pdarrah
It's nice to know you are real, too
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2004
Just some thoughts on our early June 2017 trip to Disneyland
I am writing this free-form as thoughts pop into my head. It is not a day-by-day trip report. Some parts are probably far more information that you really want, so feel free to skip anything you think is boring!
Once I get on a roll, these things often get long. It is likely this will be split up over a couple posts in this thread…
About us (myself, DH50, DS18, DF77, DM75)
We are long time Disney World visitors. My parents took me to WDW for my first visit in January 1972 to celebrate my 7th birthday (we visited a few more times as I was growing up). I dragged my husband there on our honeymoon and he immediately joined me in my Disney themepark love. For several years before our son was born, we visited twice per year and we kept that up until he was in school and it became more difficult. Some years it was still possible up until middle school, but for the last 6 years we’ve been mostly limited to 1 visit per year during the summer. (yuck!)
Our only family visit (DH, DS & I) to Disneyland was in 2008 when we had 2 days there before a DCL cruise through the Panama Canal back to Florida. That was my son’s only DL visit and since he was only 9, there was a lot he didn’t remember all that clearly.
This trip was planned instead of our regular Florida trip to celebrate our son’s High School Graduation. He skipped the actual ceremony in order to fit a week-long trip into our crazy pre-college summer schedule! My parents are very close to him (we live in the same town and he is an only grandchild) so they wanted to come on the trip as well. We have a family business that makes it very difficult for us to all be away at the same time, so they decided to come for only the first few days of the trip. My mother had never been to DisneyLAND before. My father’s only visit was in August 1955 (yes, about 1 month after the park first opened).
Tickets
We got 5-day park hoppers for the 3 of us and 2-day, 1-park passes for my parents. For the first 2 days that all 5 of us were there, we spent 1 day at CA (June 3) and 1 day at DL (June 4). DH, DS & I then spent June 5,6 & 7 on our own. We only park hopped on 1 day and I’m not really sure it was worth it to us. I suspect that it is more useful for people who visit these parks every year and have less of a “need to ride every ride since who knows when we will be back” mentality. I think this applies to WDW as well – I wouldn’t dream of not having a park hopping pass there, but I know a lot of new visitors and very infrequent visitors don’t actually park hop much and the extra cost is a waste for them.
Getting there
We live outside Chicago, so flying was really are only choice. Fortunately, we found reasonable flights with Southwest. The only oddity was that it was, for our dates, far cheaper to fly INTO Orange County and OUT from Ontario. The most cost effective way to handle local transportation for the 5 of us was to rent a car at Orange County. My parents used a Supershuttle limo to get to Ontario when they left and DH, DS & I returned the car at Ontario when we left. Having the car also made it feasible for us to spend our 1 non-Disney day at the Huntington Garden. (DH & I visited in 2009 and knew that everyone else would really enjoy it.)
Lodging
I first looked at the Disney hotels and the cost was just too high for the amount of time I knew we would be away from the resort. When we plan a park-intensive WDW trip we stay at an Economy resort (usually Pop) and none of the DL resorts are anything approaching Economy. My next plan was to stay at the HoJo – we stayed there in 2008 and liked it. DH & I also stayed there in 2009 when we were on a grown-ups only vacation to Southern California and spent a couple of days in the area. However, I wanted to book this trip as a Disney good neighbor package and the HoJo was sold out. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of nice reviews here for the Candy Cane Inn, so despite the rather stupid name, we decided to go with it. This was a fantastic decision – we loved the location, the staff was friendly and helpful, and we liked the look, vibe, feel of the hotel. The breakfast was surprisingly good for a free continental breakfast and the shuttle bus they run to the parks was far more useful than I had expected.
The hotel is only a few blocks from the bus drop off, plaza area at the parks. We found it to be a perfectly reasonable walk. Our family does tend to walk quickly (even my parents who are 75 & 77) so from hotel room to security check point was under 10 minutes. The hotel also runs a shuttle bus that leaves the hotel on the hour & half hour and leaves the bus plaza at 15 & 45 past the hour. If your timing is right, the shuttle is probably slightly faster than walking and, of course, is much easier for tired feet and legs.
The breakfast included bread, bagels, muffins, pastries, donuts, fruit (usually apples, bananas & I think, oranges) hard boiled eggs, yogurt (regular & “Greek” style), several cold cereals, packets of oatmeal & hot water, coffee, tea, milk, juice, etc. All the breads & baked goods were very fresh. We ate it every morning and were still very happy with it by the last day. There was enough variety to not get boring by the end of the week.
Weather
We had a bit of a surprise here. The week started out as expected – sunny & warm. The first could of days were overcast in the morning, but the sun came out by 10 or 11 and the rest of the day was beautiful. Those early days had highs in the low to mid 80’s. It then started getting cooler. The next couple days were similar, but the highs only with in the mid-upper 70’s and the evenings were getting downright chilly. My DH & DF both ended up buying a sweatshirt at DCA so they could be comfortable for World of Color. The last couple of days were chilly enough that DH & I both wore jeans to the parks for the day. I can’t even imagine wearing jeans in Florida in June! Our last day in the parks, topped out in the upper-60’s. It ~might have made it to 70 for a few minutes late in the afternoon. I think I just had it in my head that Southern California is sunny & warm in the summer. Had I known these types of temperature fluctuation were to be expected, I would have packed some warmer clothes. In general, cooler weather is nice for visiting the parks (except maybe for water rides!) but its nicer if you are prepared for it. One day was rather drizzly, but not enough that we ever needed to pull out ponchos.
<< To Be Continued >>
I am writing this free-form as thoughts pop into my head. It is not a day-by-day trip report. Some parts are probably far more information that you really want, so feel free to skip anything you think is boring!
Once I get on a roll, these things often get long. It is likely this will be split up over a couple posts in this thread…
About us (myself, DH50, DS18, DF77, DM75)
We are long time Disney World visitors. My parents took me to WDW for my first visit in January 1972 to celebrate my 7th birthday (we visited a few more times as I was growing up). I dragged my husband there on our honeymoon and he immediately joined me in my Disney themepark love. For several years before our son was born, we visited twice per year and we kept that up until he was in school and it became more difficult. Some years it was still possible up until middle school, but for the last 6 years we’ve been mostly limited to 1 visit per year during the summer. (yuck!)
Our only family visit (DH, DS & I) to Disneyland was in 2008 when we had 2 days there before a DCL cruise through the Panama Canal back to Florida. That was my son’s only DL visit and since he was only 9, there was a lot he didn’t remember all that clearly.
This trip was planned instead of our regular Florida trip to celebrate our son’s High School Graduation. He skipped the actual ceremony in order to fit a week-long trip into our crazy pre-college summer schedule! My parents are very close to him (we live in the same town and he is an only grandchild) so they wanted to come on the trip as well. We have a family business that makes it very difficult for us to all be away at the same time, so they decided to come for only the first few days of the trip. My mother had never been to DisneyLAND before. My father’s only visit was in August 1955 (yes, about 1 month after the park first opened).
Tickets
We got 5-day park hoppers for the 3 of us and 2-day, 1-park passes for my parents. For the first 2 days that all 5 of us were there, we spent 1 day at CA (June 3) and 1 day at DL (June 4). DH, DS & I then spent June 5,6 & 7 on our own. We only park hopped on 1 day and I’m not really sure it was worth it to us. I suspect that it is more useful for people who visit these parks every year and have less of a “need to ride every ride since who knows when we will be back” mentality. I think this applies to WDW as well – I wouldn’t dream of not having a park hopping pass there, but I know a lot of new visitors and very infrequent visitors don’t actually park hop much and the extra cost is a waste for them.
Getting there
We live outside Chicago, so flying was really are only choice. Fortunately, we found reasonable flights with Southwest. The only oddity was that it was, for our dates, far cheaper to fly INTO Orange County and OUT from Ontario. The most cost effective way to handle local transportation for the 5 of us was to rent a car at Orange County. My parents used a Supershuttle limo to get to Ontario when they left and DH, DS & I returned the car at Ontario when we left. Having the car also made it feasible for us to spend our 1 non-Disney day at the Huntington Garden. (DH & I visited in 2009 and knew that everyone else would really enjoy it.)
Lodging
I first looked at the Disney hotels and the cost was just too high for the amount of time I knew we would be away from the resort. When we plan a park-intensive WDW trip we stay at an Economy resort (usually Pop) and none of the DL resorts are anything approaching Economy. My next plan was to stay at the HoJo – we stayed there in 2008 and liked it. DH & I also stayed there in 2009 when we were on a grown-ups only vacation to Southern California and spent a couple of days in the area. However, I wanted to book this trip as a Disney good neighbor package and the HoJo was sold out. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of nice reviews here for the Candy Cane Inn, so despite the rather stupid name, we decided to go with it. This was a fantastic decision – we loved the location, the staff was friendly and helpful, and we liked the look, vibe, feel of the hotel. The breakfast was surprisingly good for a free continental breakfast and the shuttle bus they run to the parks was far more useful than I had expected.
The hotel is only a few blocks from the bus drop off, plaza area at the parks. We found it to be a perfectly reasonable walk. Our family does tend to walk quickly (even my parents who are 75 & 77) so from hotel room to security check point was under 10 minutes. The hotel also runs a shuttle bus that leaves the hotel on the hour & half hour and leaves the bus plaza at 15 & 45 past the hour. If your timing is right, the shuttle is probably slightly faster than walking and, of course, is much easier for tired feet and legs.
The breakfast included bread, bagels, muffins, pastries, donuts, fruit (usually apples, bananas & I think, oranges) hard boiled eggs, yogurt (regular & “Greek” style), several cold cereals, packets of oatmeal & hot water, coffee, tea, milk, juice, etc. All the breads & baked goods were very fresh. We ate it every morning and were still very happy with it by the last day. There was enough variety to not get boring by the end of the week.
Weather
We had a bit of a surprise here. The week started out as expected – sunny & warm. The first could of days were overcast in the morning, but the sun came out by 10 or 11 and the rest of the day was beautiful. Those early days had highs in the low to mid 80’s. It then started getting cooler. The next couple days were similar, but the highs only with in the mid-upper 70’s and the evenings were getting downright chilly. My DH & DF both ended up buying a sweatshirt at DCA so they could be comfortable for World of Color. The last couple of days were chilly enough that DH & I both wore jeans to the parks for the day. I can’t even imagine wearing jeans in Florida in June! Our last day in the parks, topped out in the upper-60’s. It ~might have made it to 70 for a few minutes late in the afternoon. I think I just had it in my head that Southern California is sunny & warm in the summer. Had I known these types of temperature fluctuation were to be expected, I would have packed some warmer clothes. In general, cooler weather is nice for visiting the parks (except maybe for water rides!) but its nicer if you are prepared for it. One day was rather drizzly, but not enough that we ever needed to pull out ponchos.
<< To Be Continued >>
I'll finish it up when I get back home.
