YayforMickey
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2011
Finally getting a minute to post some thoughts on our trip last week. We had a wonderful time overall, as usual. It was me, my 17-year-old daughter, 14-year-old son, and 10-year-old daughter. My husband decided to sit this trip out. We had five day park hoppers with maxpass. We stayed for the first time at the Homewood Suites and definitely recommend it. Very comfortable beds, great pool area, good breakfasts and dinners (Mon-Thurs), wonderful staff.
Tuesday through Friday the crowds were as low as I've ever seen them. The pathways were wide open, lines were short (except Matterhorn), and everything felt magical and easygoing. On Saturday, it was a whole different place. I'd say it was one of the most crowded days I've ever experienced (I've been coming since I was a little kid in the 80s). We were headed to DCA for rope drop, and I noticed that the ticket booths were swamped with people. I had not seen that when entering on the other days, so I knew it was going to be crazy. We spent the morning at DCA, and the crowds didn't feel especially bad until about noon. We left at 2pm, and the lines at the gates were very long. We came back after a pool break, and when we entered Disneyland, we were very glad that we had stacked a lot of fastpasses. Even with fastpass, Matterhorn took about twenty minutes to get on. We still had some fun on Saturday evening, but the vibe was chaotic, and it was definitely not as magical.
We loved experiencing Soarin over CA again, and we wish it would stay forever. It seemed like the orange and pine scents were much stronger than they used to be before it was shuttered for Soarin over the World. We also enjoyed MSEP and Hyperspace Mountain (although we all agreed that we like classic best).
We all had a good time in Galaxy's Edge, and we only had to wait 40 minutes (45 posted) and 20 minutes (45 posted) for Smuggler's Run. We all got to be pilots and gunners, so we didn't attempt to ride a third time. I think we will when it has fastpass. To be honest, I don't care about shooting a train the way I would care about shooting First Order ships. We did enjoy the ride, but we weren't dying to repeat. We all liked the blue and green milks, but not enough to get them again. We did love watching the fireworks back there, eating a ronto wrap, and just exploring. We agreed that we prefer the atmospheric sounds to the music some people are wishing for in the land. We didn't have a good Cantina experience. They crammed all four of us at the end of the bar where we couldn't see anything, and there was only room for two people to stand there. Two of us had to stand behind them. They were out of some of the drinks we wanted. We did like the Oga's Obsession. I think we were there for twenty minutes tops.
I've never been one to compare the CMs at different parks, but this trip was the first time I really felt like the CMs were mostly disinterested and aloof. I was surprised about that.
We loved getting awesome railside tables at Lamplight Lounge and Cafe Orleans. Our favorite treats were tigger tail, dole whip, jalapeño pretzel, dole whip donut, oi oi puff, lemon and vanilla soft serve at Adorable Snowman, dill pickle, dill popcorn, and churro (of course). We liked the loaded onion rings at Hungry Bear, too.
We always open Toon Town on one of our days, and this time, we were chosen as "Mickey's Family." Mickey held my daughters' hands and walked us in to town. He even took us into the back entrance of his house for photos. It was pretty magical. We had some other amazing character interactions, too.
We saw Philharmagic at WDW once or twice in the past, but it seems like the version here at DCA is inferior. It wasn't impressive.
We are big Guardians fans, and we ride many times trying to get all the songs. But on this trip we were unlucky because we only got two songs over and over: Born to be Wild and Burning Love. Oh well. Next time.
On Saturday night we encountered a tense scene at Indiana Jones. We had just entered the fastpass line when we saw a bunch of people in the standby line yelling and screaming. A man kept calling for help. He yelled that a woman was having a seizure. They must have closed the line after us, because after we got off the ride, it was closed, and they were wheeling the woman backstage on a stretcher. I hope she recovered.
We loved using the Toy Story buses since our hotel was right next to the lot, and we also had a good experience using Ubers here and there. The only time we saw a line for the Toy Story buses was Saturday night (we got an Uber instead).
Our standout experience was the WOC dessert party, which we had never done before. The kids all agreed that it was their favorite part of the trip, and they felt like VIPs. We hadn't watched the show since probably 2012 because the fastpass experience is so awful. I wish the dessert party wasn't so expensive, but we definitely loved it. Wonderful.
Tuesday through Friday the crowds were as low as I've ever seen them. The pathways were wide open, lines were short (except Matterhorn), and everything felt magical and easygoing. On Saturday, it was a whole different place. I'd say it was one of the most crowded days I've ever experienced (I've been coming since I was a little kid in the 80s). We were headed to DCA for rope drop, and I noticed that the ticket booths were swamped with people. I had not seen that when entering on the other days, so I knew it was going to be crazy. We spent the morning at DCA, and the crowds didn't feel especially bad until about noon. We left at 2pm, and the lines at the gates were very long. We came back after a pool break, and when we entered Disneyland, we were very glad that we had stacked a lot of fastpasses. Even with fastpass, Matterhorn took about twenty minutes to get on. We still had some fun on Saturday evening, but the vibe was chaotic, and it was definitely not as magical.
We loved experiencing Soarin over CA again, and we wish it would stay forever. It seemed like the orange and pine scents were much stronger than they used to be before it was shuttered for Soarin over the World. We also enjoyed MSEP and Hyperspace Mountain (although we all agreed that we like classic best).
We all had a good time in Galaxy's Edge, and we only had to wait 40 minutes (45 posted) and 20 minutes (45 posted) for Smuggler's Run. We all got to be pilots and gunners, so we didn't attempt to ride a third time. I think we will when it has fastpass. To be honest, I don't care about shooting a train the way I would care about shooting First Order ships. We did enjoy the ride, but we weren't dying to repeat. We all liked the blue and green milks, but not enough to get them again. We did love watching the fireworks back there, eating a ronto wrap, and just exploring. We agreed that we prefer the atmospheric sounds to the music some people are wishing for in the land. We didn't have a good Cantina experience. They crammed all four of us at the end of the bar where we couldn't see anything, and there was only room for two people to stand there. Two of us had to stand behind them. They were out of some of the drinks we wanted. We did like the Oga's Obsession. I think we were there for twenty minutes tops.
I've never been one to compare the CMs at different parks, but this trip was the first time I really felt like the CMs were mostly disinterested and aloof. I was surprised about that.
We loved getting awesome railside tables at Lamplight Lounge and Cafe Orleans. Our favorite treats were tigger tail, dole whip, jalapeño pretzel, dole whip donut, oi oi puff, lemon and vanilla soft serve at Adorable Snowman, dill pickle, dill popcorn, and churro (of course). We liked the loaded onion rings at Hungry Bear, too.
We always open Toon Town on one of our days, and this time, we were chosen as "Mickey's Family." Mickey held my daughters' hands and walked us in to town. He even took us into the back entrance of his house for photos. It was pretty magical. We had some other amazing character interactions, too.
We saw Philharmagic at WDW once or twice in the past, but it seems like the version here at DCA is inferior. It wasn't impressive.
We are big Guardians fans, and we ride many times trying to get all the songs. But on this trip we were unlucky because we only got two songs over and over: Born to be Wild and Burning Love. Oh well. Next time.
On Saturday night we encountered a tense scene at Indiana Jones. We had just entered the fastpass line when we saw a bunch of people in the standby line yelling and screaming. A man kept calling for help. He yelled that a woman was having a seizure. They must have closed the line after us, because after we got off the ride, it was closed, and they were wheeling the woman backstage on a stretcher. I hope she recovered.
We loved using the Toy Story buses since our hotel was right next to the lot, and we also had a good experience using Ubers here and there. The only time we saw a line for the Toy Story buses was Saturday night (we got an Uber instead).
Our standout experience was the WOC dessert party, which we had never done before. The kids all agreed that it was their favorite part of the trip, and they felt like VIPs. We hadn't watched the show since probably 2012 because the fastpass experience is so awful. I wish the dessert party wasn't so expensive, but we definitely loved it. Wonderful.
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