April PTR - Disneyland and Universal - me, DD14, SIL and nephew 14 taking on the best of the west

[sharona]

Hi! I really enjoyed writing a PTR and TR for our previous trips so here we go again!!!

We're heading from the East Coast (just north of Boston) to the west 4/18 - 4/23 for the kids' school break week. This was a very last minute trip by my usual standards. We just booked about a week ago and the trip is a mere 8 weeks away! On the plus side, not too much time to wait - on the minus side, not too much time to plan! Although it seems like DLR doesn't require as much planning as WDW. Yeay???? Hmmmm...I love planning so that may or may not be a good thing. We'll leave that TBD!

A bit about us:

me - 50-ish working mom who loves photography and travel and supports most of our trips by travel hacking. Travel hacking is just slang for collecting frequent flier points and miles to get free flights and hotel rooms or free upgrades. I have a good job but there is no way I could afford to take all of the trips we take if I didn't use points and miles to pay for just about every flight and hotel. My family likes to make fun of my points obsession but they never complain about the fun trips we get to take!

DD14 - my only baby! She used to be so sweet and fun but now is fully into the whole snap chatting finsta chekcing phone coma that is today's teenage girl. (If you don't know what a finsta is, look it up - your child probably has one.) DD was affectionately known as Boo in previous WDW and USO trip reports but has now graduated to a new nickname - the Princess.

C - my SIL - 40-ish working mom who is one of my BFF's. She's my fun-loving partner in crime when it comes to travel. Married to my brother who is not a fan of flying or beaches or theme parks so he happily sits out many of our "family" trips. C and I also frequently travel with some of our mutual friends on girls weekends when we need to recharge without the kids.

J - my 14 year old nephew. He's usually super sweet but he has his moments. In many ways he is a typical teen boy who wants to stay in his man cave and play video games with his friends 24/7. He also has ASD. He is brilliantly smart but has social and anxiety issues that require special handling. My SIL is wonderful with him and they are fun to travel with as long as we keep his condition in mind and don't over schedule activities.


Next up - our plans come together after months of hesitating and waffling! But was it too late to get the hotel and flights that we wanted? ​

 

[AusAnnie]

Looking forward to reading more...

 

[sharona]

How this trip came about...

Our Disney history - Being on the East Coast, we have been to WDW a few times. We're not in the go-every-year crowd but we went when DD was 4, again at 8, for a 1 day MK visit when she was 12 and then for a Christmas visit in 2015 just before she turned 13. I've also got a few visits under my belt from when I was a teen and in my early 20's. C and J have been twice - both times with us when the kids were 4 and the Christmas visit. The Princess and I have been to Universal Orlando a bunch of times, even having AP's for a year which we took advantage of for 4 visits. We have a lot of family and friends in FL and typically go there a few times each year and adding a stop in Orlando at the beginning or end of a trip is easy enough to do.

Here's a shot of the 4 of us, with my mom, on our WDW Christmas trip in 2015 - that's me in the middle.




In 2013, DD and I and my mom took a 10 day West Coast road trip, driving from San Diego to San Fran. We planned a 2 night stop in Anaheim so we could get a taste of DL but we did not have a great experience due to a run of bad luck where it seemed that every attraction we wanted to see was down when we got to it! It was a worst case scenario type of day and though we made the best of it, we have been wanting a do-over for a while now.

Last year, I booked the Princess and I for April school break week just the two of us for a 5 day visit to DLR. I was more excited about the trip than she was. When some work travel that I could not easily get out of interfered with our plans, the Princess was ok with canceling instead of trying to juggle the dates. So once again our DLR plans were spoiled by things not in our control! Well - third times the charm!!!!

When I started thinking about trying this trip again, the Princess and I discussed it and we decided that we would invite C and J to join us. This gives us both someone to hang out with, lol. Since I would be using my hotel points to book our room, and I found 4 award seats on the same flight from Boston to LAX we would only have to worry about flights home and park tickets. Our original plan was to travel Saturday 4/15 to Thursday 4/20 so that the kids would have a few days to recover before heading back to school on the 23rd. Then we realized that Sunday 4/16 was Easter and Monday 4/17 was the Boston Marathon. C and my brother run a charity that has a team running in the marathon and she needs to be here to host the some out of town guests Sunday and Monday, plus I don't want to leave my mom alone at Easter so... we were waffling and debating pushing the trip out to late June but I was having trouble finding award seats for 4 the week after school let out. Then, suddenly, it all came together when C suggested we go 4/18 through the weekend. I found 4 seats out of BOS on Tuesday morning arriving at LAX just after noon - and we started looking for flights home! The airlines really bump up prices during school vacation weeks. Only non-stop flights work for my nephew. Getting off the plane means he has arrived at his destination and trying to get him onto another flight would not be a good idea! The Princess is a seasoned traveler who has no idea how lucky she is! I think I was 14 on my first flight, she has at least 40 flights under her belt already. Normally we could find non-stop round trip flights BOS/LAX for $300-$350 but during school break week, booking at the last minute, one-way fares from LAX to BOS were starting at $350. Crazy. And there were no award seats available for 4/22 or 4/23. We ended up having to book a red eye flight on 4/23 which doesn't arrive in BOS until 5am on 4/24. The kids will have to miss school that day as there is no way they will be in any shape for school after a busy 6 days, the red eye flight home and the east to west jet lag. The kids, of course, are crushed at the extended school vacation...

Now to booking our hotel! I have a lot of Hilton points to burn and my gold status with them (through a credit card perk) usually gets us an upgrade and free breakfast so that is where I looked first. There are a ton of Hilton choices in Anaheim - Yeay!!!! Our previous 1 day visit we had stayed at the Embassy Suites South and our canceled trip booking was at the Hilton Garden Inn. They share a parking lot on South Harbor with the Hampton Inn. There's also the Hilton and a Homewood Suites right by the convention center much closer to the park. The Princess and I enjoy HGI's because they are a bit nicer than Embassy or Hampton but there is really not enough room for the 4 of us as they are single hotel rooms, as is the standard Hilton and Hampton Inn so those are out. The Homewood Convention Center suites looked perfect but they consider their suite rooms to be "premium rewards" which is more than double the cost of Embassy Suites so we opted for the ES. I'm not a huge fan of the atrium style of ES because I find them very noisy but the bedroom has a door for privacy for the girls and J will have a little space of his own with the pull out sofa and his own tv. I'll be sure to bring ear plugs with me. Also, the free breakfast (with omelette station - J's favorite) will easily save us $40-$50/day. These teens can EAT!!!! The Princess is a bottomless pit these days and J is almost 6 feet tall already and they have those wonderful teen metabolisms that burn through calories at warp speed. It's not uncommon for the Princess to have a sandwich after school followed by several snacks and then dinner only to poke her head out of her room around 9pm looking for some leftovers or a bowl of cereal! C and I have middle aged women metabolisms. Enough said.

Next up tickets, planning our days and transportation to/from LAX...

 

[sharona]

Looking forward to reading more...

Welcome lone reader!!!

 

[VandVsmama]

Sounds like you're going to have a fun trip!!

 

[sharona]

Sounds like you're going to have a fun trip!!

Thanks! We can't wait!!!

 

[Susan121302]

Oh wow, I want to be sure I keep an eye on this TR...we are going next April vacation, also coming from North of Boston. sounds great so far!

 

[maleficent55]

I found this through the April 2017 thread, excited for your trip and to hear more!

 

[sharona]

Oh wow, I want to be sure I keep an eye on this TR...we are going next April vacation, also coming from North of Boston. sounds great so far!

Welcome fellow New Englander!!! Here's a special treat just for you:

I found this through the April 2017 thread, excited for your trip and to hear more!

https://flic.kr/p/RM59NH
Thanks for joining in! Are you also going in April?




Park tickets and transportation from/to LAX:

We'll be in CA from Tuesday at noon through Sunday at 9pm. That gives us 5+ days for fun. : The current plan - still very fluid, is to rent a car one way each way to get to/from the hotel and airport. With Sunday being our check-out and Universal day to minimize driving. We can pick up a mini van from Nat'l on Katella for less than the cost of a taxi/Uber to LAX or transportation for 4 to USH. We'll have to buy gas and pay to park at USH but I like the control of our day that this gives us. It's a Sunday so I'm thinking we can leave USH by 6pm to allow for time to return the car, check our bags and be at the gate for boarding at 8:40pm. I like to be early as I get totally stressed if we're running late for anything. I had one horrible experience running through Tampa airport a few years ago while Southwest was paging me to the gate and I never want to do that again! The poor man in the seat next to me had to listen to me breathing heavy for the first half hour of the flight and I'm sure my face was bright red, it was humiliating!

Good news - Thanks to this thread: https://www.disboards.com/threads/discounted-tickets.3577337/

I was able to save $45 each ($180!) on our 4 day non hoppers from LMT! Prices had just gone up at DLR and LMT still had the old prices. So instead of paying the current DLR price of $290, we paid $245 at LMT after signing up with the free code from the thread. Score! I love a discount - in case you couldn't tell.

Bad news - If I had known at the time that we would lose our discount if we upgraded the tickets to hoppers or added a 5th day, I would have probably bought 5 day non hoppers or 4 day hoppers at LMT. But since I thought we could upgrade later and get the full price bridged, which I have done before at WDW after buying discounted tickets from Undercover Tourist, I opted to get the minimum that we needed and add on later. Adding hopping for $30-$40 per ticket is understandable and I can see how that would make sense if needed but for $80 pp? No thanks. We'll have 4 days and can see everything with 2 days at each park.

The only thing to decide now is whether we'll skip the parks the afternoon we arrive or if we'll take a day off mid trip and do something else in the area. I doubt well be able to skip the parks our first night as we'll all be raring to go... it will depend on the park closing times which have not been released yet for 4/18. So frustrating!!!! What are they waiting for? Seriously they can't post hours more than 6 weeks out? That's just nuts. They've been in business forever (ok 60 years) and should have this down pat by now.

I'm thinking if we land at 12 we should be at the hotel by 2:30 with car pick up and a stop for bottled water and snacks for the room. It's a Tuesday night so if the parks are open until 10pm or later as they are the week before our trip then we'll probably go to DL and take a day off later in the week. If they close before that we may just rest up after traveling and have a nice leisurely dinner and explore DTD. Suggestions on a day trip other than Universal if it comes to that? Something that does not involve a theme park would be best. We could definitely rent a car for the day. Beach? Getty? We've all previously been to SD zoo, LA/Hollywood Blvd, Santa Monica pier etc...


Next up - decisions on park days, dining and waiting on the park hours and show schedules to be released!
https://flic.kr/p/RM59NH

 

[sharona]

Dining: None of the menus as DLR are doing anything for me. We're not huge fans of the WDW eats either but there are a few that we thought were really good and lots of fun - Whispering Canyon, 50's Prime Time and Tusker House (the breakfast character meal) especially! I don't see anything that looks like it's as fun as 50's PT or WC and the kids have outgrown character meals, or so they say! Looking at the menu and prices for Blue Bayou and I think we'll pass. I know the thrill of BB is seeing the POTC boats pass by but I don't think that's worth a $50 steak dinner. Not when there's a Morton's and a Ruth's Chris right in the same neighborhood! What do you think? Is it worth the money just for the experience?

I think we've seen enough recommendations for the fried chicken at Carnation Cafe that we'll have to give that one a try.

PTR's without pics are super boring so I hope you don't mind if I throw in some WDW and USO pics to liven things up a bit? I do not have any pics from our only other one day DLR visit.

Shows: We'll definitely want to see MSEP this trip and need to work around J's crowd anxiety issues for that. Suggested viewing spots that are good views but not in a crush of people? In WDW we usually just head over to Frontierland and grab a spot just as the parade is starting down Main. Our usual Frontierland view:

Another on our list is WOC - since we didn't get to see it on our one day visit in 2014 and of course the castle fireworks from Main St - as far back as we can get and still see. J both loves and hates fireworks. Loves the visual, hates the noise. He did ok at WDW - and we were right in front of the castle during the Christmas party fireworks. He wore his earplugs and seemed fine with it.

What are the other must see shows at DLR?

Random ride stuff: I'm both looking forward to and dreading the new Soarin'. I love love love the original. It is probably my favorite of all Disney attractions. I have purposefully not read a lot about the new version. No spoilers but if there is no orange grove smell, it will be a disappointment. Is there? No - don't tell me. Determined to be surprised!

We're going to miss Matterhorn. One of our must sees because it's unique to DLR and it's not scheduled to come out of refurb until 4/27. I think 4/22 is a bit too early to have any hope of a soft opening.

The Princess has 2 favorites - BTMRR and Splash! She and I are not daredevils but we do ride most everything at WDW and expect to do the same at DLR. Although last trip when she said she didn't want to ride Screamin I breathed a secret sigh of relief and happily got back in line for a 2nd turn on Soarin! Note of pride I have ridden the Hulk and Dueling Dragons at USO but have never been brave enough for Rip Rolling or whatever that one is called that goes straight up at the beginning.

WDW favorite BTMRR and Splash:







Princess always does no hands and I never open my eyes or let up on the death grip I have on the boat. I am probably the only person who was happy when WDW installed lap bars on Splash! That's C riding solo in the back. She always wears her sunglasses on drop rides so she looks cool in the pictures. I usually copy her so you can't see my terror but this was at night so don't think I had mine with me.


C's favorite is Pan. She missed out on it during our last WDW trip because J was not into it when our FP time came up so she sat out with him. The standby time was never do-able the rest of the trip. I'm not that big of a fan of PP - especially the long, misleading queue at WDW. I know everyone loves the new interactive stuff but to me I get annoyed because the switchbacks go on and on from one room to the next. It's endless. I love the actual ride itself.

J's favorite at WDW is Test Track. And CARS was his all time favorite movie when he was younger. He is going to love RSR. I cannot wait for him to see it!!!

Princess and I both love The Mummy at Universal Orlando and loved it at USH on our one day visit in 2014 BHP (before Harry Potter).



C and J have never been to Uni. We have been wanting them to go with us to USO for the past 2 years but the timing has yet to work out. Unfortunately, the things that I think C & J will love best about USO are mostly missing from USH. Bluto's and Dudley water rides, Men In Black, Spiderman... but our absolute favorite thing about USO is the express pass that you get when you stay at one of the on site deluxe resorts. Being able to ride your favorites over and over and no rushing around for FP makes Universal a hands down less stressful trip than WDW.

Because J has ASD, C will likely get him a DAS at both DLR and USH. How's that for some serious alphabet soup? I've found out on these boards how the DAS works at each park and it should be great for him. For the Princess and I, we'll have to wait in standby or FP anything that J doesn't want to ride. Since we're determined to set a slow pace this trip, so J doesn't get stressed, I think we'll be just fine.

That's a lot for one day. I'll leave you with just one more pic. One of my all time favs:

 

[Frozen2014]

Subscribing. Love your WDW pictures...especially the Big Thunder and the great shot of Splash.
We're also going to DL for first time (and WDW once) so it will be fun to compare.
Looking forward to hearing more about your planning and your trip in April.

 

[sharona]

Subscribing. Love your WDW pictures...especially the Big Thunder and the great shot of Splash.
We're also going to DL for first time (and WDW once) so it will be fun to compare.
Looking forward to hearing more about your planning and your trip in April.

Hi! And

What else do you have planned in LA? I'm looking for a one day outing other than Universal.

 

[Frozen2014]

Hi! And

What else do you have planned in LA? I'm looking for a one day outing other than Universal.

On one day we are going to try the Warner Brother's Tour and visit Santa Monica Pier. I am also looking at the Grand LA Tour that hits many sites (Griffith Observatory, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Blvd tourist items, Farmer's Market/The Grove), and also possibly either La Brae Tar Pits or California Science Centre (on the day we transfer to Anaheim). Also like you, doing Universal one day.

 

[sharona]

On one day we are going to try the Warner Brother's Tour and visit Santa Monica Pier. I am also looking at the Grand LA Tour that hits many sites (Griffith Observatory, Beverly Hills, Hollywood Blvd tourist items, Farmer's Market/The Grove), and also possibly either La Brae Tar Pits or California Science Centre (on the day we transfer to Anaheim). Also like you, doing Universal one day.

WB tour looks interesting. We've been to Santa Monica pier and it was fun and of course the Ferris wheel is a classic - although I am terrified of them I did go on it when we were there. We saw most of the places on the Grand LA Tour on our last trip as well. Have not been to the Tar Pits or the Science Center. I wouldn't mind a beach day but not sure if April is going to be warm enough? We swim in the Atlantic from June - late August along the southern coast of Maine and the water is chilly even in August so we are used to cold temps...

Just did some research - thanks Google! looks like the Pacific in April is colder than our Atlantic in July!

OK beach day is out as far as swimming goes but visiting the coast is still a possibility. The search continues...

 

[sharona]

In the April check in thread someone reported that they spoke to a CM on the ADR line and he told them that DL would be open until 12am the entire week after Easter and DCA to 10pm. I hope that is the case! I love when the parks are open late - they are so much more magical at night plus it makes a mid day break so much more do-able.

We have 2 version of our plans and will probably decide which we go with based on how smooth our travel experience is and how we feel when we arrive at our hotel. I'm in favor of Plan A since it gives us a sleep in day and a tour of WB Studios but it does mean 1.5 days at DL instead of 2. I think we're ok with that, especially with a full day on Saturday. We could swap Tues and Wed plans and do 2 full days at DL and 1.5 at DCA.

Mostly we'll do the free breakfast at the hotel, arrive at the park for rope drop, CS for an early lunch, take a mid day break back to the hotel then dinner offsite and back to the same park for the night.


Plan A
Tuesday - arrive at ES at 2pm, check in, DL until we run out of gas (we'll be on east coast time)
Wednesday - DCA in the am, mid day break, back to DCA, WOC
Thursday - sleep in, Warner Bros studio tour and lunch in LA, DTD at night
Friday - DCA, mid day break, back to DCA
Saturday - DL for MM, mid day break, back to DL, dinner at Carnation Cafe, fireworks and late MSEP
Sunday - check out, Universal for the day then arrive LAX by 7pm

Plan B (if DL is closing earlier than the CM said on Tuesday or we are very tired when we arrive at ES)
Tuesday - arrive at ES at 2pm, check in, DTD and an early night
Wednesday - DCA in the am, mid day break, back to DCA, WOC
Thursday - DL for MM, mid day break, back to DL, late MSEP
Friday - DCA, mid day break, back to DCA
Saturday - DL for MM, mid day break, back to DL, dinner at Carnation Cafe, fireworks
Sunday - check out, Universal for the day then arrive LAX by 7pm

Next up - need to work up a list of offsite restaurants for our dinners!

 

[sharona]

Discounts!! I love them. They help fund my travel habit. We have been shopping around for discounts for our Universal tickets and I found this offer on my Amex account. $30 statement credit for spending $150+ at Undercover Tourist. They are selling USH tickets for $103.95 (incl tax) which means we can get 4 tickets @ $96.45 ea (after $30 credit) - That is the cheapest price I've been able to come up with so far. Waiting on my SIL to hear back from AAA in CA before we pull the trigger on that though. Her AAA branch told her she'd need to go through their CA office to buy for US Hollywood. She's called them multiple times and even accounting for the time difference, has yet to reach anyone or get a call back.

Also found an offer for $45 back when you spend $225 at ES. Since we are paying with points I don't think we'll spend that much at ES - but it could be close. If we do the shuttle $6/pp/day X 4 days that is $96 already. There's a full service restaurant at the hotel so it's possible that we'll eat there one night for dinner or order room service if we are wanting to extend our break one afternoon. Also there's a gift shop and an on sight convenience store so if we buy anything we will charge it to the room. I'll have to keep tabs on what we spend. If we're at $180 or above then it's worth it to spend an extra $45 as it's essentially "free" money at that point.

Sorry I tend to get a little obsessed with points and discounts! Ya think?

 

[sharona]

Finally, park hours are starting to get posted for our dates! First day DL 8-12!! This means Plan A with DL on arrival night and a free day to go to WB Studios and maybe a stop at the beach!

I know the longer hours mean they expect heavy crowds but traveling with teenagers, the late nights should work for us. We can either sleep in and start later (which hurts my rope drop loving soul) or we can take a nice long break from early afternoon until after dinner and still have 4 or 5 hours of park time.

My biggest concern is the west coast time change. I know we'll be dragging the first night or two after our arrival, even if we do sleep a bit on the flight. The teens will be ok with the time change - my DD14 would stay up until 3am every night if I let her (which I do not), and my nephew is another teen vampire who wants to stay up late and sleep in but, C and I are normal middle aged adults and we will be needing some serious caffeine the first few late nights! I know I'll be up by 4 or 5am the first few mornings.

Dining - since it's free we'll be having breakfast each day at the hotel. We'll have a snack or light CS lunch in the parks followed by an early dinner most likely outside of the parks. As of now the only TS meal we are considering is Carnation Cafe. I'm debating scheduling this on our first night - we'll be arriving at DL about 230 and we might be too tired to enjoy it but we'll be pretty hungry and maybe tired so I'm thinking it will be a much needed mini break for us. Going to book it and hope we're all in the mood. If we have any travel issues and decide to skip the park on our first night we'll just have to eat the cancellation fee.

I've spent a bit of time this past weekend scoping out the nearby restaurants. We'll definitely be having at least one dinner at Cheesecake Factory at Garden Walk as it's one of our family favs. We love that the menu is so diverse (and so many pages) that everyone can get pretty much whatever they're in the mood for. You want pasta - here's a 3 page pasta menu. You want healthy - there's the Skinnyliscous menu and salads or salmon. You want fried apps - take your pick. Nachos? Sure. Burgers? Yup. And most everything we've ordered has been good to great. Not to mention the Salted Caramel Cheesecake! If you haven't tried this yet, you're missing out.

The Princess also loves Bubba Gump - there isn't one near us but we seem to eat there on every vacation. We've been to the BG's in Miami, Orlando, San Fran, Santa Monica, Maui and Ft Lauderdale. There's one in Anaheim and one at Universal City Walk so we'll likley end up at one of them this trip. I'm not a big seafood eater so for me it's either ribs or fried chicken both of which Bubba's does pretty well. I've never seen the entire Forrest Gump movie but we've been to Bubba's enough times that we always ace the pre-meal trivia quiz!

Our hotel is in the same parking lot as a Buca di Beppo - any feedback on that place? I know it's a chain but there isn't one in Massachusetts and we've never come across one on vacation. J's favorite dish is chicken parm which is the one and only thing not on the menu at Cheesecake! J is easy to please and he'll be happy to see Subway and Taco Bell are nearby. Princess has a McDonald's fries addiction so I'm sure we'll end up there at least once. That works for me because I hate Mc D's food so for me that will be a diet meal. Princess' favorite food is soup. I make her homemade soup once/week including in summer and if I don't feel like cooking we'll hit the local Panera for soup and bread.

I saw an IHOP and a Denny's on the map and we love to have BFD (breakfast for dinner) at least once a week here at home, especially when it's just the Princess and I. Sometimes I'll break out the Mickey Waffle maker that she got me for Christmas a few years ago and whip up some waffles and pretend we're on vacation.

Anyone been to Clancy's American Grill on Katella? Or Pizza Press? Where's the best pizza at DLR?

Need to look at DTD next. We'll want to spend our non park night shopping and eating at DTD!

 

[ADLFAN]

Ohhhhh, Pizza Press is so awesome, with quite a loyal customer base, too! They're always highly recommend on the Disboards! We loved it, everything is fully customizable and delicious. The line can get long at peak times, but they do their best to keep it moving. Plus they serve some interesting beers to accompany your hot pizza!

Have fun planning!

 

[sharona]

Ohhhhh, Pizza Press is so awesome, with quite a loyal customer base, too! They're always highly recommend on the Disboards! We loved it, everything is fully customizable and delicious. The line can get long at peak times, but they do their best to keep it moving. Plus they serve some interesting beers to accompany your hot pizza!

Have fun planning!

Sounds like they are worth a visit. Thanks!

 

[AusAnnie]

I agree totally about Pizza Press. Their pizzas were amazing!! We were staying in the hotel right next door so had their pizzas for dinner a couple of times.