April PTR - Disneyland and Universal - me, DD14, SIL and nephew 14 taking on the best of the west

[Nevada Jen]

After 4 tries today I finally found time to respond. I think it's you I am supposed to listen for the clack noise on btmrr this weekend. A couple of thoughts. If I understand you are doing 2 days dca and 1.5 days DL. I would change that and do dca on your arrival night with woc desert party. That is going to be much better for J. Its physically easier to get a das there. Have them put the first ride as being rsr. There will be a long wait but you can hit other rides while you wait. Next arriving at dl at 3ish is a really bad idea. We are talking crowds like you can't imagine and you will just have to wade into it with someone who doesn't like crowds. Like people will be touching you at least every five steps crowded. Starting with a crowd at city hall to get your das. Finally, spring for the dessert party. You get your own chair and personal space. Otherwise WOC is anxiety inducing for anyone. I will try to take photos of regular woc this weekend and the dessert party so you can see what I mean. The dessert party will allow you to not lose tons of time waiting for a decent spot and the show and give you a great view but far enough away from the booms. Also that ends your night at 10 so it should work for your east coast bodies. Because you really can't miss rope drop. With the DAS you can easily do all of tomorrow land in an hour at rope drop. By late morning you can't walk to and ride a single ride in that time. Ride wait times may not be bad but DL is physically crowded.
For msep get the alladins oasis grab and go so.you get a reserved area for the parade. Get the earlier parade time so you can stay in your spot for fireworks (near IASW). again gets you personal space and sound distance. after the fireworks everyone moves away from IASW. If you wait 10 minutes you will have clear walking room.
Also just a thought but on your free day maybe you should rent a cabana at the dlh for the afternoon. I've never done it but it gets you access to their great pool and a relaxing day with no walking.
Let me know if you have any das questions. We go a lot because the das makes it a predictable trip with our disabled dd. Plus I'm going this weekend so anything I don't know I can check for you.

 

[sharona]

After 4 tries today I finally found time to respond. I think it's you I am supposed to listen for the clack noise on btmrr this weekend. A couple of thoughts. If I understand you are doing 2 days dca and 1.5 days DL. I would change that and do dca on your arrival night with woc desert party. That is going to be much better for J. Its physically easier to get a das there. Have them put the first ride as being rsr. There will be a long wait but you can hit other rides while you wait. Next arriving at dl at 3ish is a really bad idea. We are talking crowds like you can't imagine and you will just have to wade into it with someone who doesn't like crowds. Like people will be touching you at least every five steps crowded. Starting with a crowd at city hall to get your das. Finally, spring for the dessert party. You get your own chair and personal space. Otherwise WOC is anxiety inducing for anyone. I will try to take photos of regular woc this weekend and the dessert party so you can see what I mean. The dessert party will allow you to not lose tons of time waiting for a decent spot and the show and give you a great view but far enough away from the booms. Also that ends your night at 10 so it should work for your east coast bodies. Because you really can't miss rope drop. With the DAS you can easily do all of tomorrow land in an hour at rope drop. By late morning you can't walk to and ride a single ride in that time. Ride wait times may not be bad but DL is physically crowded.
For msep get the alladins oasis grab and go so.you get a reserved area for the parade. Get the earlier parade time so you can stay in your spot for fireworks (near IASW). again gets you personal space and sound distance. after the fireworks everyone moves away from IASW. If you wait 10 minutes you will have clear walking room.
Also just a thought but on your free day maybe you should rent a cabana at the dlh for the afternoon. I've never done it but it gets you access to their great pool and a relaxing day with no walking.
Let me know if you have any das questions. We go a lot because the das makes it a predictable trip with our disabled dd. Plus I'm going this weekend so anything I don't know I can check for you.

Thank you so much for the great suggestions! You make some really good points about the crowds and I appreciate your sharing your knowledge of the parks. I hate to arrive to an already jammed park and start the trip off on a bad note. Yes it's me that was saying BTMRR is super loud at WDW on the first climb. If you ride this weekend lmk what you think. J will have his earplugs.

Have a great visit this weekend!

 

[Nevada Jen]

So I specifically listened to btmrr for you. At first I thought you were home free but the second part of the ride is clacking. I'd say you notice the clack for half the ride. Especially in the dynamite tunnel. You could minimize exposure in line by using the wheel chair entrance. I'm sure they would accommodate you if you tell them you think it will help to not get stuck in line by the clacking sound. I find them to be exceptionally nice at btmrr.

 

[sharona]

So I specifically listened to btmrr for you. At first I thought you were home free but the second part of the ride is clacking. I'd say you notice the clack for half the ride. Especially in the dynamite tunnel. You could minimize exposure in line by using the wheel chair entrance. I'm sure they would accommodate you if you tell them you think it will help to not get stuck in line by the clacking sound. I find them to be exceptionally nice at btmrr.

That was so nice of you! I think we'll let him decide and make it an end of the night ride in case it doesn't go well. DD and I can get FP for it and ride on our own while they do something else if we don't want to wait that long.

Any thoughts on Hyperspace Mtn? I know he would not like the WDW version because it's way too dark but I think I read that the DL ride is much smoother and has the SW theme now?

 

[sharona]

Rethinking our park days after Nevada Jen pointed out that we don't want to be strolling into a big mid-day Easter week DL crowd on our first day. I have to agree now that this has been pointed out. All of my research tells me that an hour before parade time is not the time to get to DL during Easter week - especially when we need to get to Town Hall to get the DAS! Also to be considered is that 3 of J's favorite rides are at DCA (TSMM, Soarin and RSR - assuming he'll love this more than Test Track because he loved CARS). It would be nice to get J off to a good start at the parks and set the tone for the rest of the trip. That is huge with him. If he gets down about something he doesn't bounce back quite as easily as other kids. We also need to be aware and not plan everything around what J wants/likes because it's not fair to the Princess and she sometimes gets hyper-aware of this happening and it bothers her. Of course she is 14 so everything bothers her! If you are or have ever been the mom of a 14 year old girl, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Some of the things that annoy the Princess - how I laugh, when I wink, the way I wear my hair, my corny jokes, my radio station, my singing with the radio, when I get the words wrong (always but my words are better!), when I mispronounce a reality "star's" name, any question I ask ever, when I smile at her, when I talk to her friends, when I talk to the dog like he's a person.... you get the picture.

Anyway, back to the new plan. DCA closes earlier on our arrival day but I'm not sure that is a con with us being on East coast time, even a 10pm close may be stretching our limits. That'll be 1am for us! We'll probably just flip DL and DCA days 1 & 2 and leave everything else the same. Everything will depend on how our travel day goes keeping in mind we have a very busy 2 days at home leading up to that with Easter and the marathon and out of town guests etc. If we end up arriving cranky and exhausted we will probably skip going to any park on Day 1 and cancel the WB Studios outing. I'm going to hold off on booking that until the last minute. If there are no good times available, we'll just hang at the hotel and DTD during our off time or plan something else.

Our travel day:

• Leave for airport 6:45am. It's only 15-20 minutes away but we will be going on a weekday during prime morning traffic so need to give at least a 15 minute cushion. I hate to run late!!!!!
• Arrive airport by 7:30am
• AA from BOS to LAX 6.5 hour flight! Hope to get some ZZZZ's on the plane but will be fully stocked with books and movies on my tablet. J and C are sitting together this flight and can watch a movie on Princess's laptop with the headphone splitter.
• Arrive LAX 12:36pm local time
• Deal with LAX baggage claim and car rental shuttle
• Arrive at Embassy Suites 2:30pm (estimating 2 hours for bags/car/travel/traffic/supply stop)
• Drop our bags, clean up
• Return car on Katella and walk to DLR
• Dinner in whichever park we're going to (I guess this will not be TS as we're playing it by ear don't want to make ADR and get a cancel fee if we change our plans) or DTD if no park

What do you think?

 

[Nevada Jen]

I think that plan works. Also, not wanting to make a table service reservation is going to work much better for you at DCA. Again crowds at DL make getting food really hard sometimes. I always go with at least one TS reservation a day. There are tons of counter service options at DCA that are actually really good food. Paradise Pier, Flos and the hot dog place can be a bit crowded but if you work your way past CS and TSMM and keep walking in that direction you will come up on a couple of counter service places that tend to not be busy. The only name I remember off the top of my head is board walk pizza and pasta. I would walk into DCA, get DAS pass and have them put Toy Story on it. Ride that, get RSR DAS and then go eat (someone might be able to grab Soarin fastpasses for later also).

 

[sharona]

Officially less than a week until we leave! Really looking forward to this trip. It's going to be a busy week leading up to it and we have a ton to do but mostly all fun stuff so who can complain?

Today - Softball practice after work (I'm coaching Princess' team and C has been drafted to be my assistant)

Wednesday - Indoor batting practice after work
Thursday - Birthday dinner for my aunt. I'm hoping she picks Cheesecake Factory so we can get a few things done at the mall while we're out
Friday - scrimmage game after work then pizza party for the team to kick off the season
Saturday - hair appts for me and Princess, mani/pedis, do laundry, get clothes organized and start packing

Sunday - Easter!! we're having dinner out with about 20 family members. Dinner's not until 3 so we have time in the morning after church to take care of any last minute shopping/packing
Monday - I'll be wrapping things up at work, trying to get ahead of the game with a few reports and projects so I won't be buried when we get back
Tuesday - vacation day 1

 

[sharona]

Packed, stacked and ready to roll! See you soon DLR.

 

[sharona]

We're back. Had a great trip. Hoping to start the TR tomorrow!!!!! I'll post a link here.

 

[Nevada Jen]

Can't wait to hear about it!

 

[sharona]

Forgot to come back and post the link: https://www.disboards.com/threads/april-2017-tr-disneyland-and-universal-with-teens.3600552/

The TR is coming along slowly. It's a busy time of year for me but I promise to finish it. Nothing aggravates me more than reading a TR that stops half way through!!!