Sarahelizabeth
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2018
I’ve been reading this board for years now and wanted to share the feedback from our most recent trip. We’ve been back many times since they re-opened after COVID and this was our best trip so far! After our last trip, my husband wanted to take a break. While we still had fun, he isn’t as much of an enthusiast as me and the ride breakdowns and lines made it tough for him to continue to shell out the money. So, I decided to take the kids (9) and (12) by myself over their holiday break. I haven’t been at this time in years and was excited to see the holiday decorations. We were there on 12/21 and 12/22 with hoppers and Genie+.
I don’t think I can remember everything but here are some of the highlights. We rope dropped on 12/21 and it was the most successful morning we’ve ever had. We were at security on Harbor at about 7:20 walked right through and the Disneyland gates were already open. We wanted to rope drop Space so headed over to the Tomorrowland rope. We were two groups behind the rope. As soon as we scanned in we booked Indie for an 8:05 return time (hoping it would be closed and we’d get a multi experience pass.) We rode Space, Matterhorn and Big Thunder with no longer than 10-minute waits. Indie was up and we didn’t want to use our pass then, so we used the new modify feature which is AWESOME and moved it back to a 9:45 return time. We then rode pirates with a five-minute wait, stopped for hot coco (coffee for me) and beignets and used our fast pass for Indie. We then booked Haunted Mansion, Star Tours, Space and Splash with pretty close return times. (I stopped paying close attention to the times of day here and I'm sure I'm missing something.) We mobile ordered lunch at Alien Pizza Planet in between ride times and also booked a 1:05 LL for Rise. After all of that we decided to go back to the room to rest and were back at our the Farfield Inn by about 2:30.
While we were resting, I started booking Genie+ passes for CA Adventure. I can’t remember the specific times and order of rides, but I believe we started back in the park at around 5:00 for Incredicoaster and then Guardians. We stopped for dinner at Flo’s and then road Mater, Toy Story and the Swings. The kids wanted to do Grizzly Rapids and we had Soarin and Monsters but the return times were a bit out so we walked over to do standby and it was closed with an immediate return time so we modified one of our later selections to Grizzly Rapids and got a multi experience pass. It was still down with an immediate return so booked it again and got a second multi experience pass. While we were doing this, we stopped for churros and rode Little Mermaid. Grizzly re-opened so the kids did it twice and then we used our multi experience passes for Incredicoaster. We barely made it in line before they shut it down for the night. We did the first World of Color show using the virtual queue and it was great. We were tired so used our next multi experience pass for Soarin, did Monsters and headed home.
Day two was also really successful in our minds. I won’t go through all the rides but again, we barley waited in any lines and Genie+ really worked well for us. The highlight of this day was doing the Hungry Bear Fantasmic package. I randomly checked a few days ago and one for an 8:30 pick up appeared so I booked it. I got the chicken and my son got the ribs. They let my daughter sub a hamburger for the kids’ meal. We all enjoyed the food. It wasn’t gourmet but good for quick service amusement park food and I enjoyed it more than the regular Hungry Bear items I’ve had before. We went to our section for Fantasmic at about 10:15 for the 10:30 show and there was plenty of room. We sat down about three people back from the rail and I could stretch my legs and there was no one behind me for about six feet. We had never done a dining package for the show before and we absolutely LOVED being able to sit and not be scrunched in with a ton of people. I would do this again in a heartbeat.
Last thing I’ll say is that I went in not planning to get Magic Bands but after shopping in Downtown Disney on Tuesday night and seeing them a bunch of places I caved and bought them. I really liked having them. Yes, the functionality isn’t as much as Disney World but it was soooo nice to be able to all scan in for our Genie+ selections without having to scan through my phone and scan everyone in every time. Especially during those periods where we had lots of passes booked so I knew I didn’t need to look for another one after scanning in, not pulling my phone out was great. It saved battery life and my kids thought it was fun.
Sorry so long, but I wanted to share in case anyone wants to read. It was a really great trip!
I don’t think I can remember everything but here are some of the highlights. We rope dropped on 12/21 and it was the most successful morning we’ve ever had. We were at security on Harbor at about 7:20 walked right through and the Disneyland gates were already open. We wanted to rope drop Space so headed over to the Tomorrowland rope. We were two groups behind the rope. As soon as we scanned in we booked Indie for an 8:05 return time (hoping it would be closed and we’d get a multi experience pass.) We rode Space, Matterhorn and Big Thunder with no longer than 10-minute waits. Indie was up and we didn’t want to use our pass then, so we used the new modify feature which is AWESOME and moved it back to a 9:45 return time. We then rode pirates with a five-minute wait, stopped for hot coco (coffee for me) and beignets and used our fast pass for Indie. We then booked Haunted Mansion, Star Tours, Space and Splash with pretty close return times. (I stopped paying close attention to the times of day here and I'm sure I'm missing something.) We mobile ordered lunch at Alien Pizza Planet in between ride times and also booked a 1:05 LL for Rise. After all of that we decided to go back to the room to rest and were back at our the Farfield Inn by about 2:30.
While we were resting, I started booking Genie+ passes for CA Adventure. I can’t remember the specific times and order of rides, but I believe we started back in the park at around 5:00 for Incredicoaster and then Guardians. We stopped for dinner at Flo’s and then road Mater, Toy Story and the Swings. The kids wanted to do Grizzly Rapids and we had Soarin and Monsters but the return times were a bit out so we walked over to do standby and it was closed with an immediate return time so we modified one of our later selections to Grizzly Rapids and got a multi experience pass. It was still down with an immediate return so booked it again and got a second multi experience pass. While we were doing this, we stopped for churros and rode Little Mermaid. Grizzly re-opened so the kids did it twice and then we used our multi experience passes for Incredicoaster. We barely made it in line before they shut it down for the night. We did the first World of Color show using the virtual queue and it was great. We were tired so used our next multi experience pass for Soarin, did Monsters and headed home.
Day two was also really successful in our minds. I won’t go through all the rides but again, we barley waited in any lines and Genie+ really worked well for us. The highlight of this day was doing the Hungry Bear Fantasmic package. I randomly checked a few days ago and one for an 8:30 pick up appeared so I booked it. I got the chicken and my son got the ribs. They let my daughter sub a hamburger for the kids’ meal. We all enjoyed the food. It wasn’t gourmet but good for quick service amusement park food and I enjoyed it more than the regular Hungry Bear items I’ve had before. We went to our section for Fantasmic at about 10:15 for the 10:30 show and there was plenty of room. We sat down about three people back from the rail and I could stretch my legs and there was no one behind me for about six feet. We had never done a dining package for the show before and we absolutely LOVED being able to sit and not be scrunched in with a ton of people. I would do this again in a heartbeat.
Last thing I’ll say is that I went in not planning to get Magic Bands but after shopping in Downtown Disney on Tuesday night and seeing them a bunch of places I caved and bought them. I really liked having them. Yes, the functionality isn’t as much as Disney World but it was soooo nice to be able to all scan in for our Genie+ selections without having to scan through my phone and scan everyone in every time. Especially during those periods where we had lots of passes booked so I knew I didn’t need to look for another one after scanning in, not pulling my phone out was great. It saved battery life and my kids thought it was fun.
Sorry so long, but I wanted to share in case anyone wants to read. It was a really great trip!
