Trip Report 5/31-6/2 DLH SWGE

DisMomMT

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
We are home now and I wanted to follow-up since I so appreciated the help on this board prior to our trip.

We arrived about 12:30 on 5/31 and checked into the DLH. We were in the Frontier tower room 2974 and it was ready right away. The room had 2 Queens and a sofa/bed. We had a great view of the pools and of the fireworks from our room. We loved our room and the DLH. After staying at the Grand Californian last trip though our feet definitely noticed the extra distance. We utilized the monorail as much as possible.

We got to the parks about 2:30 Friday and I was pleasantly shocked to find very manageable crowds. We immediately MP Buzz and then pulled one for Star Tours, went into Launch Bay to purchase some opening day SWGE merchandise and were pleased with the selection and short lines. We then rode Star Tours and were surprised to be able to pull a cancelled MP to immediately ride HyperSpace Mountain. We then checked in for our 5-9 SWGE reservation and walked there, arriving about 5:30. We wandered around the land using the app to translate/hack, took advantage of PP photographers all around, enjoyed the characters and just took in the space for about an hour. We then rode the Flacon twice with about 20 minute waits. A nice guy let my son check out the light saber from Savi’s workshop and after deliberation he decided not to build one so we went to the Droid Depot for DD to build her Droid. We then tried the Blue Milk checked out the Shops, had a great interaction with Kylo REN and some StormTroopers and checked out the land some more. At about 8ish my kids were tired from a long day traveling and then being in the parks so we headed back to the Hotel. There we watched the Fireworks from the room with an amazing view and perfectly ”discovered” the magic lights in the headboard.

Saturday morning we arrived a little late for EMH at about 7:20 after grabbing some breakfast at Tangaroa Terrace and riding the monorail in. We still found no crowds and we rode Alice, Toad, PP, Pinocchio, Snow White, Tea Cups, Dumbo, Matterhorn before leaving FantasyLand at about 8:45 - we waited about 15 minutes for PeterPan but walked on everything else. We then rode the Main Street Cars round trip before heading into Indiana Jones x2, stopping for a snack at Bengal BBQ and then going on POTC, and onto the Frontierland Shooting Expo for a while before riding BTMRR. We then headed back to the Hotel for a swimming break for a bit.

We met up with the rest of our party for our 2-6 SWGE reservation about 1:30 and rode the monorail in and checked in And headed to SWGE, grabbing a corn dog at the Little Red Wagon on the way for those less sure about the food on Batuu. We arrived on Batuu about 2:30ish. Again we mostly spent time exploring (amazing how much more we noticed that we missed the first time) and visiting shops (my niece purchased a PORG - so cute). We then rode the Falcon again and it was awesome having a party of 6 for all positions. After taking in a few more things we decided to leave a little after 5. We never did make it into the Cantina in either of our reservations but overall felt the 4 hours time slot was plenty as we didn’t use it in either of our times and if we wanted to wait in line during our remaining time we probably could have made it into the Cantina too.

We then rode Pooh, Splash, Haunted Mansion and the Main Street Horse Drawn trolley before heading back to the Hotel for another short break. We then headed into DCA and ate supper, rode GOTG and RSR and did some shopping and some great PP pictures before calling it a night.

Sunday morning we also arrived a bit late for EMH at DCA at about 7:30ish. We headed to Soarin’ first and then over to Pixar Pier, rode IncrediCoaster twice, Jessie’s CC, TSMM x2 and tried the cookies. We then rode Little Mermaid and checked out the schedule at the Animation Academy before heading back to the hotel to check out of our room and check our bags. We stopped at Sprinkles along the way and enjoyed our cupcakes in the room while packing everything up. We then rode the monorail back to DL and the DLRR to Main Street (our feet were tired). There we did Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln before heading back over to DCA. Then we ate lunch, went to Philharmagic, Monsters, Inc. and then the Animation Academy. At this point we wondered back to DL shopping along the way back to the monorail and rode back to DLH to get our bags and meet our ride about 3:30ish.

For those of you that helped with my pre-planning you will notice we fit everything on our “must-do” list and so much more (although not everyone on our “like to” list)! The only disappointment was the waterslides were not open at the DLH but it wasn’t too big of a deal. We also ended up with more time on Sunday than originally expected so it was sure nice to use that time to enjoy some of those shows. We didn’t realize until after we left that we had completely skipped Toon Town this time but the kids didn’t seem to mind that either.
 
Sounds like you had a great time. The crowd levels have been amazing since GE opened. That's nice that you were able to go to GE twice and notice things you missed the first time. Thanks for sharing with those of us that won't be going for many more months.
 
Wow! You sure got a lot done! Was SWGE as impressive as it looks in pictures?

We have stayed at both Paradise Pier (which we really liked) and the Grand Californian (which we absolutely loved) in the past and are trying to decide between the GC and DLH (we have never stayed) for our trip this fall. Any advice?
 
SWGE was more impressive in person than the pictures in my opinion. I am not a Star Wars fan but my DS(11) is very much one, especially of the original movies and he was also blown away. There are details to notice everywhere and don’t forget to look up - even in the shops and pause as you go because there are a lot of things that move and change throughout the land.

We loved both the GC and the DLH but our tired feet would probably drive us back to the Grand. That being said I am so glad we stayed at the DLH and it is an experience I think everyone should try to have at least once if they can make it work. It felt so magical and “Disney Connected”.
 


Does anyone know why the waterslides at DLH were not open? I thought the pool renovation was complete. We check in on 6/13 and this was one of the selling points for the kids.

So glad you had a great trip! I've been reading up on the boards religiously getting ready for our first visit.
 


Does anyone know why the waterslides at DLH were not open? I thought the pool renovation was complete. We check in on 6/13 and this was one of the selling points for the kids.

I asked around and the only answer I got was they were doing some touch ups. I had called before we went and was told the renovations were complete and everything was open but they were not open the entire time we were there. The really disappointing thing was nothing was said at check-in or anything. We would have taken our swimming break at a different time had I known. Everything worked out fine but that was the main reason we stayed at the DLH too. They did tell me my room key would also work at the PPH pool if we wanted to go there. The way this was said implied that DLH keys always work at PPH pool?
 
Does anyone know why the waterslides at DLH were not open? I thought the pool renovation was complete. We check in on 6/13 and this was one of the selling points for the kids.

So glad you had a great trip! I've been reading up on the boards religiously getting ready for our first visit.
We check in on 6/14. I called on Wednesday to ask about the pools. The CM I chatted with said the pools were completed on 5/8, but unfortunately, they sometimes have "issues" with the slides and have to close them to fix it. So she could not guarantee the slides will be open when we are there. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will be open when we go. We plan on a pool day when we arrive.
 
Thanks for the information. This is a real bummer and I hope they get it resolved. I don't like the PPH solution - we were hoping to grab a beverage at Trader Sam's while the kids swam (they are teenagers).
 

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