to Star Tours 2 (with everybody else) which already had a 15 minute wait and talked to the CM who gave us one of these...
Basically we wait until our time then head up the exit. There is a CM there who checks it and sends you up to wait for the next CM and then you wait until they tell you to get on. Sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 5. We always were sat in the front row all they way on the right side. Next time hopefully my husband will be off crutches and we will get to sit in some other seats.
We relaxed while getting on rides for the rest of the day, I noticed by 11am there were no FP's left for ST and then Fri, Sat, Sun they were gone by 10am. The longest wait for ST was 75 minutes. The crowds were manageable. RR and BLightyear were broken down off and on our whole stay. SM usually had FP's until the evening time. Of course Buzz no longer has FP's. Daughter did single rider on Indie, Goofys sky school, GRR and Splash. Being in an ecv we didn't feel comfortable trying to ride rides over and over again like we would have done normally.
Space Mountain...my family is in the front row
Breakfast at Riverbelle
$7.99 fruit plate
$7.99 breakfast plate, can't beat the view of Pirates, HM, the Rivers of America and great people watching.
We had lunch and dinner off site. Went back to the parks around 8pm and causally rode what we felt like.
Day 2, 3, 4: Got to the parks at 9am. Crowds were busier then Thursday yet completely manageable. Saturday was really busy and Sunday was more like Friday, there were a lot of tour groups on Sunday which made it harder to get around. We went to the parks knowing we would just have to take it easy and we did, it was rather enjoyable knowing we could something the next day or next trip, we weren't rushing like we normally do, I'm hoping our next trip DH can walk and we can keep our relaxed mentality, it really does help.
Observations:
*The people who cut around and in front of us makes it take us twice as long to get anywhere since we had to keep stopping so we wouldn't hit anybody. Of course these are the same people that roll their eyes and put up their hands when we use an exit to get on a ride. While we might not wait in line as long as they do, it does take us twice as long to get around the park. It's all relative. On some rides it would take us longer to get on then if we had been able to use a regular entrance, but mostly at DL our wait was shorter. One night we found ourselves walking in front of the castle before fireworks...husband was right behind me but so many people kept crowding the space in front of him that he ended up about 100 people behind us.
*Corn dog wagon was grrreat! $6 for a huge corn dog and chips or apple slices is awesome, I could have eaten 5 of them. So good.
*Every CM we dealt with was so friendly. Matt in tommorowland, Brinda at Capt EO, Patsy at CA who took my husbands birthday button and decorated it for him.
*DLR gift with purchase giveaway this year is a Mickey backpark (really cute) or a Mickey watch
*We had the free vouchers from Costco and decided to try Goofy's for dinner. Saw...Capt Hook (so funny, great to mess around with...tick tock tick tock you codfish), Belle, Wendy, Chip, Dale, Pluto, Goofy of course and the biggest surprise for us...Minnie Mouse!!! We usually do brunch at Goofys and really like that better. I can't explain it, but if *we* were paying $40+ for our 10 year old daughter to eat grapes, watermelon and fried shrimp I'd be upset. Our receipt showed total cost was $137 for 3 adults. Craaaazy. But since it was free we were happy to experience it. Oh some foods they had...carved NY steak, carved pork, salads, mashed potatoes, fried plantains, pizzas, hot dogs, macncheese, rice, orange chicken, potstickers, ribs, roast chicken, fried shrimp, random sweet treats, soft serve ice cream.
I am used to eating at Goofys and looking out on the gardens, the windows all had plastic over them, it was a bit claustrophobic for me, you can sort of see it behind us in this picture...
*Most Disneyland rides require entrance through the exit (not Buzz). All of California Adventure have you wait in the normal entrance and then when you get to the front you go to wait in the wheelchair area. That stunk a bit. It is what it is though. People who were behind us in line were already done by the time we would get on.
*You can get birthday buttons almost anywhere, just ask if you are celebrating one
*Walmart near the park off I-5 has groceries now, we love to go see their Disney related swag (shirts, dresses, pj's, pens, mugs, backpacks, stuffed animals, etc)
*Our Costco 3 day hopper tickets had an upgrade value of $186 each we used to upgrade to Deluxe annual passes. First ticket booth man (who wasn't in a great mood and we are pretty sure would rather be doing something other them working at the happiest place on earth), said it would be $158 towards an AP, we left a bit miffed. Went back on Friday, talked with Victor and he said we would get $186 each for them and he gave us a bunch of buttons and a few laughs, he was great.
*DLH construction, the large Mickey statue is gone for now, there is a smaller one in the lobby. Here is a pic I took from the bridge of the pools, the girl on the bottom right in near a pool and the other side is the neverland pool under construction.
I love their tree cutout on the wall
Not to be a downer but it was sad to see it in the state DLH was in, I know it will look better in the next few months. Trader Sams was great, highly suggest a visit in there, we even saw the note from Short Round (Indiana Jones), DD was very excited.
Something we've never done before...the Indiana Jones elevator...my 10 year old Indie-phile was thrilled to ride in it
*Little Mermaid ride was posted 20 minute wait, took us 10 to get on, took others less but we had to transfer to the wheelchair area. In line with our Mickey outlet bag full of snacks and drinks.
*you still can get free coffee refills at the coffee house on Main Street, just keep your cup and reciept.
*I highly suggest trying out the Nemo viewing room. We love it. A/C was full blast, sound was great, it was private and no wait (at the time). We saw more in there then we normally see on the subs.
*Coming home...We left Sunday (8/14) at 12:30pm, sat in stop and go all the way until about Magic Mountain area. Stopped and ate dinner/lunch at 2:30 and on the road again at 3:15. Slow moving all through the grapevine (about 50-70mph), then about 20 minutes after the grapevine on I-5, traffic stopped. Both directions. Stopped. We couldn't turn around and go 99 because the other side was just as bad. We went for a few miles saw the Caltrans "you will be stuck for 2 hours" signs and decided to get off on the next exit and make our way through to 99. Stayed on 99 until 152 and then took that back over to 5. We got home at 9:30
9 hours on the road with a short dinner break for a trip that should have taken us 5 hours (with the dinner break)!!
*4 very magical moments for me...first was driving an Autopia car alone when the fireworks were going off, I stopped on a bridge and just sat in awe. It was beautiful, there was nobody behind me, I can't explain it but being at Disneyland with those amazing fireworks looking up at them from an Autopia car on that same track Walt drove...it was amazing. Second was coming into Disneyland on the monorail when the fireworks were going off, it was just myself, my daughter and my husband on board, a great welcome back for us. Third was my daughter getting chosen to be the spy on Star Tours, we figured since we always had to wait until everybody was on we would never be picked. Star Wars is her second favorite series right behind Indiana Jones. Fourth was my husband getting up with his crutches at Goofy's kitchen and dancing silly on one foot with Goofy on one foot, everybody started clapping and cheering, it was so funny.
Well that is about it, if you have any questions feel free to ask, hope you enjoyed my ramble
I'll start off with some background, there are 3 of us, husband, daughter, myself. Husband tore his achilles playing basketball and rather then sit in front of the TV to rest he wanted to head down to Disneyland. We get AP's every other year and always visit at this time.
We left Weds night (8/10) after DH was done working, we left the bay area at about 9:00. Along I-5 we went through a few construction zones before hitting the grapevine, it went down to one lane, we were constantly moving at about 50 mph. We hit more construction zones after the grapevine and that continued until we got through Burbank. We never stopped but we did slow. We arrived at the Sheraton Park hotel at 2am.
We had called to have our ecv rental (scooter chair $40 a day) delivered to the hotel earlier that day. The check in lady said it was never delivered. She let us know that the hotel has ones we can borrow (for free!!), since we had already been charged for the one we had reserved we decided to take it up with that company, it was great to know we could have gotten one for free(maybe next time). Wouldn't you know it, as I was lugging all of our bags upstairs the bell hop zoomed around the corner of the parking lot on our ecv! Yay. We had planned on driving to the parks each day but ended up walking...well 2 walked, 1 of us scootered in his chair. The weather was great, in the 80's and it got cooler at night...shorts and a sweater usually.
Hotel pool
Back of Sheraton Park with it's glass elevator (we just love this place and always stay here or at the HoJo) This year with a 4 night stay we got a $100 gift card. Nice.
(*to the family that came up behind us while we were waiting for the hotel elevator and then jumped in the elevator in front of us making it impossible for us to get in with the ecv, you suck. To everybody else who held the doors/gates for us and waited and smiled, thank you!! To the people who decided to cut in front of my DH to use the wheelchair exits off the rides while I hold the gates open for my husband, you suck, even a thank you, sorry or excuse me, would have made me feel better but to just ignore the fact that you cut my DH off and I was holding the gate open for *him*...ugh!)
Day 1: We had finally gotten to bed at 4am, up at 6am for MM. We arrived right before 7am and stood at the gates with a small crowd, we were behind about 20 people. As soon as they counted down the opening of the gates, people were off and running. Literally. A grown man ran around my husband and almost knocked my daughter over, not cool. We headed over to Star Tours 2 (with everybody else) which already had a 15 minute wait and talked to the CM who gave us one of these...
Basically we wait until our time then head up the exit. There is a CM there who checks it and sends you up to wait for the next CM and then you wait until they tell you to get on. Sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 5. We always were sat in the front row all they way on the right side. Next time hopefully my husband will be off crutches and we will get to sit in some other seats.
We relaxed while getting on rides for the rest of the day, I noticed by 11am there were no FP's left for ST and then Fri, Sat, Sun they were gone by 10am. The longest wait for ST was 75 minutes. The crowds were manageable. RR and BLightyear were broken down off and on our whole stay. SM usually had FP's until the evening time. Of course Buzz no longer has FP's. Daughter did single rider on Indie, Goofys sky school, GRR and Splash. Being in an ecv we didn't feel comfortable trying to ride rides over and over again like we would have done normally.
Space Mountain...my family is in the front row
Breakfast at Riverbelle
$7.99 fruit plate
$7.99 breakfast plate, can't beat the view of Pirates, HM, the Rivers of America and great people watching.
We had lunch and dinner off site. Went back to the parks around 8pm and causally rode what we felt like.
Day 2, 3, 4: Got to the parks at 9am. Crowds were busier then Thursday yet completely manageable. Saturday was really busy and Sunday was more like Friday, there were a lot of tour groups on Sunday which made it harder to get around. We went to the parks knowing we would just have to take it easy and we did, it was rather enjoyable knowing we could something the next day or next trip, we weren't rushing like we normally do, I'm hoping our next trip DH can walk and we can keep our relaxed mentality, it really does help.
Observations:
*The people who cut around and in front of us makes it take us twice as long to get anywhere since we had to keep stopping so we wouldn't hit anybody. Of course these are the same people that roll their eyes and put up their hands when we use an exit to get on a ride. While we might not wait in line as long as they do, it does take us twice as long to get around the park. It's all relative. On some rides it would take us longer to get on then if we had been able to use a regular entrance, but mostly at DL our wait was shorter. One night we found ourselves walking in front of the castle before fireworks...husband was right behind me but so many people kept crowding the space in front of him that he ended up about 100 people behind us.
*Corn dog wagon was grrreat! $6 for a huge corn dog and chips or apple slices is awesome, I could have eaten 5 of them. So good.
*Every CM we dealt with was so friendly. Matt in tommorowland, Brinda at Capt EO, Patsy at CA who took my husbands birthday button and decorated it for him.
*DLR gift with purchase giveaway this year is a Mickey backpark (really cute) or a Mickey watch
*We had the free vouchers from Costco and decided to try Goofy's for dinner. Saw...Capt Hook (so funny, great to mess around with...tick tock tick tock you codfish), Belle, Wendy, Chip, Dale, Pluto, Goofy of course and the biggest surprise for us...Minnie Mouse!!! We usually do brunch at Goofys and really like that better. I can't explain it, but if *we* were paying $40+ for our 10 year old daughter to eat grapes, watermelon and fried shrimp I'd be upset. Our receipt showed total cost was $137 for 3 adults. Craaaazy. But since it was free we were happy to experience it. Oh some foods they had...carved NY steak, carved pork, salads, mashed potatoes, fried plantains, pizzas, hot dogs, macncheese, rice, orange chicken, potstickers, ribs, roast chicken, fried shrimp, random sweet treats, soft serve ice cream.
I am used to eating at Goofys and looking out on the gardens, the windows all had plastic over them, it was a bit claustrophobic for me, you can sort of see it behind us in this picture...
*Most Disneyland rides require entrance through the exit (not Buzz). All of California Adventure have you wait in the normal entrance and then when you get to the front you go to wait in the wheelchair area. That stunk a bit. It is what it is though. People who were behind us in line were already done by the time we would get on.
*You can get birthday buttons almost anywhere, just ask if you are celebrating one
*Walmart near the park off I-5 has groceries now, we love to go see their Disney related swag (shirts, dresses, pj's, pens, mugs, backpacks, stuffed animals, etc)
*Our Costco 3 day hopper tickets had an upgrade value of $186 each we used to upgrade to Deluxe annual passes. First ticket booth man (who wasn't in a great mood and we are pretty sure would rather be doing something other them working at the happiest place on earth), said it would be $158 towards an AP, we left a bit miffed. Went back on Friday, talked with Victor and he said we would get $186 each for them and he gave us a bunch of buttons and a few laughs, he was great.
*DLH construction, the large Mickey statue is gone for now, there is a smaller one in the lobby. Here is a pic I took from the bridge of the pools, the girl on the bottom right in near a pool and the other side is the neverland pool under construction.
I love their tree cutout on the wall
Not to be a downer but it was sad to see it in the state DLH was in, I know it will look better in the next few months. Trader Sams was great, highly suggest a visit in there, we even saw the note from Short Round (Indiana Jones), DD was very excited.
Something we've never done before...the Indiana Jones elevator...my 10 year old Indie-phile was thrilled to ride in it
*Little Mermaid ride was posted 20 minute wait, took us 10 to get on, took others less but we had to transfer to the wheelchair area. In line with our Mickey outlet bag full of snacks and drinks.
*you still can get free coffee refills at the coffee house on Main Street, just keep your cup and reciept.
*I highly suggest trying out the Nemo viewing room. We love it. A/C was full blast, sound was great, it was private and no wait (at the time). We saw more in there then we normally see on the subs.
*Coming home...We left Sunday (8/14) at 12:30pm, sat in stop and go all the way until about Magic Mountain area. Stopped and ate dinner/lunch at 2:30 and on the road again at 3:15. Slow moving all through the grapevine (about 50-70mph), then about 20 minutes after the grapevine on I-5, traffic stopped. Both directions. Stopped. We couldn't turn around and go 99 because the other side was just as bad. We went for a few miles saw the Caltrans "you will be stuck for 2 hours" signs and decided to get off on the next exit and make our way through to 99. Stayed on 99 until 152 and then took that back over to 5. We got home at 9:30
9 hours on the road with a short dinner break for a trip that should have taken us 5 hours (with the dinner break)!!*4 very magical moments for me...first was driving an Autopia car alone when the fireworks were going off, I stopped on a bridge and just sat in awe. It was beautiful, there was nobody behind me, I can't explain it but being at Disneyland with those amazing fireworks looking up at them from an Autopia car on that same track Walt drove...it was amazing. Second was coming into Disneyland on the monorail when the fireworks were going off, it was just myself, my daughter and my husband on board, a great welcome back for us. Third was my daughter getting chosen to be the spy on Star Tours, we figured since we always had to wait until everybody was on we would never be picked. Star Wars is her second favorite series right behind Indiana Jones. Fourth was my husband getting up with his crutches at Goofy's kitchen and dancing silly on one foot with Goofy on one foot, everybody started clapping and cheering, it was so funny.
Well that is about it, if you have any questions feel free to ask, hope you enjoyed my ramble
I too got to ride Autopia during the fireworks, and it was definitely a sight to behold. I couldn't stop for too long, but it felt very intimate.
Especially since you were not even holding the door for them in the first place!
