***Official SEPTEMBER 2021 Check in Thread

[Araminta18]

Last call -- gonna drop these in about an hour or two unless somewhere messages me and wants to coordinate.

• Blue Bayou, 4 people, 9/13 - 8:30 pm
• Lamplight Lounge, 2 people, 9/14 - 12:05 pm
• Carthay Circle, 2 people, 9/17 - 7:40 pm

 

[taaren]

Yay for the Halloween food guide! So many thing I want to eat and drink! Everything at Galatic Grill, Jaimica and Horchata, oh my! What just got added to your must-eat list?

 

[AZMermaid]

Yay for the Halloween food guide! So many thing I want to eat and drink! Everything at Galatic Grill, Jaimica and Horchata, oh my! What just got added to your must-eat list?

Loaded onion rings at hungry bear
Toasted chicken sandwich, macroon, pumpkin cheesecake at jolly holiday
Paradise garden grill
all the churros

 

[Naomeri]

Just popping in to say we’re here now and it’s been fabulous! Wait times are so low and everyone has been very happy and compliant with the mask rules. We were able to get boarding groups for Web Slingers and Rise yesterday! Boarding groups have been lasting well past the 7am and 12:00pm drop times this week. Tomorrow is our last day and we fly home Saturday but it’s been a lovely time so far!

That’s such good news! I arrive tomorrow afternoon for my first ever DL visit!

 

[22Tink]

That’s such good news! I arrive tomorrow afternoon for my first ever DL visit!

Have a great trip!!

 

[taaren]

Here now. Wait times for rides were really low yesterday afternoon/evening, we rode every mountain in under twenty. Today times are much higher and it's more crowded than yesterday but we've seen worse holiday weekends in the past.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Here now. Wait times for rides were really low yesterday afternoon/evening, we rode every mountain in under twenty. Today times are much higher and it's more crowded than yesterday but we've seen worse holiday weekends in the past.

I was just coming in to report exactly the same thing. We got here yesterday afternoon and it was fantastic--super low crowds--until we made the mistake of going to Disneyland after dinner/before fireworks. OMG I couldn't believe the enormous crowds. It was literally wall to wall people from the castle to the train station and very few people wearing masks. I get that it's outside, but it was seriously COVID central. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I realized later that it was the first night of the Halloween fireworks. No more Disneyland for us in the evening LOL. We'll do CA at night. Today was very hot and seemed crowded but ride waits were definitely not as bad as I"ve seen for Labor Day. Guardians had about a 10 minute wait a little while ago (crazy!). We're having a great time and enjoying all the hard-fought dining reservations. We're here through Tuesday so we're hoping the ride times stay relatively reasonable.

 

[Mama_bear]

I finally a week before my trip have all the ADR's I wanted hooray lol, wild. We did give up on doing either Oga's or Trader Sams and decided wandering around trying some halloween treats would be more fun.

Unrelated but for anyone whose gone how does showing your park reservation work? I generally present my tickets using my phone with the app, will the QR code be there or do I need to print them to avoid the time it would take to close the app and pull up my email every morning?

 

[taaren]

Unrelated but for anyone whose gone how does showing your park reservation work? I generally present my tickets using my phone with the app, will the QR code be there or do I need to print them to avoid the time it would take to close the app and pull up my email every morning?

We used the Disneyland app. The ticket CMs scanned the barcode on each ticket, took a picture of each of us, then printed out a ticket for us and told us to use the physical tickets from thereon out. I heard multiple people complaining about having to use the physical tickets but it (mostly) worked for our group, although there were a few mix ups with which-adult-was-holding-which-teen's-ticket when the kids switched who was going with who. The physical ticket will have the same number as the barcode on your app.

The computer knows from scanning the ticket whether or not you had a reservation for that day.

 

[Mama_bear]

We used the Disneyland app. The ticket CMs scanned the barcode on each ticket, took a picture of each of us, then printed out a ticket for us and told us to use the physical tickets from thereon out. I heard multiple people complaining about having to use the physical tickets but it (mostly) worked for our group, although there were a few mix ups with which-adult-was-holding-which-teen's-ticket when the kids switched who was going with who. The physical ticket will have the same number as the barcode on your app.

The computer knows from scanning the ticket whether or not you had a reservation for that day.

Thank you so much for letting me know! I dont mind using a physical ticket, they used to give us one when we would print our tickets at home too, so the physical tickets were connected to your park reservation?, ok great I was concerned about having to pull up my email every day lol

 

[kappyfamily]

I finally a week before my trip have all the ADR's I wanted hooray lol, wild. We did give up on doing either Oga's or Trader Sams and decided wandering around trying some halloween treats would be more fun.

Unrelated but for anyone whose gone how does showing your park reservation work? I generally present my tickets using my phone with the app, will the QR code be there or do I need to print them to avoid the time it would take to close the app and pull up my email every morning?

Have to be honest, we’ve done Ogas last trip and Trader Sams yesterday, have to say we were kind of underwhelmed. Glad we tried it but would never rebook them. Ogas we shared a table with two other groups and it was kinda awkward. Insanely expensive. Btw we are massive Star Wars fans too and we still left felling a little disappointed. Trader Sams yesterday we sat at the bar and got 2 drinks in souvenir mugs and an order of green beans. After tip it came to $124. So if there were 2 ADRs you didn’t get I would say those are great ones to miss out on! Just my two cents of course…

 

[Mama_bear]

Have to be honest, we’ve done Ogas last trip and Trader Sams yesterday, have to say we were kind of underwhelmed. Glad we tried it but would never rebook them. Ogas we shared a table with two other groups and it was kinda awkward. Insanely expensive. Btw we are massive Star Wars fans too and we still left felling a little disappointed. Trader Sams yesterday we sat at the bar and got 2 drinks in souvenir mugs and an order of green beans. After tip it came to $124. So if there were 2 ADRs you didn’t get I would say those are great ones to miss out on! Just my two cents of course…

Thats nice to hear about Trader Sams! I have done Ogas too and am also a big fan and also found it under welming, my mom who watched the kids while my husband and I did it last time wanted to try it and I was mostly doing it for her. So Im not so bummed about it lol, I dont even drink so for me its all about atmosphere and if I can have a nice gluten free snack or beverage option. The star wars ones are just juice and I wasn't a fan of standing with strangers and having my drink choice questioned.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Waiting for our Lyft and wanted to pop in with a report. Boy, so many small kids and babies! Which means oceans of strollers. So surprised with Covid. My biggest surprise was the crowds. We have traveled during this time and waltzed through empty parks. Much more crowded than prior years. This didn’t really impact wait times except yesterday. I think many Magic Key holders? I don’t understand, but it felt more like December than September.

Very fun, but miss my shows and parades. Fireworks were fun, but even staking our spot over an hour in advance resulted in some pushing, shoving, and way too close with Covid uneasiness. The CMs took down the ropes in the middle of the fireworks. A safety measure that I totally understand, but created a great way for late comers to crash into the crowds.

We are all adults and wore masks outside when lines and crowds were too close for comfort. Best advice is do not except low crowds and hit the parks early.

Loved the Halloween goodness! Hope everyone has a wonderful time!

 

[sfrp]

Just checked out at GCH and have really enjoyed the week here. Crowds were good in the mornings and even at night Tuesday through Friday, but the mid-days were brutally hot and a bit crowded--loved having the pools to go back to!

We did OBB on Thursday and were so, so grateful for the GCH entrance (3 minutes tops at 5pm). The rides were all walk-ons as folks queued for the treat trails and Villain's Grove, and the 10pm parade was easy to get great viewing for. Saw way more Yzma costumes than I was expecting, and the surprise lightning finale was extremely dramatic!

We also did a VIP tour Monday and Friday, and I cannot recommend Thomas enough if you're an all-adult group who wants to knock out a ton of rides and laugh a lot. He was unflagging in his commitment to power walking, answering questions, and playing waiting-in-line games when Rise broke down.

Overall good mask compliance, but there were a TON of small children and babies too young to wear masks (the number of infants asleep in strollers during the 10pm OBB parade was surprising to me). Our group stayed mostly masked even outdoors, and ate our meals outside. It didn't feel as nervous-making as I anticipated it might, but if it were even 15% more crowded I'd feel differently.

Also managed Oga's as a walk-up and scored a table--highly recommend going before noon and giving it a try, as it wasn't particularly crowded when we did this on Wednesday!

 

[kappyfamily]

Just checked out at GCH and have really enjoyed the week here. Crowds were good in the mornings and even at night Tuesday through Friday, but the mid-days were brutally hot and a bit crowded--loved having the pools to go back to!

We did OBB on Thursday and were so, so grateful for the GCH entrance (3 minutes tops at 5pm). The rides were all walk-ons as folks queued for the treat trails and Villain's Grove, and the 10pm parade was easy to get great viewing for. Saw way more Yzma costumes than I was expecting, and the surprise lightning finale was extremely dramatic!

We also did a VIP tour Monday and Friday, and I cannot recommend Thomas enough if you're an all-adult group who wants to knock out a ton of rides and laugh a lot. He was unflagging in his commitment to power walking, answering questions, and playing waiting-in-line games when Rise broke down.

Overall good mask compliance, but there were a TON of small children and babies too young to wear masks (the number of infants asleep in strollers during the 10pm OBB parade was surprising to me). Our group stayed mostly masked even outdoors, and ate our meals outside. It didn't feel as nervous-making as I anticipated it might, but if it were even 15% more crowded I'd feel differently.

Also managed Oga's as a walk-up and scored a table--highly recommend going before noon and giving it a try, as it wasn't particularly crowded when we did this on Wednesday!

We got back last night and agreed with all of this. I was seriously floored by the babies there. One couldn’t have been more than a couple weeks old. You just want to grab these parents and say WTH. I wouldn’t bring a kid that little there before COVID let alone with a pandemic going on. We wore masks most of the time except in wide open spots we would take it off.

 

[Wesley815]

I agree with others- ever since covid reopening I've almost see twice as many VERY young children/babies in the park. I can't quite figure it out.... much younger than 12 years old for vaccine, and even too young for them to remember the trip. Guess the parents really don't care?

Not going to get into debate/reply if virus is real or not- just stating facts, there's been a huge increase in young children ever since parents were told to protect them.

Odd for sure.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

I wanted to bump our thread. Would love to hear some more trip reports. Hope everyone is having a blast!

 

[j9isawesome]

We had a great trip! We were in the parks this past Thursday through Sunday. On Thursday we attended Oogie Boogie’s Bash dressed as President Loki & Alligator Loki. We flew down to SNA, took a $30 Uber to the Anaheim Majestic Garden and checked in early. Got changed into our costumes and took our hotel’s free shuttle to the park. We used up one of our magic key reservation days so we could come into the parks once we arrived around 1:30 PM to bypass the crowds at the 3pm mix in time. We tried to check in at the blue sky cellar a bit before 3 PM because there was already a long line to do so but we were told that they had a power outage and wouldn’t be opening until after 3 PM anyway. When we came back at 3:05 and Blue Sky Cellar was open without a line, got our wristbands and trick or treat bags within seconds. We spent most of our time leading up til the 6pm official party time going on rides (Toy Story Midway Mania, Radiator Springs Racers & Guardians Monsters After Dark), eating Halloween treats, and meeting daytime characters (like Loki in his regular Avengers outfit). By 5:45pm we found our way to Agatha’s treat trail line at the entrance to avengers campus from Carsland and waited for it to open. She was fantastic- really all the character’s looked great and acted perfectly and made it such a fun night engaging with them. The lines flowed fast and most treat trails had a dedicated area to stand out of the way and interact with the characters if you wanted to or just bypass it for less wait more faster treats. We managed to hit every character treat trail at least once and a couple twice (Maleficent cuz she had no wait and Cruella cuz she had to go on break the first time and I wasn’t about to accept just seeing her clothes and not her). The standalone character meets were fun too, and most had VERY short waits. The longest we waited was 25 minutes for Mickey and Minnie in their cute bay/goth outfits compared to say when we met Powerline at the Disneyland After Dark event and it took up most of our party time- much better handled! We met: Loki, Thor, Miss Minutes, & Devil Donald before the party and then TVA Loki, Mickey, Minnie, the sheriff of Nottingham, Prince John, Smee, Hook, Cinderella, her stepsisters and stepmother, Chip & Dale as Pirates, the Onward brothers, Robin Hood, Baloo, Governor Ratcliffe, Jafar, Hades w/Meg, Pain & Panic. And that’s not counting everyone we met on the treat trails: Sid, Agatha, Cruella, Dr Facilier, Mad Hatter, Evil Queen, Maleficent & Oogie Boogie. We also did the Magic Keyholder Hocus Pocus themed photo opt with Boooook. Then we decided to skip the second parade to make sure we had time to hit up Villains Grove which I had really been looking forward too but ended up being way too loud and crowded and it stressed me out, boo, well now I know. We also managed to sneak in a quick late meal at Pym’s and a ride on WebSlingers before heading back to our hotel at closing with 11 pounds of trick or treat candy in hand. Whew, that was a lot for a short day so I think I share my stories of the other days with you guys later.

 

[Mama_bear]

Were back! we had a wonderful time! some of the things I thought were going to be stressful were surprisingly easy! Wishing all my other September friends a wonderful visit!