Just back from DL, quick thoughts on quick trip!

[VandVsmama]

Just got back yesterday evening from a quick couple of days at DL! I'll do a longer trip report in the trip reports board in the coming week or so. But here are my quick thoughts & observations!

1. We were there this past Fri & Sat. Friday was wonderful. Stayed on site & did EMH at DCA. Crowds were non-existent from 7 - 11:30 am. Evening was definitely more crowded, but it wasn't as crowded as it was when we went the 2nd week of October 2 yr ago.
2. Saturday was WAY more crowded! At 10:00 am in DL on Main Street, there were throngs of people pouring in.
3. Wanted to go on Toy Story, but never made it over there. Tried to get a FP for it but because of overnight rain on Thurs night, RSR didn't open until ~ 12-12:30 pm on Fri. And by that time, Toy Story return window was at something like 9 pm. And then the FP were flat out gone for the rest of the day.
4. I don't remember if Little Mermaid is closed, too, but every time we wanted to try and go on it, on the app it said it was closed.
5. My sister & DH enjoyed the Food & Wine Booths. I took the kids to Flo's both days for lunch. I found a lot of the Food & Wine stuff to be, frankly, annoying. Standing while eating, paying so much for such small amounts of food. The music they were playing around the row of booths near Bug's Land & Carsland entrances was annoying and didn't really feel very "Disney" to me personally. Plus, everybody kept suddenly stopping in the middle of the walkway to eat or take another drink of their beverages.
6. I kind of wish that they'd allow non-AP holders to purchase those sip & savor passes (the ones with the multiple "tickets" on them that you use for whatever booths you want to try). That being said, they look really lame hanging around your neck on a lanyard.
7. EMH @ DCA on Friday was a disappointment. Luigi's and RSR were closed because of the early morning rain. Toy Story didn't open until 9:30. So we went on 2 rides: Soarin' and Mater's. Little Mermaid wasn't open either. By 8:30, we left DCA and went over to Disneyland because there really wasn't anything to do in DCA that our family was interested in. DCA is barely a 1/2 day park for us right now...at least for last Friday, that is.
8. My kids have outgrown Bug's Land, but we went on the bumper cars there out of desperation 1 of our 2 days there while waiting for my sister and DH to return from the Food & Wine food booths. I'm sorry to see Bug's Land go.
9. I injured my foot a week before our trip. Thought I could tough it out, but after hobbling around all Fri am, I rented a scooter from the DLH (where we stayed). They sometimes have wheelchairs & scooters available to rent from Deckert's. OMG, that was a life saver.
10. Used Max Pass quite extensively both days. SO convenient! This is totally worth the $40/day extra that we paid for the 4 of us (me, DH, 2 kids). TOTALLY WORTH IT! FP scanners worked fine everywhere. On future trips, I will just buy fewer souvenirs and do more counter service restaurants instead of TS so we can budget for the extra $40/day for Max Pass.
11. HM had FP in the afternoons/evenings both days.
12. Ride wait times in Fantasyland on Saturday am were low through ~ 10 am when we left Fantasyland. ~ 5 min waits each, except for Alice, Matterhorn, and Peter Pan. We waited 5 min for Matterhorn on Fri morning at ~ 9:00 am.
13. Got to see the Clapping Man again! That's every single trip now we've seen him. Always in Disneyland and always in the first hour or 2 that the park is open. He's awesome.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

... Got to see the Clapping Man again! That's every single trip now we've seen him. Always in Disneyland and always in the first hour or 2 that the park is open. He's awesome.

We love him, too. I believe his name is Peter. There is a cute YouTube video tribute to him that was made by his granddaughter a few years ago. Glad you had a good trip overall.

 

[DLgal]

I am with you on the ANNOYING food and wine soundtrack. It is just awful. It was the same last year and I was hoping beyond hope that they would change it for this year. Truly, those five songs (seems like it's a loop of only five) might be the worst songs I have ever heard.

 

[DizneyMommy]

TSMM hasn’t been opening until about 9:30 every morning lately to give the construction crews a chance to clean up and clear out. You also can’t take a stroller down there while the walls are up, you have to park it by Ariel’s Grotto.

Not sure what was wrong with LM, that isn’t part of the closure.

 

[figment_jii]

Little Mermaid was up and running for last week. I rode it on Friday (and at least one other time earlier in the week). We usually didn't get over there until after lunch time, so I don't know if there was something happening in the mornings or not.

 

[gillep]

We were there the 21-23 and had a fantastic time.

• Crowds were very manageable on Wednesday the 21st, we mostly stuck to DL but went to DCA for the food booths and a few rides (mostly Guardians to be honest).
• Did Blue Bayou Fantasmic package on the 21st, we had a second seating at 7:50 but we finished dinner in time for the first seating so we took those passes instead, we sat at the very back center of the section and it was perfect.
• I thought that the rain would keep more people away on the 22nd but there were still a good amount of people in DL in the afternoon, we did The Void this day and it was a lot of fun.
• We did WOC on Thursday the 22nd as a spur of the moment thing, we stood behind the handicapped seating area near the hedge on the main path as we didn't have a FP and it was a perfect view.
• Friday crowds were great, we were the third group on Peter Pan and were able to hit everything we wanted in DL before moving to DCA. Unfortunately a lot was down in DCA when we arrived so we didn't have a lot of options but we made it work. We were walked off RSR after it opened as our vehicle stopped dead in it's tracks.
• I was shocked by all of the scaffolding at DCA, it really is a sight.
• We did the egg hunts at DL, DCA, and DTD and had a great time racing to see who could locate each egg first.

Overall it was a perfect trip, we stayed at The Desert Inn for the first time and would absolutely go back, it was perfect for our needs. This was our third trip with MaxPass and I still love it, such a great way to get a ton of stuff done.

 

[mrjudkins]

Great to hear about your BB/F! Experience - we’ve got a Blue Bayou package booked for 7:10pm, and I was hoping the show would still be great from the back of the reserved section, as we’ll likely not be there long before showtime.

Any advice for going from the restaurant to the show without much time to spare?

We were there the 21-23 and had a fantastic time.

• Did Blue Bayou Fantasmic package on the 21st, we had a second seating at 7:50 but we finished dinner in time for the first seating so we took those passes instead, we sat at the very back center of the section and it was perfect.

 

[gillep]

Great to hear about your BB/F! Experience - we’ve got a Blue Bayou package booked for 7:10pm, and I was hoping the show would still be great from the back of the reserved section, as we’ll likely not be there long before showtime.

Any advice for going from the restaurant to the show without much time to spare?

I have done Fantasmic twice in the front of this section right at the rail, and then in the back once this past time, and we both much preferred the back, the only downside was that we were sitting directly in front of a couple air returns that were blowing air on us, but the view was so good that we didn't care. No real advice, we just left directly from the restaurant to the entrance to the area (near the churro cart across from the entrance to Haunted Mansion) and walked down to where they collected our tickets and took seats in the back dead center, there were a few spots closer to the rail but a little more off to each of the sides, and quite a bit of room at the back of the section (we had people come and sit on both sides of us closer to the start). We arrived to the show just shy of 20 minutes before it started and had no issues finding space.

Our food at BB was also really good. The bread was delicious and my salad was great, very cold and crisp lettuce and a great mix of toppings. DH got the bone in ribeye and I got the lamb and we both enjoyed our meals, although we both preferred the lamb, mostly because the steak was very thin, which isn't what we prefer. DH got the Mickey dessert which was good, he finished it quite quickly, and I got the creme brule which I very much enjoyed and liked better than the one that I had earlier in the trip at The Hearthstone Lounge at The Grand Californian.

 

[chickapin parterre]

thank you for writing, two observations;

*Hm fastpass availability ...was interesting, could very well be a culture shift to more liking NBC then HM

*#7 if it rains as a first time visitor, best to not purchase park hopper for DCA, because a first time visitor will have no clue how to capture the maxpass for those attractions.

 

[gillep]

thank you for writing, two observations;

*Hm fastpass availability ...was interesting, could very well be a culture shift to more liking NBC then HM

*#7 if it rains as a first time visitor, best to not purchase park hopper for DCA, because a first time visitor will have no clue how to capture the maxpass for those attractions.

I was pleasantly surprised by the HM FP availability, we were able to get immediate to almost-immediate FP return times for most of the day each of the three days we were there.

 

[DizneyMommy]

*#7 if it rains as a first time visitor, best to not purchase park hopper for DCA, because a first time visitor will have no clue how to capture the maxpass for those attractions.

? I don’t understand how the rain affects understating how to use MaxPass?

 

[chickapin parterre]

the new DCA visitor has no idea how to navigate time around RSR, what if they get caught up, as they should, in being at Disneyland in the rain and then think of RSR fastpass, too late, all gone as mentioned in #3. Us veteran Disney folks know how everything works over in DCA and times to grab a fastpass, Disneyland is old hat for us, we are aware of time frames. But a new visitor has no history of touring. I am an ardent supporter of new visitors on 1 or 2 days visits to not purchase park hoppers.

 

[gillep]

the new DCA visitor has no idea how to navigate time around RSR, what if they get caught up, as they should, in being at Disneyland in the rain and then think of RSR fastpass, too late, all gone as mentioned in #3. Us veteran Disney folks know how everything works over in DCA and times to grab a fastpass, Disneyland is old hat for us, we are aware of time frames. But a new visitor has no history of touring. I am an ardent supporter of new visitors on 1 or 2 days visits to not purchase park hoppers.

I kept stalking the RSR MaxPass availability on Thursday because I knew that it was likely to keep going down and I wanted a multi experience FP for the next day to use on it, and sure enough I was able to grab the last FP slot of the day and the ride went down and I got my multi experience to use that day or the next!

 

[WonkaKid]

We love him, too. I believe his name is Peter. There is a cute YouTube video tribute to him that was made by his granddaughter a few years ago. Glad you had a good trip overall.

His name is indeed Peter. Peter Tu, actually. I've been told he's been coming every day (or nearly) for the past 18 years or so. I see him nearly every Sunday that I'm there. In fact, I sat next to him on the tram about four months ago on my way into the park.

 

[tarheelalum]

His name is indeed Peter. Peter Tu, actually. I've been told he's been coming every day (or nearly) for the past 18 years or so. I see him nearly every Sunday that I'm there. In fact, I sat next to him on the tram about four months ago on my way into the park.

I always would see him at Big Thunder. He loves life.

 

[VandVsmama]

When we entered DCA on Fri morning for EMH at 7:00 am, just after I purchased Max Pass, I was able to get a FP for all of us for RSR with a return window of about 8:15-9:15 am. The ride was down. I checked the app 30 min later and it was still down and our FP were automatically changed to a multiexperience FP for DCA. We really really wnated to ride RSR that day, so we moved over to DL to kill some time on other rides while we waited for RSR to come back up. The Cars Land CMs estimated about 12-12:30 and at 12:30, it reopened. It was open for a few minutes earlier than that, but it quickly shut down again.

 

[tarheelalum]

We love him, too. I believe his name is Peter. There is a cute YouTube video tribute to him that was made by his granddaughter a few years ago. Glad you had a good trip overall.

Thanks for telling me about the video. You can't watch it without smiling.

 

[mich311e]

Thanks for telling me about the video. You can't watch it without smiling.

Love him! It was magical when my son had a moment with him and Peter taught him his handshake.