Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
Hi all,
Flew in late last night from our whirlwind 2 day, one night trip. We stayed at GCH in a newly renovated room, and ended up having about 18 park hours in two days. Would I recommend this to a 1st timer or someone with littles? Heck no... but just me and Dd who is 13, we did great... albeit, our feet and legs are sore today.
Landed in LGB at around 9:15 am from Portland Or. Had one carryon and a backpack, so we got an uber and were at GCH by 10:10... checked in... I noted my bday and my Dd needing some pixie dust (rough school year) on our ressie. Got nothing and nothing was said. I wanted into the parks, so I didn’t bring it up. Thought maybe there would be something in our room later. Got rid of the bag, went thru security (super fast and efficient) and were in line for DL at 10:45. The lines outside the gates looked like MM... it was crazy.
Here is where we had a snafu... 15 minutes to get into the parks... and then I tried to buy max pass. I was already skeptical that it was really all that great... but we decided to try it. It was Thursday, DL had MM that morning, we were late already (11 am seemed so late in the day to me), and the park looked slammed. Max pass denied... error message, so sorry call this number. Okay, reboot the phone, reboot the app, try turning off WiFi... all got the same message. The line to city hall was out the door and toward the bridge... nope... call the number.
While waiting on hold, we walked down Main Street, looked at the magic windows, said hello to the partner statue (I felt like an idiot with my phone to my ear), thru the castle, and walked onto Snow White. Still on hold, we looked at the rest of the lines, and Dd said... we need dole whips. So we headed that way. On the way by, I grabbed legacy FPs for BTMRR, went to the inside line for dole whips and sat down to eat them by one of the tiki gods. Still on hold. 46 minutes of holding and George and David came to my rescue. Fixed max pass for both our two park days and pixie dusted us for the hold time by not charging us for it.
I am going to fast forward here and say we rode BTMRR, HM, Jungle Cruise, Indiana, Splash (got absolutely drenched), Winnie the Pooh, and Matterhorn (and Snow White when we arrived) by 3 pm... 4 hours in the park, (skipped Pirates... the line looked insane!) plus we ate giant corn dogs and tigger tails and bought a new sweatshirt for Dd. Then we got the text our room was ready. Off to the room for dry clothes and Dd took a hot shower.
New rooms at GCH... okay... so back to the non-pixie-dust... we had a delux DTD view room... ummm... okay, yeah technically we could see the walkway and had a little view of Space Mountain from the balcony. The room was 1 room away from being the farthest room from anything. We made the mistake of taking the lobby elevator the 1st time and I swear we walked a mile... 5449 was the number... I am sure someone has a map and they will see the far corner they flung us to. I think they thought, meh they are here one night, they won’t care. The actual closest elevator is the one that pops out by the pool... which was fabulous when we came back that night, otherwise, for our short trip it was a waste. The room was fine. The beds were comfy. Dd loved the rain shower. The shower door is stupid, opens out so it blocks the towels on the rack, so remember to hang a towel on the door before you get in. And am I the only one who likes an actual clock in the room? I don’t want to look at my phone for the time in the middle of the night. We headed to DCA at 4:30.
In DCA we managed Soarin around the World... omg loved it! Then Little Mermaid, Symphony Swings, TSMM, caught the Shaboom song and lighting in Carsland and rode RSR in twilight (I had my sea legs with max pass by this point and we were using it like pros—instant FP nearly always.) Then we got food... soup bowl for me, rice bowl for Dd... and headed for WOC dessert party.
Lined up at 7:15, got checked in and seated around 7:45... we had our glow with the show wand, and that was fun playing with people’s hats and wands around us... it was a good group, lots of people had glow with the show stuff. Dd got the cool WOC mug... that we barely had room for to get it home, but it made it. Loved sitting for the show, but we missed seeing the water up close.
We were in the room and getting ready for bed by 9:15.
Got room service in the morning, he was there right at 6 (the beginning of the 30 minute window). Mickey waffle, sausage and berries... Dd was happy. French toast, sausage and ice COLD bananas foster... wth?! We ate up, packed up, delivered the bag to the bell guy and headed for EMH at DCA.
We were 2nd in line at 7:30 for 8 am EMH... the first family got confused, didn’t have EMH, so they were turned away... so we were on the rope at rope drop... RSR was down, everyone ran there anyway. We did Luigi and Mater 2x each, Screamin 3x in a row, then got to Bugs Land when the opened at 9... we were on the 1st Heimlich of the day... love that ride!
Dd has a ToT issue... she is mad they changed it. Won’t ride GOTG and in fact wore her ToT shirt in protest. I got a FP for 9 am and rode it by myself after Heimlich... I thought it was well done, even if the facade is ugly. We squeezed in Monsters Inc, Soarin again... a mid morning sundae at Ghirardelli, and then we got dill pickle popcorn somewhere in there too... yummm and so glad you can get this daily now. Our FPs came up for RSR and the line was stupid. We waited for 15 minutes and DD said I’m out... so we took off... by then it was just a little after 11 and we crossed to DL.
We managed Space Mountain, Matterhorn 3x (the left side soaked Dd), BTMRR 3x, HM... all with instant or near instant max passes. Rode the train around one whole rotation. Had late lunch at Rancho del Zocolo and then braved the Pirates line... 25 minutes... and that was snaked all thru the queue and out into the street. Then we headed for our last FP at Indy and it was shut... then my phone said... hey we converted your FP, you can use it on anything! Dd wanted Matterhorn... but we got there and the parade was starting... so we used it on Buzz lol.
We headed out of DL in the middle of the parade, crossed to DCA, got Mickey ice creams and took them into the GCH to eat them right at 5 pm. We got the see this year’s GCH gingerbread house being started... it is going to be a beaut! Then at 5:30 we grabbed our bag and Uber’ed back to LGB.
Our feet hurt, we were exhausted, and according to my phone we did 10 miles each day... 20 miles and 18 park hours... phew!
We would do this again in a heartbeat. But I prefer to take it a little slower. This was the 1st time we tried a speed trip and we managed it, and had lots of laughs. Slowed down and even had an ad hoc meeting of the Buena Vista Street Citizens about the Christmas decor with the lovely Phi Phi and Donna.
Feel free to ask questions... I took like 5 photos and need to call Disney because my photo pass won’t link...but if it doesn’t work, no harm no foul... we still had a great trip!
Flew in late last night from our whirlwind 2 day, one night trip. We stayed at GCH in a newly renovated room, and ended up having about 18 park hours in two days. Would I recommend this to a 1st timer or someone with littles? Heck no... but just me and Dd who is 13, we did great... albeit, our feet and legs are sore today.
Landed in LGB at around 9:15 am from Portland Or. Had one carryon and a backpack, so we got an uber and were at GCH by 10:10... checked in... I noted my bday and my Dd needing some pixie dust (rough school year) on our ressie. Got nothing and nothing was said. I wanted into the parks, so I didn’t bring it up. Thought maybe there would be something in our room later. Got rid of the bag, went thru security (super fast and efficient) and were in line for DL at 10:45. The lines outside the gates looked like MM... it was crazy.
Here is where we had a snafu... 15 minutes to get into the parks... and then I tried to buy max pass. I was already skeptical that it was really all that great... but we decided to try it. It was Thursday, DL had MM that morning, we were late already (11 am seemed so late in the day to me), and the park looked slammed. Max pass denied... error message, so sorry call this number. Okay, reboot the phone, reboot the app, try turning off WiFi... all got the same message. The line to city hall was out the door and toward the bridge... nope... call the number.
While waiting on hold, we walked down Main Street, looked at the magic windows, said hello to the partner statue (I felt like an idiot with my phone to my ear), thru the castle, and walked onto Snow White. Still on hold, we looked at the rest of the lines, and Dd said... we need dole whips. So we headed that way. On the way by, I grabbed legacy FPs for BTMRR, went to the inside line for dole whips and sat down to eat them by one of the tiki gods. Still on hold. 46 minutes of holding and George and David came to my rescue. Fixed max pass for both our two park days and pixie dusted us for the hold time by not charging us for it.
I am going to fast forward here and say we rode BTMRR, HM, Jungle Cruise, Indiana, Splash (got absolutely drenched), Winnie the Pooh, and Matterhorn (and Snow White when we arrived) by 3 pm... 4 hours in the park, (skipped Pirates... the line looked insane!) plus we ate giant corn dogs and tigger tails and bought a new sweatshirt for Dd. Then we got the text our room was ready. Off to the room for dry clothes and Dd took a hot shower.
New rooms at GCH... okay... so back to the non-pixie-dust... we had a delux DTD view room... ummm... okay, yeah technically we could see the walkway and had a little view of Space Mountain from the balcony. The room was 1 room away from being the farthest room from anything. We made the mistake of taking the lobby elevator the 1st time and I swear we walked a mile... 5449 was the number... I am sure someone has a map and they will see the far corner they flung us to. I think they thought, meh they are here one night, they won’t care. The actual closest elevator is the one that pops out by the pool... which was fabulous when we came back that night, otherwise, for our short trip it was a waste. The room was fine. The beds were comfy. Dd loved the rain shower. The shower door is stupid, opens out so it blocks the towels on the rack, so remember to hang a towel on the door before you get in. And am I the only one who likes an actual clock in the room? I don’t want to look at my phone for the time in the middle of the night. We headed to DCA at 4:30.
In DCA we managed Soarin around the World... omg loved it! Then Little Mermaid, Symphony Swings, TSMM, caught the Shaboom song and lighting in Carsland and rode RSR in twilight (I had my sea legs with max pass by this point and we were using it like pros—instant FP nearly always.) Then we got food... soup bowl for me, rice bowl for Dd... and headed for WOC dessert party.
Lined up at 7:15, got checked in and seated around 7:45... we had our glow with the show wand, and that was fun playing with people’s hats and wands around us... it was a good group, lots of people had glow with the show stuff. Dd got the cool WOC mug... that we barely had room for to get it home, but it made it. Loved sitting for the show, but we missed seeing the water up close.
We were in the room and getting ready for bed by 9:15.
Got room service in the morning, he was there right at 6 (the beginning of the 30 minute window). Mickey waffle, sausage and berries... Dd was happy. French toast, sausage and ice COLD bananas foster... wth?! We ate up, packed up, delivered the bag to the bell guy and headed for EMH at DCA.
We were 2nd in line at 7:30 for 8 am EMH... the first family got confused, didn’t have EMH, so they were turned away... so we were on the rope at rope drop... RSR was down, everyone ran there anyway. We did Luigi and Mater 2x each, Screamin 3x in a row, then got to Bugs Land when the opened at 9... we were on the 1st Heimlich of the day... love that ride!
Dd has a ToT issue... she is mad they changed it. Won’t ride GOTG and in fact wore her ToT shirt in protest. I got a FP for 9 am and rode it by myself after Heimlich... I thought it was well done, even if the facade is ugly. We squeezed in Monsters Inc, Soarin again... a mid morning sundae at Ghirardelli, and then we got dill pickle popcorn somewhere in there too... yummm and so glad you can get this daily now. Our FPs came up for RSR and the line was stupid. We waited for 15 minutes and DD said I’m out... so we took off... by then it was just a little after 11 and we crossed to DL.
We managed Space Mountain, Matterhorn 3x (the left side soaked Dd), BTMRR 3x, HM... all with instant or near instant max passes. Rode the train around one whole rotation. Had late lunch at Rancho del Zocolo and then braved the Pirates line... 25 minutes... and that was snaked all thru the queue and out into the street. Then we headed for our last FP at Indy and it was shut... then my phone said... hey we converted your FP, you can use it on anything! Dd wanted Matterhorn... but we got there and the parade was starting... so we used it on Buzz lol.
We headed out of DL in the middle of the parade, crossed to DCA, got Mickey ice creams and took them into the GCH to eat them right at 5 pm. We got the see this year’s GCH gingerbread house being started... it is going to be a beaut! Then at 5:30 we grabbed our bag and Uber’ed back to LGB.
Our feet hurt, we were exhausted, and according to my phone we did 10 miles each day... 20 miles and 18 park hours... phew!
We would do this again in a heartbeat. But I prefer to take it a little slower. This was the 1st time we tried a speed trip and we managed it, and had lots of laughs. Slowed down and even had an ad hoc meeting of the Buena Vista Street Citizens about the Christmas decor with the lovely Phi Phi and Donna.
Feel free to ask questions... I took like 5 photos and need to call Disney because my photo pass won’t link...but if it doesn’t work, no harm no foul... we still had a great trip!
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