tinker-kyle
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2005
a family of wdw veterans is about to take on DL for the first time ....
cast ...
me "the mom" - planner, coordinator, time-keeping, restaurant reviewer, unoffical guidereader, and general "knower of all things"
"the dad" - really a big kid with a huge appetite for all things disney. runs on the cheapskate side of the fence except with disney then he's "mickey bars for everybody" i can live with that
and
"the kid" 7 1/2 year old girl - #1 tinkerbell fan and a ruthless souvnier shopper (she's allowed $10 per day -- thats saved from birthday/holiday $$. she can save up for something but cant borrow from the kitty) very very excited about the "pixie dust" at the DLH rooms hope she's not disapponted
day one
we had arrived in san diego late friday nite (2/11) and after a weekend with family in mission viejo we were on our way to DL (2/14) we had heard dire predictions about freeway traffic so we were on our way at 6:45 am (wasnt bad b/c we were still on NY time) we arrived at DLH after a ridiculous quick ride (26 minutes!) we checked in and told our room was ready and were unpacking by 7:45am! things were off to a fabulous start ... our room was in the main building on the 11th floor (2912) and overlooked the pools and if you turned your head just so could see the sorcerers mickeys hat and the begininngs of DTD. yes there was pixie dust and tinkerbell wallpaper border ... room seemed clean (more on this later), we did notice knob was missing from a dresser and wallpaper border was peeling a little ... but we were happy
weather forecast for the week was not good ... today was to be our only dry day ... so we hot footed over to DL. grabbed two bagels and two chocolate milks at la brea bakery on the way in (this cost $10 and change it was $2.50 each for 1/2 pt of milk!) for got to use my 10% coupon (bummer!)
we arrived at the DL gate at about 8:45 -- going to use our EE
we're less than 10 people back from the gate b/c it is lincolns birthday and valentines day - parks are supposed to be relatively crowded but we were more worried about the rain than the people so we burned the EE.
we headed straight to fantasyland with two pit stops for photographs (DL photographers are fantastic about taking photos with guests cameras -- they dont do this at WDW. just about every photographer at DL offered to take a shot with our own camera. weird because of that i did not buy any "offical" park photos)
we shared a chuckle with our jaded WDW child who was shocked about the size of the castle ... cinderellas castle it is not ... but it definitely grew on us during the next few days)
finally got to our first ride ... peter pan with no wait
now we LOVE peter pan ( have that whole tinkerbell thing going) we were expecting a ride on par with peter pan at WDW -- imagine our surprise DL's peter pan was SO MUCH ... better ... the whole ride was better. skull rock, the volcano that looks like its made from tin foil at wdw, the marmaid lagoon, and the stars!! the stars rocked !!! its hard to explain but trust me ... its better.
next we went on mr toad (no wait) mr toad is long gone from wdw so it was kids first ride ... she liked it except for the hot part ... ride was okay - not reallyed missed at WDW.
next was dumbo ... again no wait
dumbo was dumbo except for some reason hubby and i thought it was a tad zippier than wdw ... go figure.
onto the matterhorn ... waited about 15 minutes
great ride ... my kind of simple rollercoaster that even wimps enjoy
we then hit alice in wonderland with about 5 minute wait ... we didnt love it or hate it ... nothing spectacular.
it was now 10am (just) and park was offically open ... we were on first boat thro storyland .. enjoyed this a lot ... the details are amazing ... loved looking at the bonzai trees and appreciated whoever had the patience to keep it looking so great.
we headed over to toontown for morning madness ... had a coupon as part of our wdtc package ... the ceremony started at 10:20 so we still had time for roger rabbit ... again no wait ... this was a fun ride ... but wow the queue is long! even with no one on line it took us 5 minutes to walk the length of the queue ... very deceiving you could potentially wait a VERY long time on that line.
we played a few minutes outside roger rabbit after the ride ...cant remember if the area had a name but there was a fake jail and you could ring the silly doorbells, cute diversion. time for the "ceremony" there was avery quick parade of the main charcters (mickey, minnie, goofy, donald, pluto) and a few cm with flags ... the danced and waved from mickey's the city hall. mickey made a "speech" and then everyone was "sworn in" as toontown citizens -- one family was chosen "offical" family and recieved some extra goodies (no i dont know how they got picked - sorry) the CMs handed out buttons to everyone ... and then characters headed back to their houses for autographs.... we skipped the short lines for autopgraphs and headed to gadget go-coaster (no line) and rode that once ... seems exactly like barnstormer at wdw ... a fun little coaster in both places. i like the goofy theming better at wdw but gadgetw as cute too. we explored chip and dales treehouse, then saw that mickey was all alone, got his autograph and a few pix and then checked out his house... different that his wdw house ... and his kitchen wasnt under construction like at wdw b/c he didnt have a kitchen (maybe i'm remembering this wrong) otherwise it was a fine house. we didnt go back to his dressing room b/c we met him outside
we then checked out donald's boat and goofy's bounce house ... kid liked bounce house ... dont have this at wdw ... she bounces twice with no wait ... i imagine this could be a nightmare on a busy day
we headed over to BTMRR ...with a quick stop to see some goats and a cow at little piece of heaven (cute, but we were on a mission)
wait for BTMRR was 30 minutes ... we grabbed a FP and headed to pirates. rode with a 10-15 minute wait (both lines were open -- if you have a choice get on the right line - the right line seemed to about a boatful shorter than the left line) now pirates at DL is way better than pirates at wdw ... loved the bayou and the fireflies ... its longer and spookier and has two drops (i hate drops but these are for wimps like me) ... much more skeletons at DL ... the whole skeleton hideout in the caves with the treasure before you get to the living pirates ... ride is longer and just way way better.
on our way out we overheard that BB was booked ... for walk-ins ... it was about lunchtime. we stopped at the "stagedoor" for lunch of chix fingers, mozzerella stix, and fish and chips ... we got a small order of each and a bunch of "dips" to go with ... fish and mozzerella were great ... chix was nothing special ... we had frozen water bottles so we skipped drinks ... lunch was about $25 even without ...
time to use FP for BTMRR ... kid's favorite ride.... stand-by time was up to 40 minutes so FP was great ... overheard someone asking how much FP cost ... (heh heh) ride itself was great and by the end of our week we decided that it was better than wdw ... slightly longer and more to see ....
after BTMRR ... we headed out of DL it was about 2pm and we wanted to get a swim in before the forecasted rains ... we went out DL and thru CA ... made a beeline for grizzly river rapids ... figuring if we were on our way back to hotel to swim we might as well get soaked ... waited 10 minutes ... and surprise-surprise did NOT get soaked ( i have a history with these type rides --- if someone is going to get wet it is going to be me ... but (hurray) it wasnt me) whole family stayed pretty dry ... two sisters (7 and 12) got pretty wet as well as another family of three who was splashed but not soaked ... after river rapids we ducked thru GC hotel and walked back to DLH via DTD. quick walk
the dad and the kid swam awhile ... it was only in the 60's not my idea of swim weather but they were happy... rode the skull rock slide a bunch wanted to go in the spa but it was closed b/c someone pooped in it in (chatty lifeguard told us -- gross! meanwhile there was like 200 signs saying swim diapers were required)
we went back to room about 4pm ... changed for 5:50 PS at goofy's kitchen.. before dinner we walked the waterfall and koi ponds ... this area is really cool and should not be missed ... fantasy water fountain is a mess ... couldnt tell if they were repairing or dismantaling ... stayed that way all week
a few things about dinner at goofy's kitchen ... expensive!!
$86. for the three of us ... but it did include tax and tip
there was a lot of food ... but a lot of it was just fair
we really like the roast beef carving, marshed potatoes, and the heart shaped ravoli (valentines day remember) dessert (except for choc chip cookies) were pretty "eh"
kid enjoyed ice cream though and (horrible people that we are) we took two cookies "to-go." we ended up getting a little bit of a lot of things just to taste.
individual character interaction was pretty quick and routine (autograph, pix, hug, wave) but they had all the kids come up to dance ... which our kid loved ... she danced with goofy (the marcarne (sp?) and the pots and pan song from tarzan all the kids got plastic ware to bang on (very cute)
there was something wrong with the character rotation that nite b/c we had goofy and alice twice and timon once ... but never rakiki, mulan, chip and dale ... i actually grabbed the manager and asked what was up (nicely) ... he was politely concerned and sent rakiki and mulan into our room pretty promptly ... he was surprised that the others had been twice b/c they shouldnt have been ... this was after about an hour and if you ever been to these character things you know that they all should hit every section (it wasnt just our table ... they skipped the whole room) manager came back later and aplogized that chip and dale were out collecting acorns ... it wasnt a big deal. we still had a nice time ... but i wouldnt recommend if your on a budget. (btw ... very similar to chef's mickey at wdw through i'd never been to chef mickeys for dinner)
after dinner ... we headed over to DTD
kid wanted to have her hair wrapped ... her favorite souvnier ...we broke the rules and let her have her full amount of $$ on the first day ... hair wrap is $1.50 per inch which cost her $20 (shoulder length) and then she spent another $8. on the bead part of the wrap ($28. down and $32. to go)
after the wrap we walked around and checked out some menus ... the whole place was packed with couples ... line out the door at the jazz kitchen
we loved the whole DTD atmosphere ... they were always playing great music ... little kids dancing in the street. we never have spent much time at DTD at WDW ... its sorta out of the way ... loved the convenience of DTD at DL and b/c of that we thought it was way better than wdw (though DTD at wdw is much bigger ... but that doesnt necessarily mean better, right?)
oh as a valentines present to ourselves we bought "happy hands" at the massage both ... cool little plastic massage helpers.
by now ... we're all beat through it wasnt even 9pm
we were up early and out all day ... plus the whole time change thing.
we headed back to DLH and listened to some gloomy weather forecasts about huge pacfic storms and torrential rain for the rest of the week (yikes)
fell asleep watching the resort tv channel ... and forgot to check if the pixie dust wallpaper glowed
cast ...
me "the mom" - planner, coordinator, time-keeping, restaurant reviewer, unoffical guidereader, and general "knower of all things"
"the dad" - really a big kid with a huge appetite for all things disney. runs on the cheapskate side of the fence except with disney then he's "mickey bars for everybody" i can live with that
and
"the kid" 7 1/2 year old girl - #1 tinkerbell fan and a ruthless souvnier shopper (she's allowed $10 per day -- thats saved from birthday/holiday $$. she can save up for something but cant borrow from the kitty) very very excited about the "pixie dust" at the DLH rooms hope she's not disapponted
day one
we had arrived in san diego late friday nite (2/11) and after a weekend with family in mission viejo we were on our way to DL (2/14) we had heard dire predictions about freeway traffic so we were on our way at 6:45 am (wasnt bad b/c we were still on NY time) we arrived at DLH after a ridiculous quick ride (26 minutes!) we checked in and told our room was ready and were unpacking by 7:45am! things were off to a fabulous start ... our room was in the main building on the 11th floor (2912) and overlooked the pools and if you turned your head just so could see the sorcerers mickeys hat and the begininngs of DTD. yes there was pixie dust and tinkerbell wallpaper border ... room seemed clean (more on this later), we did notice knob was missing from a dresser and wallpaper border was peeling a little ... but we were happy
weather forecast for the week was not good ... today was to be our only dry day ... so we hot footed over to DL. grabbed two bagels and two chocolate milks at la brea bakery on the way in (this cost $10 and change it was $2.50 each for 1/2 pt of milk!) for got to use my 10% coupon (bummer!)
we arrived at the DL gate at about 8:45 -- going to use our EE
we're less than 10 people back from the gate b/c it is lincolns birthday and valentines day - parks are supposed to be relatively crowded but we were more worried about the rain than the people so we burned the EE.
we headed straight to fantasyland with two pit stops for photographs (DL photographers are fantastic about taking photos with guests cameras -- they dont do this at WDW. just about every photographer at DL offered to take a shot with our own camera. weird because of that i did not buy any "offical" park photos)
we shared a chuckle with our jaded WDW child who was shocked about the size of the castle ... cinderellas castle it is not ... but it definitely grew on us during the next few days)
finally got to our first ride ... peter pan with no wait
now we LOVE peter pan ( have that whole tinkerbell thing going) we were expecting a ride on par with peter pan at WDW -- imagine our surprise DL's peter pan was SO MUCH ... better ... the whole ride was better. skull rock, the volcano that looks like its made from tin foil at wdw, the marmaid lagoon, and the stars!! the stars rocked !!! its hard to explain but trust me ... its better.
next we went on mr toad (no wait) mr toad is long gone from wdw so it was kids first ride ... she liked it except for the hot part ... ride was okay - not reallyed missed at WDW.
next was dumbo ... again no wait
dumbo was dumbo except for some reason hubby and i thought it was a tad zippier than wdw ... go figure.
onto the matterhorn ... waited about 15 minutes
great ride ... my kind of simple rollercoaster that even wimps enjoy
we then hit alice in wonderland with about 5 minute wait ... we didnt love it or hate it ... nothing spectacular.
it was now 10am (just) and park was offically open ... we were on first boat thro storyland .. enjoyed this a lot ... the details are amazing ... loved looking at the bonzai trees and appreciated whoever had the patience to keep it looking so great.
we headed over to toontown for morning madness ... had a coupon as part of our wdtc package ... the ceremony started at 10:20 so we still had time for roger rabbit ... again no wait ... this was a fun ride ... but wow the queue is long! even with no one on line it took us 5 minutes to walk the length of the queue ... very deceiving you could potentially wait a VERY long time on that line.
we played a few minutes outside roger rabbit after the ride ...cant remember if the area had a name but there was a fake jail and you could ring the silly doorbells, cute diversion. time for the "ceremony" there was avery quick parade of the main charcters (mickey, minnie, goofy, donald, pluto) and a few cm with flags ... the danced and waved from mickey's the city hall. mickey made a "speech" and then everyone was "sworn in" as toontown citizens -- one family was chosen "offical" family and recieved some extra goodies (no i dont know how they got picked - sorry) the CMs handed out buttons to everyone ... and then characters headed back to their houses for autographs.... we skipped the short lines for autopgraphs and headed to gadget go-coaster (no line) and rode that once ... seems exactly like barnstormer at wdw ... a fun little coaster in both places. i like the goofy theming better at wdw but gadgetw as cute too. we explored chip and dales treehouse, then saw that mickey was all alone, got his autograph and a few pix and then checked out his house... different that his wdw house ... and his kitchen wasnt under construction like at wdw b/c he didnt have a kitchen (maybe i'm remembering this wrong) otherwise it was a fine house. we didnt go back to his dressing room b/c we met him outside
we then checked out donald's boat and goofy's bounce house ... kid liked bounce house ... dont have this at wdw ... she bounces twice with no wait ... i imagine this could be a nightmare on a busy day
we headed over to BTMRR ...with a quick stop to see some goats and a cow at little piece of heaven (cute, but we were on a mission)
wait for BTMRR was 30 minutes ... we grabbed a FP and headed to pirates. rode with a 10-15 minute wait (both lines were open -- if you have a choice get on the right line - the right line seemed to about a boatful shorter than the left line) now pirates at DL is way better than pirates at wdw ... loved the bayou and the fireflies ... its longer and spookier and has two drops (i hate drops but these are for wimps like me) ... much more skeletons at DL ... the whole skeleton hideout in the caves with the treasure before you get to the living pirates ... ride is longer and just way way better.
on our way out we overheard that BB was booked ... for walk-ins ... it was about lunchtime. we stopped at the "stagedoor" for lunch of chix fingers, mozzerella stix, and fish and chips ... we got a small order of each and a bunch of "dips" to go with ... fish and mozzerella were great ... chix was nothing special ... we had frozen water bottles so we skipped drinks ... lunch was about $25 even without ...
time to use FP for BTMRR ... kid's favorite ride.... stand-by time was up to 40 minutes so FP was great ... overheard someone asking how much FP cost ... (heh heh) ride itself was great and by the end of our week we decided that it was better than wdw ... slightly longer and more to see ....
after BTMRR ... we headed out of DL it was about 2pm and we wanted to get a swim in before the forecasted rains ... we went out DL and thru CA ... made a beeline for grizzly river rapids ... figuring if we were on our way back to hotel to swim we might as well get soaked ... waited 10 minutes ... and surprise-surprise did NOT get soaked ( i have a history with these type rides --- if someone is going to get wet it is going to be me ... but (hurray) it wasnt me) whole family stayed pretty dry ... two sisters (7 and 12) got pretty wet as well as another family of three who was splashed but not soaked ... after river rapids we ducked thru GC hotel and walked back to DLH via DTD. quick walk
the dad and the kid swam awhile ... it was only in the 60's not my idea of swim weather but they were happy... rode the skull rock slide a bunch wanted to go in the spa but it was closed b/c someone pooped in it in (chatty lifeguard told us -- gross! meanwhile there was like 200 signs saying swim diapers were required)
we went back to room about 4pm ... changed for 5:50 PS at goofy's kitchen.. before dinner we walked the waterfall and koi ponds ... this area is really cool and should not be missed ... fantasy water fountain is a mess ... couldnt tell if they were repairing or dismantaling ... stayed that way all week
a few things about dinner at goofy's kitchen ... expensive!!
$86. for the three of us ... but it did include tax and tip
there was a lot of food ... but a lot of it was just fair
we really like the roast beef carving, marshed potatoes, and the heart shaped ravoli (valentines day remember) dessert (except for choc chip cookies) were pretty "eh"
kid enjoyed ice cream though and (horrible people that we are) we took two cookies "to-go." we ended up getting a little bit of a lot of things just to taste.
individual character interaction was pretty quick and routine (autograph, pix, hug, wave) but they had all the kids come up to dance ... which our kid loved ... she danced with goofy (the marcarne (sp?) and the pots and pan song from tarzan all the kids got plastic ware to bang on (very cute)
there was something wrong with the character rotation that nite b/c we had goofy and alice twice and timon once ... but never rakiki, mulan, chip and dale ... i actually grabbed the manager and asked what was up (nicely) ... he was politely concerned and sent rakiki and mulan into our room pretty promptly ... he was surprised that the others had been twice b/c they shouldnt have been ... this was after about an hour and if you ever been to these character things you know that they all should hit every section (it wasnt just our table ... they skipped the whole room) manager came back later and aplogized that chip and dale were out collecting acorns ... it wasnt a big deal. we still had a nice time ... but i wouldnt recommend if your on a budget. (btw ... very similar to chef's mickey at wdw through i'd never been to chef mickeys for dinner)
after dinner ... we headed over to DTD
kid wanted to have her hair wrapped ... her favorite souvnier ...we broke the rules and let her have her full amount of $$ on the first day ... hair wrap is $1.50 per inch which cost her $20 (shoulder length) and then she spent another $8. on the bead part of the wrap ($28. down and $32. to go)
after the wrap we walked around and checked out some menus ... the whole place was packed with couples ... line out the door at the jazz kitchen
we loved the whole DTD atmosphere ... they were always playing great music ... little kids dancing in the street. we never have spent much time at DTD at WDW ... its sorta out of the way ... loved the convenience of DTD at DL and b/c of that we thought it was way better than wdw (though DTD at wdw is much bigger ... but that doesnt necessarily mean better, right?)
oh as a valentines present to ourselves we bought "happy hands" at the massage both ... cool little plastic massage helpers.
by now ... we're all beat through it wasnt even 9pm
we were up early and out all day ... plus the whole time change thing.
we headed back to DLH and listened to some gloomy weather forecasts about huge pacfic storms and torrential rain for the rest of the week (yikes)
fell asleep watching the resort tv channel ... and forgot to check if the pixie dust wallpaper glowed
