Disneyland trip report, 5/15-5/19

[krystee]

My H and our two boys (4 and 16 months) flew out to meet me after a work conference this week. Southwest changed their nonstop to a layover after the original flight was canceled because it was on a Max 8. Fortunately, they immediately put him back on a nonstop when he called to see what they could do. Unfortunately, it got in hours later than the first one.

They took the Disney bus from LAX (we are staying at Paradise Pier). The boys were in fantastic spirits despite it being 7:45 pm (which feels like 9:45 pm our time) so we decided to get a last-minute reservation for Goofy’s Kitchen. We got to see every character at least twice and DS1 loved dancing with them during the song and dance they all do. We got home at 9:30 (11:30 our time) and both boys went right to bed and woke up at 6:30 am.

We knew it was supposed to pour this morning so we added a breakfast at Donald Duck’s Seaside Breakfast at our hotel. Every character came by three times AND the boys got to dance with them multiple times during their song/dance things. It’s the best character interaction we have ever experienced, and we’ve been to WDW a million times.

It was still pouring after so we did the baby’s morning nap in the hotel room and then headed to Disneyland. We stayed from 12-8:30 and did eight rides and lunch. We got Max Pass, which was so convenient. The Pirates ride is better here, and I loved the outside stuff on It’s a Small World. We got a bit of Disney Magic when the baby peed through his clothes (I have no idea how since I’d changed him 30 minutes earlier) and I asked a cast member where the nearest gift shop with pants or pjs was. She led me to one and then shocked me by handing me the pajamas and saying they were a gift! That was awesome.

The baby started melting down at 8 (which feels like 10 pm our time). We’d had a late lunch so we hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and we grabbed sandwiches to go from Earl of Sandwich in Downtown Disney and shakes from Blacktap (way too much money). There were two incredible violinists playing there, so we stopped and listened for a minute. Everyone ate and immediately fell asleep back at the room.

Yet another character breakfast today, and then California Adventure!

[bronxgirl]

Sounds fun! I loved Disneyland so much. I was disappointed that Pirates was closed when Ai was there because I heard it was so much better.

[landmermaid]

Sounds like a great time! And that was wonderful that they gifted you those pants. Truly the most magical place on Earth!

[alleinesein]

krystee You should see small world when it is all lit up for the holidays. It is so pretty.

[krystee]

California Adventure is fantastic. We started with breakfast at Storytellers Cafe at Grand Californian, which is beautiful, and then used the back entrance to the park right there and got in with zero wait.

Cars Land is absolutely adorable. We ate at Flo’s Cafe and met Mater, Cruz and Lightning McQueen. We are taking naps now at 5 pm so the boys can make it for the night show. Definitely aiming to get back in time to see Cars Land light up!

Guardians of the Galaxy was cool, and my four-year-old both loved it and was simultaneously petrified. He said he’d do it again, though. Even though I liked it, Hollywood Studios better never change Tower of Terror!

Overall I like this park much better than Hollywood Studios, but so many rides have a minimum height, so my one-year-old has been kind of bored. I am hoping we can make time for the Ferris wheel and Turtle Talk with Crush tonight since he’ll enjoy those. He also likes the Zephyrs and Little Mermaid.

Did anyone do the swinging carts on the Ferris wheel? My 4 year old and I want to try them, but they look sort of terrifying.

[krystee]

May 17, 2019 17:19:36 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

krystee You should see small world when it is all lit up for the holidays. It is so pretty.

Tagging you so you might see my Ferris wheel question above in time.

[bronxgirl]

May 17, 2019 19:27:52 GMT -5 krystee said:

Did anyone do the swinging carts on the Ferris wheel? My 4 year old and I want to try them, but they look sort of terrifying.

I thought it was really fun.

[alleinesein]

krystee I love the swinging cars on the Pixar Pal Around/Ferris wheel. If you get easily spooked by movement, you might not like them. They do move constantly and the movement seems to be more intense when the ferris wheel is being loaded/unloaded because you just swing back and forth.

[krystee]

Bummer, 50-minute wait that would have made us miss our Radiator Springs fastpass. We are contemplating a park hopper tomorrow since this fast pass also prevented us from World of Color.

[krystee]

There were NINE characters at the Plaza breakfast! Not my favorite of the breakfast buffets, but the characters make it one of my top choices. Minnie, Tigger, Eeyore, Chip, Dale, Captain Hook, Rafiki, Max (Goofy’s nephew), and Fairy Godmother. The boys loved it!

[krystee]

Disneyland on a Saturday on Grad Night (well, it was Grad Night at California Adventure the day before, and there are a billion graduation shirts at DL today too) right before Star Wars opens is the seventh circle of hell. We did breakfast and four rides and got the heck out of dodge. It looks like WDW on Christmas. We are going to brave it again tonight for our 6 pm Space Mountain FP and hopefully get one more ride in there too.

[Deleted]

May 18, 2019 18:19:02 GMT -5 krystee said:

Disneyland on a Saturday on Grad Night (well, it was Grad Night at California Adventure the day before, and there are a billion graduation shirts at DL today too) right before Star Wars opens is the seventh circle of hell. We did breakfast and four rides and got the heck out of dodge. It looks like WDW on Christmas. We are going to brave it again tonight for our 6 pm Space Mountain FP and hopefully get one more ride in there too.

We went last year at this time and couldn’t believe the crowds! We got 8/9/10 crowd levels during the week and weekend. We still had a great time but definitely have had better luck with lower crowds at WDW.

[alleinesein]

May 18, 2019 18:19:02 GMT -5 krystee said:

Disneyland on a Saturday on Grad Night (well, it was Grad Night at California Adventure the day before, and there are a billion graduation shirts at DL today too) right before Star Wars opens is the seventh circle of hell. We did breakfast and four rides and got the heck out of dodge. It looks like WDW on Christmas. We are going to brave it again tonight for our 6 pm Space Mountain FP and hopefully get one more ride in there too.

Combine grad night crowds with the last weekend that the SoCal discounted tickets could be used and it makes for a very busy park.  There is also a huge dental convention in town that is adding extra people to the parks that normally wouldn't go. We made the mistake of going up on the last sunday of a promotional ticket a few years ago; the parking situation was so bad that it took me an hour just to get through 1 stoplight and the special event I was attending at Disney had to hold off on checking us in because people could not get to the parking lot.  A lot of us gave up and parked in Downtown Disney and they ended up giving us free parking because it was such a mess.  

The people who create the crowd calendars for Disneyland forget to take certain things into account (promo tickets, AP block out dates, grad night, conventions, etc) so they severely underestimate the levels most of the time.  I never pay attention to them.

[luv2rn4fun]

May 20, 2019 2:02:38 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

May 18, 2019 18:19:02 GMT -5 krystee said:

Disneyland on a Saturday on Grad Night (well, it was Grad Night at California Adventure the day before, and there are a billion graduation shirts at DL today too) right before Star Wars opens is the seventh circle of hell. We did breakfast and four rides and got the heck out of dodge. It looks like WDW on Christmas. We are going to brave it again tonight for our 6 pm Space Mountain FP and hopefully get one more ride in there too.

Combine grad night crowds with the last weekend that the SoCal discounted tickets could be used and it makes for a very busy park.  There is also a huge dental convention in town that is adding extra people to the parks that normally wouldn't go. We made the mistake of going up on the last sunday of a promotional ticket a few years ago; the parking situation was so bad that it took me an hour just to get through 1 stoplight and the special event I was attending at Disney had to hold off on checking us in because people could not get to the parking lot.  A lot of us gave up and parked in Downtown Disney and they ended up giving us free parking because it was such a mess.  

The people who create the crowd calendars for Disneyland forget to take certain things into account (promo tickets, AP block out dates, grad night, conventions, etc) so they severely underestimate the levels most of the time.  I never pay attention to them.

You probably have some good insight so would love your opinion.

We have AP and are planning to do our last day prior to summer blockout on Monday (CA Adventure...would do Tuesday but DS1 has no school at all Monday vs class til 9:15 on Tues). What should we do with parking? We usually do the structure but was thinking it’s going to be insane and maybe Toy Story lot would be better (no clue, haven’t parked there in years). I would just walk over since I don’t want to deal with two kids and a double stroller. Planning to get there no later than 8:30, preferably 8....want to get a FastPass for Radiator Springs.

[alleinesein]

May 29, 2019 22:39:08 GMT -5 luv2rn4fun said:

May 20, 2019 2:02:38 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

Combine grad night crowds with the last weekend that the SoCal discounted tickets could be used and it makes for a very busy park.  There is also a huge dental convention in town that is adding extra people to the parks that normally wouldn't go. We made the mistake of going up on the last sunday of a promotional ticket a few years ago; the parking situation was so bad that it took me an hour just to get through 1 stoplight and the special event I was attending at Disney had to hold off on checking us in because people could not get to the parking lot.  A lot of us gave up and parked in Downtown Disney and they ended up giving us free parking because it was such a mess.  

The people who create the crowd calendars for Disneyland forget to take certain things into account (promo tickets, AP block out dates, grad night, conventions, etc) so they severely underestimate the levels most of the time.  I never pay attention to them.

You probably have some good insight so would love your opinion.

We have AP and are planning to do our last day prior to summer blockout on Monday (CA Adventure...would do Tuesday but DS1 has no school at all Monday vs class til 9:15 on Tues). What should we do with parking? We usually do the structure but was thinking it’s going to be insane and maybe Toy Story lot would be better (no clue, haven’t parked there in years). I would just walk over since I don’t want to deal with two kids and a double stroller. Planning to get there no later than 8:30, preferably 8....want to get a FastPass for Radiator Springs.

Mickey and Friends will be opening up at 5:30 am starting on June 1st until June 23rd for Galaxy's Edge.  If you can get your herd out the door early I'd aim to be parked in Mickey and Friends no later than 7 am.  Monday is EMH at DCA so they will be opening at 7 am for hotel guests.  They usually let non hotel guests into the park around 7:45 am and then hold you in front of Carthay Circle until rope drop.  If you are using MaxPass, you can grab your RSR FP as soon as you are scanned into the park.  

Not sure if you know this but the original Soarin Over California is back for the month of June.  If you miss it or have never ridden it, definitely grab a FP for it; I have a feeling that they are going to go just as fast as the RSR FPs.  

[luv2rn4fun]

May 30, 2019 1:11:47 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

May 29, 2019 22:39:08 GMT -5 luv2rn4fun said:

You probably have some good insight so would love your opinion.

We have AP and are planning to do our last day prior to summer blockout on Monday (CA Adventure...would do Tuesday but DS1 has no school at all Monday vs class til 9:15 on Tues). What should we do with parking? We usually do the structure but was thinking it’s going to be insane and maybe Toy Story lot would be better (no clue, haven’t parked there in years). I would just walk over since I don’t want to deal with two kids and a double stroller. Planning to get there no later than 8:30, preferably 8....want to get a FastPass for Radiator Springs.

Mickey and Friends will be opening up at 5:30 am starting on June 1st until June 23rd for Galaxy's Edge.  If you can get your herd out the door early I'd aim to be parked in Mickey and Friends no later than 7 am.  Monday is EMH at DCA so they will be opening at 7 am for hotel guests.  They usually let non hotel guests into the park around 7:45 am and then hold you in front of Carthay Circle until rope drop.  If you are using MaxPass, you can grab your RSR FP as soon as you are scanned into the park.  

Not sure if you know this but the original Soarin Over California is back for the month of June.  If you miss it or have never ridden it, definitely grab a FP for it; I have a feeling that they are going to go just as fast as the RSR FPs.  

I was thinking the earliest we would be there would be 7:30ish (depends on traffic), leaving south OC around 6:45. Not planning to do MaxPass...if needed, my son recently got a medical diagnosis so we could use that to get on a ride (but thought we would try the normal way first). I forgot about Soaring...do you know the height limit?

[TBM]

May 30, 2019 8:31:35 GMT -5 luv2rn4fun said:

May 30, 2019 1:11:47 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

Mickey and Friends will be opening up at 5:30 am starting on June 1st until June 23rd for Galaxy's Edge.  If you can get your herd out the door early I'd aim to be parked in Mickey and Friends no later than 7 am.  Monday is EMH at DCA so they will be opening at 7 am for hotel guests.  They usually let non hotel guests into the park around 7:45 am and then hold you in front of Carthay Circle until rope drop.  If you are using MaxPass, you can grab your RSR FP as soon as you are scanned into the park.  

Not sure if you know this but the original Soarin Over California is back for the month of June.  If you miss it or have never ridden it, definitely grab a FP for it; I have a feeling that they are going to go just as fast as the RSR FPs.  

I was thinking the earliest we would be there would be 7:30ish (depends on traffic), leaving south OC around 6:45. Not planning to do MaxPass...if needed, my son recently got a medical diagnosis so we could use that to get on a ride (but thought we would try the normal way first). I forgot about Soaring...do you know the height limit?

The height requirement for Soarin' @ DCA is 40".

[alleinesein]

May 30, 2019 8:31:35 GMT -5 luv2rn4fun said:

May 30, 2019 1:11:47 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

Mickey and Friends will be opening up at 5:30 am starting on June 1st until June 23rd for Galaxy's Edge.  If you can get your herd out the door early I'd aim to be parked in Mickey and Friends no later than 7 am.  Monday is EMH at DCA so they will be opening at 7 am for hotel guests.  They usually let non hotel guests into the park around 7:45 am and then hold you in front of Carthay Circle until rope drop.  If you are using MaxPass, you can grab your RSR FP as soon as you are scanned into the park.  

Not sure if you know this but the original Soarin Over California is back for the month of June.  If you miss it or have never ridden it, definitely grab a FP for it; I have a feeling that they are going to go just as fast as the RSR FPs.  

I was thinking the earliest we would be there would be 7:30ish (depends on traffic), leaving south OC around 6:45. Not planning to do MaxPass...if needed, my son recently got a medical diagnosis so we could use that to get on a ride (but thought we would try the normal way first). I forgot about Soaring...do you know the height limit?

The carpool lane shouldn't be totally backed up by 6:45 am.  I'd try parking in Mickey and Friends first- when you exit the carpool lane at Magic Way, turn right on Harbor and sneak in the back way via Ball.  If you are on twitter, follow @disneylandtoday for parking updates.

As for RSR, as soon as you get into the park, do the following.  Have 1 parent stay with the kids and the other parent takes everyone's tickets and goes to get RSR FPs.  There is no need for all of you to walk over to get them.  The parent who has the kids can do a bathroom break and then you can meet up at Guest Relations to see if you qualify for the DAS pass.  When you have a larger group, it is always easier to have a designated runner for FPs.  You can make better use of your time especially if you have people in the group who take frequent bathroom breaks.  

[luv2rn4fun]

May 30, 2019 15:50:15 GMT -5 alleinesein said:

May 30, 2019 8:31:35 GMT -5 luv2rn4fun said:

I was thinking the earliest we would be there would be 7:30ish (depends on traffic), leaving south OC around 6:45. Not planning to do MaxPass...if needed, my son recently got a medical diagnosis so we could use that to get on a ride (but thought we would try the normal way first). I forgot about Soaring...do you know the height limit?

The carpool lane shouldn't be totally backed up by 6:45 am.  I'd try parking in Mickey and Friends first- when you exit the carpool lane at Magic Way, turn right on Harbor and sneak in the back way via Ball.  If you are on twitter, follow @disneylandtoday for parking updates.

As for RSR, as soon as you get into the park, do the following.  Have 1 parent stay with the kids and the other parent takes everyone's tickets and goes to get RSR FPs.  There is no need for all of you to walk over to get them.  The parent who has the kids can do a bathroom break and then you can meet up at Guest Relations to see if you qualify for the DAS pass.  When you have a larger group, it is always easier to have a designated runner for FPs.  You can make better use of your time especially if you have people in the group who take frequent bathroom breaks.  

Thank you! I will give the parking structure a try!

Yes, definitely planning to run straight for RSR FP! I will have the boys with me (in the stroller). My parents are going too but all potty breaks with my oldest are on me. They help by watching my younger son. Last time, my step mom got lunch for everyone while we went to get Big Thunder Mountain FP...she has a hard time walking a lot (hip surgery 1.5 years ago) so I try to help save her steps while also logistically doing what we can to save time!