GreyTami
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2017
Disneyland 2021 Recap
In parks Thursday, August 19 and Friday, August 20, 2021 with park hopper
Hi all! I wanted to provide our trip recap, which may be helpful especially if you are a newbie at DL (we frequent DW a few times a year but this was our first trip to DL). A few background items: traveled from East Coast to West Coast on Wednesday, August 18. Just two of us on this trip, me (middle-aged mom who thinks she’s still 25) and kid (8yo boy who thinks he’s 25
).
Airport - flew into SNA, landed around 7pm. Airport appears relatively small, easy to get out of airport and to restroom and to ride share pickup area. Used Lyft, with a stop for pickup at Target (yes, we are those people that order a case of water and snacks, Target was right down Harbor from our hotel, ordered ahead of time with drive up pickup, took 5-10 minutes for the stop). Cost of Lyft with tip was $36. Got in Lyft around 7:20p, to hotel on Harbor around 8pm. Ordered Door Dash on way to hotel as we were tired and hungry for more than snacks, driver met us as we arrived in hotel lobby. We were in our room eating and relaxing by 8:15pm. All good!
Hotel - I debated and debated about this, but ultimately chose Homewood Suites - near Convention Center. I have Hilton status from work travel (not that it did me any good here), and wanted the points (now you can see how I sucked my husband into DVC - it’s points!). Room was reasonably priced (1BR suite with living room area and full kitchen - I mean the water has to be cold!) was $535 for three nights, and located near an ART shuttle stop and the Toy Story parking lot (more on that below). Hotel has big pool and jacuzzi, putting green (with clubs you can checkout) and basketball court. We didn’t use any of these amenities, but it was nice to know they were there if we wanted to use them. Went back to the room midday both days, close enough to do that and not lose a ton of time. All in all, happy with the selection.
ART Shuttle - I wasn’t sure how/if we would use the shuttle, so on Thursday morning we walked half a block to the Toy Story lot and used the DL shuttle. This was fine for our first morning (we were excited and didn’t mind the walk), but I knew at the end of the night we would not want to make that walk. Midday Thursday we took a Lyft from DL back to hotel around 2:30 or 3pm (we started at 8:30am), and it was $16 including tip. I didn’t mind paying this, but thought it would be more expensive in mornings and at park close, so didn’t want to do this too many times either. When we were ready to return Thursday evening around 5:30pm, I stopped by the front desk and they had the QR code for the ART shuttle handy, and said the stop was one hotel down the street (half a block the other direction). I downloaded the app, which after registering then prompts you to download a second app to purchase tickets. All in all, 15 minutes later we had tickets and were walking down to the bus stop. Price for a 1 day pass, 1 adult and 1 child was $8.50 (a bargain!). On the same side of the street as the Homewood Suites, there are two easy ART stops - one near the Best Western Raffles (next to Homewood Suites, which we used) and one near the stop light at the Toy Story parking lot (we didn’t use this one). The ART app tracks time of arriving buses, but I found the times to be estimates at best, not actual trackers (hello DW shuttles!). When you arrive at Disneyland, make sure your driver tells you what stop to get back on to go back to your hotel, ours was number 3). From Thursday evening on, we exclusively used ART and were generally happy and would use again. Heads up, there were a few homeless folks sleeping behind the bus stop, never really spoke or acknowledged anyone, but it made my kid ask a few questions on the bus ride so be prepared to answer if you haven’t had these conversations before (we have at a high level, but he doesn’t see many homeless people at home so we did talk about it on the first ART ride as well).
Day 1 - Disneyland - We started at Disneyland, and it was amazing! The train is running, which was awesome to see walking in since DW’s is out of commission due to Tron. When the CM scanned our tickets, she also took our photos (with masks on), and gave us hard copy tickets as well (not sure what this was for, we never used them - perhaps Photo Pass? We didn’t have it). As we walked around the corner into the park Cruella (!) was standing there, and then there were all of the characters lining the center steps of the train station. Very exciting. We hopped on the fire truck (our driver and fellow passengers were great), and rode the fire truck down Main Street. I couldn’t believe this was a thing, and it made my heart so happy
. We took photos of the castle, it is small compared to DW, I knew this, but it looks like a mini, and then we literally just walked and rode. Everyone who says DL is more compact is not kidding! I loved being able to just wander (we didn’t get a map), not have my phone out worried about Fast Passes, and ride whatever we happened upon. Lines were short compared to DW (especially in this COVID era), I don’t think we waited more than 15-20 minutes all day other than ROR, so we hit quite a few rides this day. List is Big Thunder Mountain (my kid was especially happy that DL also had this ride), Buzz Lightyear, Tarzan’s Treehouse, Winnie the Pooh, Splash Mountain, Dumbo, Matterhorn (this was one of my faves), Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (man I have missed this ride!), Pinocchio, Pirates of the Caribbean (SO much better then DW), Star Tours, Millennium Falcon (we were gunners and had good pilots and a great ride) and Rise of the Resistance (more below). We ate lunch at Blue Bayou, fun experience but it was very dark inside. Probably a one and done for me, but my kid ate two steaks (I mean, three strips of steak, come on!). We also ate ice cream from Main Street (mobile order) and shopped (and shipped it all home so we don’t have to carry anything!). Corn dogs at the end of the night capped it all off (also a fun quick conversation with a lovely woman that had a Club 33 bag, I told her the bag made me jealous and she said it was her first time and she bought everything, even ears and she doesn’t wear ears - good for you!).
Day 2 - California Adventure (AM to early PM), Disneyland (Evening PM) - Entrance to CA was quick since we took photos the day before. Walking in it was reminiscent of Hollywood Studios, but again in mini form. Not bad or good, just different. Again, no map, we just wandered. Lines were longer here, average of 20-30 minutes that were really 25-40. We went to the right and hit Soarin first, this is one of my faves and the photographs of all of the aircraft in line were very cool. Also rode/saw Web Slingers (more below), Spiderman Outdoor show, Mater’s Junkyard, Radiator Springs Racers (so good!), Grizzly River Run, Goofy’s Sky School and Toy Story Midway Mania. Food was hot dogs while we walked and treats at Ghirardelli. Pixar Pier was hot midday so we went back to the hotel. When we returned to DL around 6pm, we had a reservation to build a droid and also a boarding group for ROR. ROR was down, so we built the droid first. I have to say, my kid was SO excited about this and seemed to enjoy it, but to me this was the fastest $100 I have ever spent. Little interaction with cast members other than checkout, basically pick your parts, follow the directions on a preprinted guide and put it together yourself, CM checked it and boxed it. 15 minutes at most. But they shipped it home for us
. After the droid, we rode ROR, Millennium Falcon (pilots this time, that was a dumpster fire), Matterhorn, It’s a Small World (SO much better than DW) and Tea Cups, and also shot at the Frontierland gun arcade thing (my kid begged me to do this and he loved it). Capped off the night with a Mickey pretzel.
ROR - Day 1 missed the 7am attempt so thought all hope was lost. Was at lunch at 12pm and missed the attempt and thought all hope was lost. Saw I could still join queue at 12:40pm when I remembered in line for Pirates and received 288. Knew this was a slim chance but a chance nonetheless. We boarded at 8:07pm. We have been able to ride once in Florida, and we were both excited to ride again. Awesome as usual, but we waited 30-45 minutes once our group was called, so actually rode a little before 9pm. Day 2 got lucky and received early Web Slingers number so knew we could try to ride again with 12pm virtual queue. Forgot again (I mean, really, what is wrong with me?!?), and tried around 12:30pm, received 255. We boarded at 7:02pm (after ROR technical issues around 6pm). No line and walked right on. One comment - CM walking through with broom and dust pan when were transferring - made me giggle!
Web Slingers - Day 2 - We had no idea what to expect, but this was a pretty fun ride. Had number 55 and boarded around 10am. Line took 30-45 minutes, so rode around 11am. Quite an upper arm workout, and I (mom) won vs. the other three in our ride vehicle! Victory!!! The kid hates it when that happens
Fireworks - I should disclose that I LOVE DW fireworks. Cry every time. My husband laughs at me and I still cry happy tears. My preferred view is from California Grill, but don’t mind in park either. I just need the music and the fireworks, I can watch the projections at home where I can actually see them. We could hear the fireworks from DL Wednesday night from our hotel room, but didn’t go outside to try and see them. On Thursday, we had just finished ROR and saw them from Star Wars while walking towards Frontierland. Not impressive, very loud and very nearby, very short (10 mins) and no music that we heard. I was like, ok, we will not worry about this tomorrow (Fri) night. Friday night, we were riding Small World around 8:45p and I remembered that people said you can see projections on the building. I hoped we would be done in time to check them out if they were happening, and they were! We walked out with about 2 minutes to spare and sat down to watch. This was so nice compared to DW where everyone thinks they can just walk up and stand in front of you - everyone was seated and waiting calmly to watch - loved it! Let me say, the soundtrack, so high energy, up beat, fantastic! We were wiggling our seated booties and singing, it as so awesome!!!!! I don’t know if this is normal and we just didn’t hear the music on Thursday or if Friday was something different since it was a weekend crowd, but we both LOVED IT
We are off to the beach for a few days now, until next time … thanks for all the great tips from this group - I may not take them all but having the information helped greatly!
In parks Thursday, August 19 and Friday, August 20, 2021 with park hopper
Hi all! I wanted to provide our trip recap, which may be helpful especially if you are a newbie at DL (we frequent DW a few times a year but this was our first trip to DL). A few background items: traveled from East Coast to West Coast on Wednesday, August 18. Just two of us on this trip, me (middle-aged mom who thinks she’s still 25) and kid (8yo boy who thinks he’s 25
).Airport - flew into SNA, landed around 7pm. Airport appears relatively small, easy to get out of airport and to restroom and to ride share pickup area. Used Lyft, with a stop for pickup at Target (yes, we are those people that order a case of water and snacks, Target was right down Harbor from our hotel, ordered ahead of time with drive up pickup, took 5-10 minutes for the stop). Cost of Lyft with tip was $36. Got in Lyft around 7:20p, to hotel on Harbor around 8pm. Ordered Door Dash on way to hotel as we were tired and hungry for more than snacks, driver met us as we arrived in hotel lobby. We were in our room eating and relaxing by 8:15pm. All good!
Hotel - I debated and debated about this, but ultimately chose Homewood Suites - near Convention Center. I have Hilton status from work travel (not that it did me any good here), and wanted the points (now you can see how I sucked my husband into DVC - it’s points!). Room was reasonably priced (1BR suite with living room area and full kitchen - I mean the water has to be cold!) was $535 for three nights, and located near an ART shuttle stop and the Toy Story parking lot (more on that below). Hotel has big pool and jacuzzi, putting green (with clubs you can checkout) and basketball court. We didn’t use any of these amenities, but it was nice to know they were there if we wanted to use them. Went back to the room midday both days, close enough to do that and not lose a ton of time. All in all, happy with the selection.
ART Shuttle - I wasn’t sure how/if we would use the shuttle, so on Thursday morning we walked half a block to the Toy Story lot and used the DL shuttle. This was fine for our first morning (we were excited and didn’t mind the walk), but I knew at the end of the night we would not want to make that walk. Midday Thursday we took a Lyft from DL back to hotel around 2:30 or 3pm (we started at 8:30am), and it was $16 including tip. I didn’t mind paying this, but thought it would be more expensive in mornings and at park close, so didn’t want to do this too many times either. When we were ready to return Thursday evening around 5:30pm, I stopped by the front desk and they had the QR code for the ART shuttle handy, and said the stop was one hotel down the street (half a block the other direction). I downloaded the app, which after registering then prompts you to download a second app to purchase tickets. All in all, 15 minutes later we had tickets and were walking down to the bus stop. Price for a 1 day pass, 1 adult and 1 child was $8.50 (a bargain!). On the same side of the street as the Homewood Suites, there are two easy ART stops - one near the Best Western Raffles (next to Homewood Suites, which we used) and one near the stop light at the Toy Story parking lot (we didn’t use this one). The ART app tracks time of arriving buses, but I found the times to be estimates at best, not actual trackers (hello DW shuttles!). When you arrive at Disneyland, make sure your driver tells you what stop to get back on to go back to your hotel, ours was number 3). From Thursday evening on, we exclusively used ART and were generally happy and would use again. Heads up, there were a few homeless folks sleeping behind the bus stop, never really spoke or acknowledged anyone, but it made my kid ask a few questions on the bus ride so be prepared to answer if you haven’t had these conversations before (we have at a high level, but he doesn’t see many homeless people at home so we did talk about it on the first ART ride as well).
Day 1 - Disneyland - We started at Disneyland, and it was amazing! The train is running, which was awesome to see walking in since DW’s is out of commission due to Tron. When the CM scanned our tickets, she also took our photos (with masks on), and gave us hard copy tickets as well (not sure what this was for, we never used them - perhaps Photo Pass? We didn’t have it). As we walked around the corner into the park Cruella (!) was standing there, and then there were all of the characters lining the center steps of the train station. Very exciting. We hopped on the fire truck (our driver and fellow passengers were great), and rode the fire truck down Main Street. I couldn’t believe this was a thing, and it made my heart so happy
. We took photos of the castle, it is small compared to DW, I knew this, but it looks like a mini, and then we literally just walked and rode. Everyone who says DL is more compact is not kidding! I loved being able to just wander (we didn’t get a map), not have my phone out worried about Fast Passes, and ride whatever we happened upon. Lines were short compared to DW (especially in this COVID era), I don’t think we waited more than 15-20 minutes all day other than ROR, so we hit quite a few rides this day. List is Big Thunder Mountain (my kid was especially happy that DL also had this ride), Buzz Lightyear, Tarzan’s Treehouse, Winnie the Pooh, Splash Mountain, Dumbo, Matterhorn (this was one of my faves), Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (man I have missed this ride!), Pinocchio, Pirates of the Caribbean (SO much better then DW), Star Tours, Millennium Falcon (we were gunners and had good pilots and a great ride) and Rise of the Resistance (more below). We ate lunch at Blue Bayou, fun experience but it was very dark inside. Probably a one and done for me, but my kid ate two steaks (I mean, three strips of steak, come on!). We also ate ice cream from Main Street (mobile order) and shopped (and shipped it all home so we don’t have to carry anything!). Corn dogs at the end of the night capped it all off (also a fun quick conversation with a lovely woman that had a Club 33 bag, I told her the bag made me jealous and she said it was her first time and she bought everything, even ears and she doesn’t wear ears - good for you!). Day 2 - California Adventure (AM to early PM), Disneyland (Evening PM) - Entrance to CA was quick since we took photos the day before. Walking in it was reminiscent of Hollywood Studios, but again in mini form. Not bad or good, just different. Again, no map, we just wandered. Lines were longer here, average of 20-30 minutes that were really 25-40. We went to the right and hit Soarin first, this is one of my faves and the photographs of all of the aircraft in line were very cool. Also rode/saw Web Slingers (more below), Spiderman Outdoor show, Mater’s Junkyard, Radiator Springs Racers (so good!), Grizzly River Run, Goofy’s Sky School and Toy Story Midway Mania. Food was hot dogs while we walked and treats at Ghirardelli. Pixar Pier was hot midday so we went back to the hotel. When we returned to DL around 6pm, we had a reservation to build a droid and also a boarding group for ROR. ROR was down, so we built the droid first. I have to say, my kid was SO excited about this and seemed to enjoy it, but to me this was the fastest $100 I have ever spent. Little interaction with cast members other than checkout, basically pick your parts, follow the directions on a preprinted guide and put it together yourself, CM checked it and boxed it. 15 minutes at most. But they shipped it home for us
. After the droid, we rode ROR, Millennium Falcon (pilots this time, that was a dumpster fire), Matterhorn, It’s a Small World (SO much better than DW) and Tea Cups, and also shot at the Frontierland gun arcade thing (my kid begged me to do this and he loved it). Capped off the night with a Mickey pretzel. ROR - Day 1 missed the 7am attempt so thought all hope was lost. Was at lunch at 12pm and missed the attempt and thought all hope was lost. Saw I could still join queue at 12:40pm when I remembered in line for Pirates and received 288. Knew this was a slim chance but a chance nonetheless. We boarded at 8:07pm. We have been able to ride once in Florida, and we were both excited to ride again. Awesome as usual, but we waited 30-45 minutes once our group was called, so actually rode a little before 9pm. Day 2 got lucky and received early Web Slingers number so knew we could try to ride again with 12pm virtual queue. Forgot again (I mean, really, what is wrong with me?!?), and tried around 12:30pm, received 255. We boarded at 7:02pm (after ROR technical issues around 6pm). No line and walked right on. One comment - CM walking through with broom and dust pan when were transferring - made me giggle!
Web Slingers - Day 2 - We had no idea what to expect, but this was a pretty fun ride. Had number 55 and boarded around 10am. Line took 30-45 minutes, so rode around 11am. Quite an upper arm workout, and I (mom) won vs. the other three in our ride vehicle! Victory!!! The kid hates it when that happens
Fireworks - I should disclose that I LOVE DW fireworks. Cry every time. My husband laughs at me and I still cry happy tears. My preferred view is from California Grill, but don’t mind in park either. I just need the music and the fireworks, I can watch the projections at home where I can actually see them. We could hear the fireworks from DL Wednesday night from our hotel room, but didn’t go outside to try and see them. On Thursday, we had just finished ROR and saw them from Star Wars while walking towards Frontierland. Not impressive, very loud and very nearby, very short (10 mins) and no music that we heard. I was like, ok, we will not worry about this tomorrow (Fri) night. Friday night, we were riding Small World around 8:45p and I remembered that people said you can see projections on the building. I hoped we would be done in time to check them out if they were happening, and they were! We walked out with about 2 minutes to spare and sat down to watch. This was so nice compared to DW where everyone thinks they can just walk up and stand in front of you - everyone was seated and waiting calmly to watch - loved it! Let me say, the soundtrack, so high energy, up beat, fantastic! We were wiggling our seated booties and singing, it as so awesome!!!!! I don’t know if this is normal and we just didn’t hear the music on Thursday or if Friday was something different since it was a weekend crowd, but we both LOVED IT
We are off to the beach for a few days now, until next time … thanks for all the great tips from this group - I may not take them all but having the information helped greatly!
