PTR - Help Us Plan! (Princesses from Arendelle do Disney)

[princess_jamie]

Good Morning Loyal Subjects!

Just kidding

I'm Princess Jamie and my sister, Princess Jessica are from Canada, which is basically Arendelle like 7 months of the year. We are going on a sister trip to Disneyland this December. This will be our first time as adults together and basically her first time since she was a kid (she went for a day when she was in high school, but that's hardly a Disney trip).

I'm a planner... I love WDW because you can start planning so far in advance. Disneyland is a little tough for me - I'm not patient - I want the park hours released 180 days in advanced. Hence this PTR. I've never done a PTR or even a TR but I figured this would be a great way to get some advise from all you professionals!

Lets start with the introductions!

Hi! I'm Jamie

I'm 26, a Disney addict, and work in Human Resources. My favorite Disney movie is Aladdin (I once dressed up as Aladdin for Halloween when I was younger). My favorite Disney character is Flynn Rider (Can you marry fictional characters? I'd settle for Zachary Levi...). My favorite Disney ride is almost impossible to answer. I love to hate Tower of Terror. I love Space Mountain. Okay I pretty much love all the rides.

I've been to Disneyland twice as a child and so far twice as an adult and Walt Disney World once as a teenager and once as an adult. RunDisney has my heart - I completed the Coast to Coast Challenge last year with the Glass Slipper Challenge and the Dumbo Double Dare.

Next up is my sister Jessica!

She is 21, loves Disney but is probably too cool to openly admit it, and works at a bicycle shop. Her favorite Disney movie is the Lion King. She doesn't have a favorite Disney character (umm.. really?). Her favorite Disney ride is Space Mountain.

We grew up watching The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights in the living room with our dinners on our laps; getting surprised with Disney movies on VHS when they came out (my dad is also a huge Disney fan); and singing Disney songs in elementary school choir (not well I might add).

This trip came about when I found a great deal on flights to SNA and I knew I couldn't convince my DBF to go on another Disney trip after 2 last year. So, I jokingly asked my sister - hey, do you want to go to Disneyland, flights are this cheap? To my surprised she responded - lets do it. I wasn't really that serious and hadn't looked into it too much. I then found a package with flights, accommodation, and park tickets that was totally reasonable and again, to my surprise, when I mentioned it to her, she super seriously responded - let's go to Disneyland. Neither of us have ever been to any Disney parks for any of the holidays, so we are extra excited about it.

Btw.. I'm way too new to this and cannot seem to get my pictures to show up, so if anyone has any tips they would be totally appreciated!

Continued in next post!

 

[princess_jamie]

Trip Details!

Saturday December 3 - Wednesday December 7, 2016.
Staying at the Castle Inn
3 Day Park Hopper Passes

We arrive at LAX on Saturday December 3 around 11AM. We are taking Karmel Shuttle to Castle Inn - It was included in our package and I've had a good experience with them before.

I chose Castle Inn because it had decent enough reviews to convince me it was clean and safe. It also is a close walk - last time I was there I stayed too far for my liking. Plus I can't imagine we will spend much time in our room anyways.

We have 3 day park hopper passes. I was considered a 4 day and going Saturday afternoon once we arrived because I figured the park would be open later so we could get out moneys worth time wise, but I also thought it might be busy, so I decided to hold off.

Tentatively, our plan is:

Saturday December 3rd:
Lunch at Earl of Sandwich
DTD Shopping
Drinks at Trader Sams

Sunday December 4th:
Disneyland for rope drop

Monday December 5th:
DCA for rope drop

Tuesday December 6th:
DL/DCA combo - whatever we want to do again

Wednesday December 7th:
Sad trip home

I'm anxiously counting down to when the hours get released so I can make a better plan and have a better understanding of our days, but our goal is to sneak in as much in as we can - we're happy to spend as much time in the parks as possible.

 

[TEAMJACOB]

I am in.
How wonderful that you and your sister will get to make magical Disney memories together. My sister and I went together on vacation to WDW and Universal this year. It was our first vacation together too. I am planning a 2017 or 2018 (depends on when they re-open several attractions) trip to DL so I'll be interested to hear about your adventure. Good luck with the pictures. Sorry I can't help you there. Hopefully someone will step up and help you.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Can't wait to read more of your plans! I haven't been to Disneyland since I was a teenager, but am planning a trip for next September. I would love to do a Disney trip with my sister. How special for you two!

 

[princess_jamie]

Hello to my two friends Well I definitely started this thread too early!! I lost some of the momentum with planning because we were SO far out and it felt like I couldn't really "plan", so it's taken me a while to actually post again.

BUT! As of yesterday, we are 60 days out from our vacation!! Yay!!

I've been really struggling with planning without having the hours - I LOVE to plan - so it's been a struggle without the hours. We do officially have our first "plan" though. One of my sister's must do's is a character breakfast and I decided on Plaza Inn because from what I've read, that is where you'll get the most characters. Since we have park days on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and don't officially have the hours (I have some good estimations), I booked our reservation this morning for the Sunday at 10:30am. Our goal is to be at rope drop for all of our park days and thanks to the help of a few dis-ers, we liked the idea of going to rope drop and hitting as many rides as we can and building up an appetite for a later reservation. But, I'm probably one of the most indecisve people in the world so I'll probably book a couple more reservations (one for the Monday and one for the Tuesday) so I can decide what I want to do as we get closer. My sister doesn't care about the planning at all, so as long as we get to a character breakfast, she's all good.

I asked my sister to tell me what her "must do's" are and she said she wants to do every single ride... *face palm* I am kind of hoping she isn't actually serious and once we get there, she'll just want to go with the flow (that I have planned.. haha).. but I have a feeling it will be a whirlwind of a trip.

I am really looking forward to experiencing all of the Christmas magic, but do want to make time for fireworks, the parade, World of Color, and Mickey and the Magical Map. In my planning stages I'm torn between whether or not we try to do the fireworks and parade on Sunday night, because the park is open later, or spend that time on rides and hope they are a bit less crowded. Needless to say I'm anxiously awaiting the official hours so I can put some serious thought into my plans (I've already made an educated guess but it's nice to have the real thing).

Anyways - I will definitely not wait too long to post, as I've got some ideas up my sleeve and plans to work on, but it's time to curl up with a book for the rest of this chilly fall evening!

 

[princess_jamie]

Can't wait to read more of your plans! I haven't been to Disneyland since I was a teenager, but am planning a trip for next September. I would love to do a Disney trip with my sister. How special for you two!

How exciting that you're going back next September. I'm VERY interested in reading your 24hr solo TR! I am considering going solo to D23 and love hearing about everyone's solo adventures! And I'm also going to be reading your blog - I am starting some plans for a future race and always love reading fellow runners blogs - I envy your openness to put yourself and your training out there.

 

[princess_jamie]

I am in.
How wonderful that you and your sister will get to make magical Disney memories together. My sister and I went together on vacation to WDW and Universal this year. It was our first vacation together too. I am planning a 2017 or 2018 (depends on when they re-open several attractions) trip to DL so I'll be interested to hear about your adventure. Good luck with the pictures. Sorry I can't help you there. Hopefully someone will step up and help you.

How wonderful that you got to share such a fun vacation with your sister! I hope I have another DL trip in 2017 or 2018 - I really want to take my dad because he hasn't been since he took us as children and I would credit him for starting my Disney addiction when I was a child. He tells us stories about how he'd take us back to the hotel with our mom and then he'd go back to the parks and ride Space Mountain or BTMRR over and over again. What attractions are you waiting for?

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

How exciting that you're going back next September. I'm VERY interested in reading your 24hr solo TR! I am considering going solo to D23 and love hearing about everyone's solo adventures! And I'm also going to be reading your blog - I am starting some plans for a future race and always love reading fellow runners blogs - I envy your openness to put yourself and your training out there.

Oh fun! I hope you're able to make it to D23! Also, have you checked out the running thread in the runDisney section? It's been such a great resource!!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Hello to my two friends Well I definitely started this thread too early!! I lost some of the momentum with planning because we were SO far out and it felt like I couldn't really "plan", so it's taken me a while to actually post again.

BUT! As of yesterday, we are 60 days out from our vacation!! Yay!!

I've been really struggling with planning without having the hours - I LOVE to plan - so it's been a struggle without the hours. We do officially have our first "plan" though. One of my sister's must do's is a character breakfast and I decided on Plaza Inn because from what I've read, that is where you'll get the most characters. Since we have park days on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and don't officially have the hours (I have some good estimations), I booked our reservation this morning for the Sunday at 10:30am. Our goal is to be at rope drop for all of our park days and thanks to the help of a few dis-ers, we liked the idea of going to rope drop and hitting as many rides as we can and building up an appetite for a later reservation. But, I'm probably one of the most indecisve people in the world so I'll probably book a couple more reservations (one for the Monday and one for the Tuesday) so I can decide what I want to do as we get closer. My sister doesn't care about the planning at all, so as long as we get to a character breakfast, she's all good.

I asked my sister to tell me what her "must do's" are and she said she wants to do every single ride... *face palm* I am kind of hoping she isn't actually serious and once we get there, she'll just want to go with the flow (that I have planned.. haha).. but I have a feeling it will be a whirlwind of a trip.

I am really looking forward to experiencing all of the Christmas magic, but do want to make time for fireworks, the parade, World of Color, and Mickey and the Magical Map. In my planning stages I'm torn between whether or not we try to do the fireworks and parade on Sunday night, because the park is open later, or spend that time on rides and hope they are a bit less crowded. Needless to say I'm anxiously awaiting the official hours so I can put some serious thought into my plans (I've already made an educated guess but it's nice to have the real thing).

Anyways - I will definitely not wait too long to post, as I've got some ideas up my sleeve and plans to work on, but it's time to curl up with a book for the rest of this chilly fall evening!

After planning trips to WDW, it seems like it would be a hard switch to not know hours so close to departure! When is it normally announced? Plaza Inn sounds so fun! I think the 10:30 time is smart, so that you can maximize your ride time!

 

[princess_jamie]

Oh fun! I hope you're able to make it to D23! Also, have you checked out the running thread in the runDisney section? It's been such a great resource!!

I have! I did the GSC in Feb 2015 and DDD in Sept 2015 and reading posts and training plans and race reports for those got me so excited!

 

[princess_jamie]

After planning trips to WDW, it seems like it would be a hard switch to not know hours so close to departure! When is it normally announced? Plaza Inn sounds so fun! I think the 10:30 time is smart, so that you can maximize your ride time!

It is tough! I'm not sure - I found on their website that they say usually 6 weeks out, but not all of the November hours are even up yet!

 

[princess_jamie]

So breakfast update - we have a reservation for Plaza Inn on the Sunday at 10:40am, as many people have mentioned the "brunch" timing to be excellent. I do also have an 8:40am reservation for Monday because... it gives me flexibility to decide.

I was talking with my sister yesterday about her "plan" to "ride every single ride" - so I asked... does that mean every single ride? And she said.. yup. So I said.. well even things like the Carousel? And she said.. well.. maybe not things like that. I told her if she wants to do EVERY ride, then she's gotta commit to that. I still don't expect we will do every ride, but I am going to try to make some good plans so we can fit in as much in this trip as possible. Her new goal is now to try to convince me to get matching sister Disney tattoos..... (she has probably close to 15 tattoos.. I have 0) - little does she know, I am not wasting valuable Disney time (and money, given the exchange rate) on getting tattoos while we are there, however I would consider getting matching sister Disney tattoos here before we go. But I won't tell her that, ha!

I've been trying to make a list of my "must do's" and this is what I have so far:

Tower of Terror - I have a love/hate relationship with this ride. It scares the crap out of me! But, you can't not go on it, especially with the changes coming.
Radiator Springs Racers
California Screamin'
All of the rides with the holiday overlay
Haunted Mansion
Jingle Cruise
Its a small world
Space Mountain - not sure if it is going back to Hyperspace Mountain after Halloweentime is over?
BTMRR
Pirates of the Caribbean
Indiana Jones
Christmas Parade
World of Color
Fireworks - if any?
Mickey and the Magical Map
Meet Santa

What are some of your favorite rides or favorite things to do during holiday time?

 

[TEAMJACOB]

How wonderful that you got to share such a fun vacation with your sister! I hope I have another DL trip in 2017 or 2018 - I really want to take my dad because he hasn't been since he took us as children and I would credit him for starting my Disney addiction when I was a child. He tells us stories about how he'd take us back to the hotel with our mom and then he'd go back to the parks and ride Space Mountain or BTMRR over and over again. What attractions are you waiting for?

I bet your dad would be thrilled. Like your dad, my dad also gets credited for starting my Disney addiction. As a child I was glued to the television every time Walt made an appearance. For my high school graduation, dad took me to WDW. Dad has been gone for over 20 years now, so try to make plans with your dad.
Like your sister, I want to do all the rides too. Waiting for the train, Tom Sawyer Island, riverboat and Columbia to open back up.
I agree with you, planning is the best part. Good luck with yours.

 

[Frozen2014]

Love your review. Totally get the loving of the planning. I'm the same (and am planning for even further away in Aug 2017...lol). The anticipation us great.

 

[princess_jamie]

I bet your dad would be thrilled. Like your dad, my dad also gets credited for starting my Disney addiction. As a child I was glued to the television every time Walt made an appearance. For my high school graduation, dad took me to WDW. Dad has been gone for over 20 years now, so try to make plans with your dad.
Like your sister, I want to do all the rides too. Waiting for the train, Tom Sawyer Island, riverboat and Columbia to open back up.
I agree with you, planning is the best part. Good luck with yours.

Aww, thanks for sharing! That sounds like a great grad gift and I am sure you cherish it so much. It is really important for me to make plans in the next year or so. My sister is trying to convince me to get matching Disney related tattoos to commemorate this trip (she has about 20 tattoos - I have 0) and a part of me wants to just because life is short and why not get matching tattoos with my sister. But then the responsible part of me....... *smh*

 

[princess_jamie]

Love your review. Totally get the loving of the planning. I'm the same (and am planning for even further away in Aug 2017...lol). The anticipation us great.

Holy moly! August is SO far away! I can't imagine!

 

[princess_jamie]

I am so so so bad at writing in this PTR - now I get why so many people say "I was going to write a PTR/TR..." or how it can take so long!

I plan on coming back tonight to write an update on park hours (*finally*) and tentative plans!!

 

[princess_jamie]

Okay! Finally an update!!


Since last week I finally got park hours for our trip (yay!), I have been trying to figure out how to best allocate our park time.


Sunday Dec 4 – DL 8a-12a, DCA 9a-10p
Monday Dec 5 – DL 9a-12a, DCA 10a-9p

Tuesday Dec 6 – DL 9a-12a, DCA 9a-9p
*But we have MM for DL on Tuesday so 8a-12a!


Also, since our last post we have ended up adding on a day, so we will be hitting the parks once we arrive on Saturday Dec 3!! The park is open until midnight. We land at LAX around 11am and I figure we can absolutely be in the parks by 3 or 4pm – we are taking a karmel shuttle to our hotel and then by the time we figure out if we can check in and get lunch, pick up our park tickets, etc then we will head into the parks!


Our goal for Saturday is to watch PTN (so excited!) and see what rides we can get on. I know it’ll be busy that day, so I don’t have too high of expectations. It’ll be great to be able to get bonus time in the parks since we weren’t planning on going Saturday initially.


I’m trying to figure out the best way to plan the next three days. We plan to be at rope drop all three days and want to make sure we see WOC, the fireworks, the Christmas Parade, Mickey and the Magical Map, and ride lots of rides. We aren’t sure if the best approach is to do one full day in DL, one full day in DCA, and one day park hopping, or if we should do a bit of park hopping each day.


I kind of see a couple of different options...


Option A:

Sunday Dec 4 – Rope drop at DL, rides from 8am until our Plaza Inn Breakfast reservation at 1040am, then park hop to DCA after breakfast and spend the day there until WOC (at 9p or 1015 – haven’t decided) and then park hop back to DL after for another hour to two (or go home, but thats unlikely )
Monday Dec 5 – Rope drop at DCA, spend the whole day there until 9pm, and then park hop back over to DL for the last 3 hours
Tuesday Dec 6 – Rope drop at DL and full day at DL


Including the Saturday time spend at Disneyland, this works out to be about 60% of the time at DL, 40% at DCA, even though it seems like we pretty much get two full days at DCA. The downside to this plan though is there is no Mickey and the Magical Map on Tuesday, so we’d either have to do it on Saturday, or change our plans a bit.


Option B:

Sunday Dec 4 – Rope drop at DL, rides from 8am until our Plaza Inn Breakfast reservation at 1040am, then park hop to DCA after breakfast until mid afternoon, park hop back to DL for Mickey and the Magical Map around 415pm, and then park hop after back to DCA for WOC (again, either9pm or 1015pm)
Monday Dec 5 – Rope drop at DCA, spend the whole day there until 9pm, and then park hop back over to DL for the last 3 hours
Tuesday Dec 6 – Rope drop at DL and full day at DL


This works out to about 65% of our time at DL and 35% of our time at DCA.

Option C:

Sunday Dec 4 – Rope drop at DL, ride rides for a few hours, see Mickey and the Magical Map's first showing, then park hop to DCA for the afternoon and WOC
Monday Dec 5 – Plaza Inn Breakfast at DL at 840a, then head to DCA for opening at 10a (not likely we'd line up for rope drop but as soon as we are done breakfast we'd head there)
Tuesday Dec 6 – Rope drop at DL and full day at DL

We still have two Plaza Inn breakfast times so it gives us a few options. I am so torn! I know I will get there and be like.. plans.. what plans! But I feel like if I can make a good strategy that would be really helpful and would make it easier to stick to a plan. I can't believe we leave a month tomorrow!! Ahh!!

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Just some things to consider:
Candlelight Processional (DL's Christmas pageant) will take place 12/3&4, 2 shows each night (5:30pm and 7:45, I think). The show takes place in front of the train station in Town Square. This means the Town Square area, the train station, and part of Main Street will be either taken up by seating, lighting, sound equipment, etc. If you want to see the show (highly recommend it!), get there early to line up for a good spot. If you want to skip the show, you might want to enter DL via the Monorail to skip the main entrance area congestion. The Monorial will drop you off in Tomorrowland.
Try to see fireworks early in your visit. It is fairly common for the show to be cancelled due to winds at higher elevations (so you might feel not even a breeze on the ground, but the show could still be cancelled). If you try on one of your first days and the show gets cancelled, you still have other chances to try again. WOC hardly ever gets cancelled.
Park hopping is so easy at DLR, and FPs are not linked between the 2 parks, so you could hold FPs for 2 rides simultaneously (one in each park). I think you'll find yourself going back and forth between the parks more often than you expect.
Don't stress too much about all the planning! Even during peak times, DLR is much more relaxed than WDW. I would suggest making PS (Priority Seating) reservations for any TS restaurants you really want to try (e.g. Blue Bayou). That way you won't have to worry about getting a table at the place you want, at the time you want.
As for tattoos, there is a kiosk in DtD that does henna tattoos and lots of shops carry temporary Disney tattoos for kids. Maybe one of those options will work out.
Your trip sounds like so much fun! Make sure to come back with a post TR!

 

[princess_jamie]

Thanks!!

I think we will absolutely aim for fireworks the first night just to give us time.

Great tip about the monorail! That is a good option. I can never remember that you can hold FP at the same time for both parks! It seems like a lot of bouncing around, but it is so close its hard not to.