NewbieMouse
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2010
- Messages
- 1,352
We are back from our trip and I just thought I would give a quick trip report. If I've put this in the wrong place, I apologize profusely.
Saturday, June 12: Arrived at LAX and used Disneyland Express Resort to get the DLR. Worked well, they arrived at terminal 2 about 5 minutes past the hour, as advertised. Checked in at DLH with no line (no Goofy characters milling about in the lobby either, however). Had put in a request for a refurbished room and asked again at check-in. Got a 2 Queen/1Daybed on the 9th floor facing the pool in the Dreams Tower. It was very nice; had turndown service nightly. It looked like the rooms in that tower were all done their refurbishment. Here was no other construction seen around the DLH, so they must be in a lull between tower makeovers. Loved the Neverland pool. My daughters were never asked to do a swim test but they were able to go on the slide (they could swim to the side alone, but they are by no means swimmers that I would not go into the pool with). I will have to go against the general sentiment here and mention that we ate at Cafe Orleans that evening and I didn't really like it. The pommes frites were OK (but nothing overly spectacular), and the three cheese monte cristo was waaaay too greasy for me. I get kind of nauseous just thinking about it. I can't fathom how someone could eat that whole thing on their own. I guess I'm in the minority there.
Sunday, June 13 [No WOC Spoilers Ahead!]: MM this day and it was great - got to go on lots of rides then and in the first couple of hours the park was open to the public was not terribly busy. Did the WOC dinner package with WCT at 4:10 p.m. They seemed kind of disorganized and confused; but it was only day 3 for them. We got there right at 4:00 and they said we would be called shortly. Finally at 4:15 I went up to ask what the deal was, and it was obvious they had forgotten about us. Got seated upstairs; it was dead up there so not sure why they had needed to move my reservation from 4:00 to 4:10. Meal was OK, but not worth the price. Not a big deal, as I was really interested more in the tickets than the meal. If you're a picky eater like me you could have trouble here. I had planned on the sirloin but was then told it could only be served medium-rare unless I wanted to wait another 20-30 minutes. I don't eat raw meat
, but I didn't want to wait as dd's would get restless so had the pasta instead. Like I said, nothing to write home about. But I got my tickets and got to see the 9:00 WOC show. Tickets said to arrive between 7:30 and 8:30, so I arrived at 7:30. Was escorted to the middle area (it was like a circle shape) and waited for the show to start. People were sitting down while they waited and this seemed to disturb the CM's a little. Every once in a while they'd announce that you had to stand up, but most people shrugged it off as (like me) they were just sitting to wait. That kind of annoyed me. Around a half hour before they had a little in-crowd pre-show thing and then it started promptly at 9:00. Could see clearly, no problems that way - most stuff was high up. Now, I'm not much of a show person, and I am not really inclined to stand waiting to see anything, but the show was very impressive - that's all I'll say. No spoilers, but it gave me goose bumps a few times, and that's very unusual. It is definitely worth seeing.
Monday, June 14: Did the Surf's Up Breakfast with Mickey and Friends at PPH. Food was decent; we saw Mickey, Minnie, Stitch, Pluto and Daisy. This was our first character meal so I wasn't really sure what to expect. In the evening we had the kids go to Pinocchio's Workshop for a couple of hours. They loved it. Staff was great. Got to go on Maliboomer and Screamin' with FP's picked up earlier, but parks were a ZOO that night.
Tuesday, June 15: Another MM this day, but it was much busier than before. Not nearly as enjoyable, felt a little crazy compared to Sunday. Really, all day the parks were a bit of a nightmare. Had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, seating for 5:40 p.m. Saw Goofy, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, Pluto again, and also Chip. They had pizza, roast pork, prime rib, potatoes of various kinds, popcorn shrimp, ahi tuna, mac n' cheese, hot dogs, tons of desserts, etc. Basically the same stuff that others had posted. Again, food was decent - standard buffet style fare. Nothing to write home about, but that's not really why we were there.
Wednesday, June 16: Another (extra) MM. MUCH better than Tuesday’s madness. Got on tons of rides in the morning before noon. Did Ariel’s Grotto princess meal at 2:10. Five princesses were there: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Belle and (of course) Ariel. Food was definitely the best of the three character meals. It was good! My daughters really loved this one. Saw the Aladdin show with preferred seating, also excellent. Did the Fantasmic Dessert Seating for the 8:40 show. Showed up to check in at 7:40 and got second row centre. I really think any seat in this area is good, IMHO. Dessert boxes were huge and tasty. CM's were great - even when we dropped my daughter’s first dessert box (and its contents spewed everywhere) as it was being handed to her (oops!). Stayed and watched the fireworks in the seats; could even see Tinkerbelle and Dumbo just peeking out above the treetops. It was a wonderful way to end our vacation.
I think the only character meal I’d do again was Ariel’s. The good thing about having them scheduled was that it was east to convince my dd's that we didn't need to stand in those awful character lineups in the park. But they were pricey, and I found the character interaction to be a bit formulaic (say hello, sign autograph, take picture, bye-bye). But the characters were important to my daughters, so it was fine.
All in all, we had a great vacation. I am sad that it is done. But dd's ages are tough; there’s no way they’ll go in a stroller, yet fiercely determined (and completely uninformed and illogical). I think we’d enjoy it even more about two years from now when everyone is a bit more 'in control', if you know what I mean - like maybe 8 or even 9. Queuing theory is hard to explain to kids of that age, so we followed more touring 'principles', rather than detailed plans. Our general strategy, which we picked up from the boards, was to get there early, take a swim break in the afternoon and return in the evening with fastpasses we collected during the day. We never waited more than 20 minutes for anything, most waits were 15 minutes or less, and many even less than that - despite all the dire warnings about 'first week WOC' crowds. We went on almost everything - we couldn't do Screamin' or Maliboomer together except the one night because dd's are too small - and the few things we didn't do were more by choice. Some things we rode multiple times, like Space (6), Indy (4), Mullholland Madness (3), BTMRR (4), etc… I wasn't sure how dd's would react, but they LOVED all the thrill rides (Indy, Space, Mulholland Madness, Matterhorn, Splash, BTMRR, even TOT). However, they didn't like getting wet on GRR (we were DRENCHED). The only touchy moment we had was when my daughters accidentally got into their own car in HM. My one daughter was not pleased with me! My favourite ride: the Storybook Land Canal Boats
. We rode it at night, and I just LOVED it.
A big thank you to everyone for the advice we received here, which really helped to make our trip a great one. I found the most useful tips I got were: (1) GET there early! Our alarm was set each MM day at 5:45 a.m. It hurt, but that was ESSENTIAL; (2) Collect FP's to use later, ignoring the return time. I LOVED sailing by those people in line when there was a 75 minute stand by wait; and (3) Know the general wait times/lineup situations for all the rides so you know when to *generally* fit them in. That way you know you can go on some rides almost anytime, but others must be hit early or with a fast pass.
Please feel free to ask any questions you have and I’ll try to answer as best as I can.
Saturday, June 12: Arrived at LAX and used Disneyland Express Resort to get the DLR. Worked well, they arrived at terminal 2 about 5 minutes past the hour, as advertised. Checked in at DLH with no line (no Goofy characters milling about in the lobby either, however). Had put in a request for a refurbished room and asked again at check-in. Got a 2 Queen/1Daybed on the 9th floor facing the pool in the Dreams Tower. It was very nice; had turndown service nightly. It looked like the rooms in that tower were all done their refurbishment. Here was no other construction seen around the DLH, so they must be in a lull between tower makeovers. Loved the Neverland pool. My daughters were never asked to do a swim test but they were able to go on the slide (they could swim to the side alone, but they are by no means swimmers that I would not go into the pool with). I will have to go against the general sentiment here and mention that we ate at Cafe Orleans that evening and I didn't really like it. The pommes frites were OK (but nothing overly spectacular), and the three cheese monte cristo was waaaay too greasy for me. I get kind of nauseous just thinking about it. I can't fathom how someone could eat that whole thing on their own. I guess I'm in the minority there.
Sunday, June 13 [No WOC Spoilers Ahead!]: MM this day and it was great - got to go on lots of rides then and in the first couple of hours the park was open to the public was not terribly busy. Did the WOC dinner package with WCT at 4:10 p.m. They seemed kind of disorganized and confused; but it was only day 3 for them. We got there right at 4:00 and they said we would be called shortly. Finally at 4:15 I went up to ask what the deal was, and it was obvious they had forgotten about us. Got seated upstairs; it was dead up there so not sure why they had needed to move my reservation from 4:00 to 4:10. Meal was OK, but not worth the price. Not a big deal, as I was really interested more in the tickets than the meal. If you're a picky eater like me you could have trouble here. I had planned on the sirloin but was then told it could only be served medium-rare unless I wanted to wait another 20-30 minutes. I don't eat raw meat
, but I didn't want to wait as dd's would get restless so had the pasta instead. Like I said, nothing to write home about. But I got my tickets and got to see the 9:00 WOC show. Tickets said to arrive between 7:30 and 8:30, so I arrived at 7:30. Was escorted to the middle area (it was like a circle shape) and waited for the show to start. People were sitting down while they waited and this seemed to disturb the CM's a little. Every once in a while they'd announce that you had to stand up, but most people shrugged it off as (like me) they were just sitting to wait. That kind of annoyed me. Around a half hour before they had a little in-crowd pre-show thing and then it started promptly at 9:00. Could see clearly, no problems that way - most stuff was high up. Now, I'm not much of a show person, and I am not really inclined to stand waiting to see anything, but the show was very impressive - that's all I'll say. No spoilers, but it gave me goose bumps a few times, and that's very unusual. It is definitely worth seeing. Monday, June 14: Did the Surf's Up Breakfast with Mickey and Friends at PPH. Food was decent; we saw Mickey, Minnie, Stitch, Pluto and Daisy. This was our first character meal so I wasn't really sure what to expect. In the evening we had the kids go to Pinocchio's Workshop for a couple of hours. They loved it. Staff was great. Got to go on Maliboomer and Screamin' with FP's picked up earlier, but parks were a ZOO that night.
Tuesday, June 15: Another MM this day, but it was much busier than before. Not nearly as enjoyable, felt a little crazy compared to Sunday. Really, all day the parks were a bit of a nightmare. Had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, seating for 5:40 p.m. Saw Goofy, Jasmine, Sleeping Beauty, Pluto again, and also Chip. They had pizza, roast pork, prime rib, potatoes of various kinds, popcorn shrimp, ahi tuna, mac n' cheese, hot dogs, tons of desserts, etc. Basically the same stuff that others had posted. Again, food was decent - standard buffet style fare. Nothing to write home about, but that's not really why we were there.
Wednesday, June 16: Another (extra) MM. MUCH better than Tuesday’s madness. Got on tons of rides in the morning before noon. Did Ariel’s Grotto princess meal at 2:10. Five princesses were there: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Belle and (of course) Ariel. Food was definitely the best of the three character meals. It was good! My daughters really loved this one. Saw the Aladdin show with preferred seating, also excellent. Did the Fantasmic Dessert Seating for the 8:40 show. Showed up to check in at 7:40 and got second row centre. I really think any seat in this area is good, IMHO. Dessert boxes were huge and tasty. CM's were great - even when we dropped my daughter’s first dessert box (and its contents spewed everywhere) as it was being handed to her (oops!). Stayed and watched the fireworks in the seats; could even see Tinkerbelle and Dumbo just peeking out above the treetops. It was a wonderful way to end our vacation.
I think the only character meal I’d do again was Ariel’s. The good thing about having them scheduled was that it was east to convince my dd's that we didn't need to stand in those awful character lineups in the park. But they were pricey, and I found the character interaction to be a bit formulaic (say hello, sign autograph, take picture, bye-bye). But the characters were important to my daughters, so it was fine.
All in all, we had a great vacation. I am sad that it is done. But dd's ages are tough; there’s no way they’ll go in a stroller, yet fiercely determined (and completely uninformed and illogical). I think we’d enjoy it even more about two years from now when everyone is a bit more 'in control', if you know what I mean - like maybe 8 or even 9. Queuing theory is hard to explain to kids of that age, so we followed more touring 'principles', rather than detailed plans. Our general strategy, which we picked up from the boards, was to get there early, take a swim break in the afternoon and return in the evening with fastpasses we collected during the day. We never waited more than 20 minutes for anything, most waits were 15 minutes or less, and many even less than that - despite all the dire warnings about 'first week WOC' crowds. We went on almost everything - we couldn't do Screamin' or Maliboomer together except the one night because dd's are too small - and the few things we didn't do were more by choice. Some things we rode multiple times, like Space (6), Indy (4), Mullholland Madness (3), BTMRR (4), etc… I wasn't sure how dd's would react, but they LOVED all the thrill rides (Indy, Space, Mulholland Madness, Matterhorn, Splash, BTMRR, even TOT). However, they didn't like getting wet on GRR (we were DRENCHED). The only touchy moment we had was when my daughters accidentally got into their own car in HM. My one daughter was not pleased with me! My favourite ride: the Storybook Land Canal Boats
. We rode it at night, and I just LOVED it. A big thank you to everyone for the advice we received here, which really helped to make our trip a great one. I found the most useful tips I got were: (1) GET there early! Our alarm was set each MM day at 5:45 a.m. It hurt, but that was ESSENTIAL; (2) Collect FP's to use later, ignoring the return time. I LOVED sailing by those people in line when there was a 75 minute stand by wait
; and (3) Know the general wait times/lineup situations for all the rides so you know when to *generally* fit them in. That way you know you can go on some rides almost anytime, but others must be hit early or with a fast pass. Please feel free to ask any questions you have and I’ll try to answer as best as I can.
. Tempers got short several times, and although I'm sure there may still be some of that when they are a couple of years older, I think it will be greatly reduced.
