msmama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2009
Forgive me if this should so somewhere else, but I couldn't figure out where.
We were in CA from 4/26-5/4, Disneyland, 4/28-5/2.
Id love to give our trip a 10 out of 10, but the best that I can manage is about a 6.5 or 7. Very little had to do with Disneyland itself, but it wasnt the trip I was hoping for. Both my son and I got sick. He refused to ride most rides (possibly because he was sick, possibly because hes 6). It was incredibly hot and windy which didnt help things.
Anyway, we flew to San Diego and rented a car to drive to Legoland. Legoland itself was meh (almost exactly the same as the one in Florida) but the Legoland hotel was AWESOME!!! To put things in perspective, we checked it when it was about 2am our time, we were walking zombies, and we totally struggled to go to bed because there was just SO MUCH to explore in our room alone!! I thought the price was way out of control, but I would totally pay it again!! (Im not going to say much more about Legoland here, but will happily elaborate if anyone wants).
After 2 days at Legoland, we headed north. Its pretty much impossible to miss Disneyland, but it took me a long time to find the Disneyland Hotel. But we walk in to check in and whos there? GOOFY!!! Talk about immediate Disney magic!!
Checked in ok. We liked the fireworks headboard but it was a bit blah after the lego hotel. Got take out from Tortilla Joes (I was on a mission to eat as much Mexican food and avocados as I could in CA - and was happily successful).
The next morning (Mon) we were up early (we never really adjusted well to CA time) and headed off to DCA. We went straight to RSR, where my son chickened out because it was too fast. Instead rode TSMM (walked right on) and then back to Carsland to ride Luigis flying tires - which I thought was super fun!! Breakfast at Flos (Id heard good things about the breakfast there but we thought it was just ok, that said, we both got kids breakfasts which may make a difference).
My SIL met us that day and spent the next few days with us. After meeting up with her, we rode Monsters Inc, ate lunch (at the Starbucks place which was totally empty), played around the Wilderness Explorer area (met Russell) and then watched the show with the newsboys. My son noticed the blinking, mouth moving Mickey right away - and from a distance. Im not sure I liked it.
He was complaining so much that we left after that and went back to the hotel. Managed to get Goofys kitchen reservations for that night. We saw Goofy, Mad Hatter, Snow White, Suzy Mouse, Rafiki, Minnie and we had to hunt down Pluto. I didnt really like that you have no idea what characters are going to be there (unlike WDW). It worked for us because we didnt really care, but I didnt think it was the best idea. Also, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to how the characters were moving around the room and they didnt seem to come over to us unless we actually made eye contact with them (we were kind of hidden behind a pole). Also, our server was terrible. She was perfectly nice, but messed our drinks up every time (its not like we were a big group, there were three of us). Early bedtime that night.
Tuesday morning, up early and off to Disneyland. This was the start of the heat wave. Intention was to go to Peter Pan first, but the line was through the castle so we gave up and hit something else instead (maybe snow white?). Did Mr. Toad which is my personal favorite and Im still surprised he ends up in hell every time!! (I was bummed when they replaced it at WDW). My son was a bit of a downer again this day. We did a bit of fantasyland then moved onto tomorrow land. We rode Buzz and Star Tours. We were at Innoventions for opening - waited in line to try on an Ironman suit - he chickened out last minute. Chickened out of Thor and tried to chicken out of Captain America, but we were almost to the front of the line at that point so I just held him, lol.
Cap stayed in character very well but kept calling me Maam! My son didnt like being called soldier, either.
We ate Pizza in tomorrow land (Captain America schwarma pizza, lol). Normally Im all about the food pictures but I failed miserably on this trip.
The only thing my SIL really wanted to do was ride Splash Mountain so while she did that my son and I walked around some stores, met Pooh and Im sure did some other things. We were all hot and tired at that point so we went back to the hotel. After some swimming we went to the sit down Tortilla Joes. Tableside guacamole was awesome as were the enchiladas.
SIL left early the next morning (Wed) so son and I went back to DCA for EMH. We didnt get there right at opening this time but close enough. Went back to RSR, (lied) convinced my son it didnt go very fast so he was okay with it. It wasnt running and they werent letting people in line (I saw my chance to ride it disappearing, I knew a late return time wouldnt work for us)!!
Went over to take pictures with Stanley, it started running!! Got in line. (They must have been letting people in earlier because we still waited for about 20 minutes or so). My son was not a fan, lol. I liked it more than I thought I would. Way better than test track at WDW (in either form).
Back to TSMM (this time it was maybe a 20 minute wait).
It was SUPER WINDY (and hot) so not much was open in DCA. All of the pier area rides were closed. Bugs land was super crowded. Over by Monsters Inc was closed. We got corn dogs and then ditched DCA for Disneyland.
Met Mickey. Rode the train to Toontown. Turns out toontown was what we needed to turn the vacation around! My son LOVED Donalds boat and Chip and Dales tree house. Had a ball there. Unfortunately, there is essentially no shade there so I was dying as he was playing. Left early and did most of our shopping at WOD.
We had a long talk about what to do the rest of the trip that night and we came to a bit of an understanding. Also decided to add another day since it was so hot and we were calling early days. He was starting to feel better but I was feeling worse! Earl of Sandwich in our room that night.
Thursday we did early morning at DL but not as early as we would have liked since we had to stop at the Disney vacation place to upgrade our tickets (I wasnt willing to part with the cute plastic ones). We ended up taking the monorail though which worked very nicely.
Rode Buzz again. Headed to Fantasyland. Decided to skip Peter Pan again, but rode a few other things. Walked past the 2 hour frozen line - saw Olaf waking up on the roof and were able to wave to Anna and Elsa. Headed towards Frontierland. Met a donkey (I had no idea there was a petting zoo), met Woody. Then onto Adventureland (after a Mickey pretzel snack). Rode Jungle cruise (posted wait time was 45 minutes, I doubt we waited more than 15 - most wait times that we actually experienced were quite wrong). Climbed Tarzans treehouse (its hard not to say that my son wanted to do all of the lamest stuff one can do in a Disney park). Took the raft over to Pirates Lair (in my many WDW trips, Ive never been to Tom Sawyers Island).
It would have been more fun if it werent so unbearably hot. That day we waited about 20 minutes for a table at Carnation Cafe (posted wait time was 45 to an hour). Potato soup on a 98 degree day is not the smartest thing Ive ever done, but it was tasty.
Walked back to the entrance. Asked if there was a place to meet Donald and they said hed be right out! Met Donald and Chip and Dale. Took the train back to Toontown. Rode Roger Rabbit (son tried to chicken out, but I pretended not to hear - yes, I can be a horrible person sometimes). We got dinner at Taronga Terrace at DLH and ate it in our room.
(Friday) Final (extra) morning. Headed to DCA - had to clear out our room first(EMH)=because I promised some of the Cars dressed as Star Wars guys and that was the only gift shop that had them. Rode the streetcar and then headed out to Disneyland (it was just opening).
Rode the antique fire truck to the hub. Rode a horse drawn trolley back, rode the double decker bus back to the hub, lol - again, things Ive never done in WDW. Rode Buzz AGAIN. Rode some teacups. Saw Olaf on the roof again. Stumbled upon the springtime friends thing at the BBQ place. Saw White rabbit, Thumper, Brer Rabbit, Balloo and spring Mickey. Rode the Paddlewheel boat (again, something Ive never done), had a mandatory mickey bar. Got in a fight and my son told me he hates me (good times - I always say its not a Disney trip until everyone has cried). Walked back to DLH, got our stuff and then off we went (getting back on I-5 was way easier than getting off).
Spent a few days in San Diego before heading home!!
Things of note:
DLH to bag check was 12 minutes at pokey 6 year old speed (includes watching candy makers and window shopping).
As a WDW vet I REALLY noticed the lack of hidden stuff at Disneyland. There were lots of CMs walking around with backpacks and stuff (on their way to their jobs). Lots of characters strolling around too because there are only a few places for them to come onstage. Not good or bad different, just .something noticeably different!!
I didnt get as much of the Disney is the best ever vibe in Disneyland. No bad CM interactions or anything - everyone was perfectly pleasant, but you dont have the OMG Im so lucky to work for Disney and came from far away to do so obsession thing like at WDW (which I assume is partly the college program). In fact I saw maybe 5 people with name tags that werent California natives.
I felt like there were parts of DL that were very under staffed. Many rides seemed to have fewer CMs working than I am used to (and Im an off season girl). For example, Tritons carousel was run by 1 CM (as were most of the rides in Bugs land). Many of the Fantasyland rides, too had one, maybe 2 workers.
I feel like DL doesnt have some of the everything is perfect magic that WDW has - I have 2 examples. We were in line for the Circus train and we could see a big part of fantasyland. Right in the middle of the walkway a child had lost a shoe. No one picked up the shoe. My son and I made a game of watching this shoe for a good 10 minutes. I feel like at WDW that shoe wouldnt have lasted more than 2 minutes without a CM finding it (in the end, we did see a Dad find it, I assume it was his kids, lol).
Example 2 - Also at the train, there was a little lost boy - maybe 3? He managed to push his way up to the front of the line and then we (the riders in line) realized that none of us were his family. We told the CM and she just kind of looked confused. The train came back, she told the CM that was driving the train, but they never did anything. They never called anyone (there was just 2 CMs, the driver and the loader so it isnt like they couldve gone anywhere). While they were away doing something else - ride related, not calling security related - the little boys dad found him (it seemed like maybe Dad had known where he went all along). Anyway, I was just a little unnerved by that. It could be that it was a newer CM thing but I feel like when Ive seen lost kids at WDW, its been taken much more seriously.
I liked the size of DL and DCA A LOT! I was still super tired at the end of each day, but it didn't seem as overwhelming getting around with a sick kid (I offered to rent him a stroller and he declined so I think it seemed smaller to him, too).
Liked the DLH pool, and it was one of the big reasons I stayed there - if I did it again, I'd splurge for GC!!
Thanks for reading if you've read this far. I'm happy to answer any question if anyone has them.
We were in CA from 4/26-5/4, Disneyland, 4/28-5/2.
Id love to give our trip a 10 out of 10, but the best that I can manage is about a 6.5 or 7. Very little had to do with Disneyland itself, but it wasnt the trip I was hoping for. Both my son and I got sick. He refused to ride most rides (possibly because he was sick, possibly because hes 6). It was incredibly hot and windy which didnt help things.
Anyway, we flew to San Diego and rented a car to drive to Legoland. Legoland itself was meh (almost exactly the same as the one in Florida) but the Legoland hotel was AWESOME!!! To put things in perspective, we checked it when it was about 2am our time, we were walking zombies, and we totally struggled to go to bed because there was just SO MUCH to explore in our room alone!! I thought the price was way out of control, but I would totally pay it again!! (Im not going to say much more about Legoland here, but will happily elaborate if anyone wants).
After 2 days at Legoland, we headed north. Its pretty much impossible to miss Disneyland, but it took me a long time to find the Disneyland Hotel. But we walk in to check in and whos there? GOOFY!!! Talk about immediate Disney magic!!
Checked in ok. We liked the fireworks headboard but it was a bit blah after the lego hotel. Got take out from Tortilla Joes (I was on a mission to eat as much Mexican food and avocados as I could in CA - and was happily successful).
The next morning (Mon) we were up early (we never really adjusted well to CA time) and headed off to DCA. We went straight to RSR, where my son chickened out because it was too fast. Instead rode TSMM (walked right on) and then back to Carsland to ride Luigis flying tires - which I thought was super fun!! Breakfast at Flos (Id heard good things about the breakfast there but we thought it was just ok, that said, we both got kids breakfasts which may make a difference).
My SIL met us that day and spent the next few days with us. After meeting up with her, we rode Monsters Inc, ate lunch (at the Starbucks place which was totally empty), played around the Wilderness Explorer area (met Russell) and then watched the show with the newsboys. My son noticed the blinking, mouth moving Mickey right away - and from a distance. Im not sure I liked it.
He was complaining so much that we left after that and went back to the hotel. Managed to get Goofys kitchen reservations for that night. We saw Goofy, Mad Hatter, Snow White, Suzy Mouse, Rafiki, Minnie and we had to hunt down Pluto. I didnt really like that you have no idea what characters are going to be there (unlike WDW). It worked for us because we didnt really care, but I didnt think it was the best idea. Also, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to how the characters were moving around the room and they didnt seem to come over to us unless we actually made eye contact with them (we were kind of hidden behind a pole). Also, our server was terrible. She was perfectly nice, but messed our drinks up every time (its not like we were a big group, there were three of us). Early bedtime that night.
Tuesday morning, up early and off to Disneyland. This was the start of the heat wave. Intention was to go to Peter Pan first, but the line was through the castle so we gave up and hit something else instead (maybe snow white?). Did Mr. Toad which is my personal favorite and Im still surprised he ends up in hell every time!! (I was bummed when they replaced it at WDW). My son was a bit of a downer again this day. We did a bit of fantasyland then moved onto tomorrow land. We rode Buzz and Star Tours. We were at Innoventions for opening - waited in line to try on an Ironman suit - he chickened out last minute. Chickened out of Thor and tried to chicken out of Captain America, but we were almost to the front of the line at that point so I just held him, lol.
Cap stayed in character very well but kept calling me Maam! My son didnt like being called soldier, either.
We ate Pizza in tomorrow land (Captain America schwarma pizza, lol). Normally Im all about the food pictures but I failed miserably on this trip.
The only thing my SIL really wanted to do was ride Splash Mountain so while she did that my son and I walked around some stores, met Pooh and Im sure did some other things. We were all hot and tired at that point so we went back to the hotel. After some swimming we went to the sit down Tortilla Joes. Tableside guacamole was awesome as were the enchiladas.
SIL left early the next morning (Wed) so son and I went back to DCA for EMH. We didnt get there right at opening this time but close enough. Went back to RSR, (lied) convinced my son it didnt go very fast so he was okay with it. It wasnt running and they werent letting people in line (I saw my chance to ride it disappearing, I knew a late return time wouldnt work for us)!!
Went over to take pictures with Stanley, it started running!! Got in line. (They must have been letting people in earlier because we still waited for about 20 minutes or so). My son was not a fan, lol. I liked it more than I thought I would. Way better than test track at WDW (in either form).
Back to TSMM (this time it was maybe a 20 minute wait).
It was SUPER WINDY (and hot) so not much was open in DCA. All of the pier area rides were closed. Bugs land was super crowded. Over by Monsters Inc was closed. We got corn dogs and then ditched DCA for Disneyland.
Met Mickey. Rode the train to Toontown. Turns out toontown was what we needed to turn the vacation around! My son LOVED Donalds boat and Chip and Dales tree house. Had a ball there. Unfortunately, there is essentially no shade there so I was dying as he was playing. Left early and did most of our shopping at WOD.
We had a long talk about what to do the rest of the trip that night and we came to a bit of an understanding. Also decided to add another day since it was so hot and we were calling early days. He was starting to feel better but I was feeling worse! Earl of Sandwich in our room that night.
Thursday we did early morning at DL but not as early as we would have liked since we had to stop at the Disney vacation place to upgrade our tickets (I wasnt willing to part with the cute plastic ones). We ended up taking the monorail though which worked very nicely.
Rode Buzz again. Headed to Fantasyland. Decided to skip Peter Pan again, but rode a few other things. Walked past the 2 hour frozen line - saw Olaf waking up on the roof and were able to wave to Anna and Elsa. Headed towards Frontierland. Met a donkey (I had no idea there was a petting zoo), met Woody. Then onto Adventureland (after a Mickey pretzel snack). Rode Jungle cruise (posted wait time was 45 minutes, I doubt we waited more than 15 - most wait times that we actually experienced were quite wrong). Climbed Tarzans treehouse (its hard not to say that my son wanted to do all of the lamest stuff one can do in a Disney park). Took the raft over to Pirates Lair (in my many WDW trips, Ive never been to Tom Sawyers Island).
It would have been more fun if it werent so unbearably hot. That day we waited about 20 minutes for a table at Carnation Cafe (posted wait time was 45 to an hour). Potato soup on a 98 degree day is not the smartest thing Ive ever done, but it was tasty.
Walked back to the entrance. Asked if there was a place to meet Donald and they said hed be right out! Met Donald and Chip and Dale. Took the train back to Toontown. Rode Roger Rabbit (son tried to chicken out, but I pretended not to hear - yes, I can be a horrible person sometimes). We got dinner at Taronga Terrace at DLH and ate it in our room.
(Friday) Final (extra) morning. Headed to DCA - had to clear out our room first(EMH)=because I promised some of the Cars dressed as Star Wars guys and that was the only gift shop that had them. Rode the streetcar and then headed out to Disneyland (it was just opening).
Rode the antique fire truck to the hub. Rode a horse drawn trolley back, rode the double decker bus back to the hub, lol - again, things Ive never done in WDW. Rode Buzz AGAIN. Rode some teacups. Saw Olaf on the roof again. Stumbled upon the springtime friends thing at the BBQ place. Saw White rabbit, Thumper, Brer Rabbit, Balloo and spring Mickey. Rode the Paddlewheel boat (again, something Ive never done), had a mandatory mickey bar. Got in a fight and my son told me he hates me (good times - I always say its not a Disney trip until everyone has cried). Walked back to DLH, got our stuff and then off we went (getting back on I-5 was way easier than getting off).
Spent a few days in San Diego before heading home!!
Things of note:
DLH to bag check was 12 minutes at pokey 6 year old speed (includes watching candy makers and window shopping).
As a WDW vet I REALLY noticed the lack of hidden stuff at Disneyland. There were lots of CMs walking around with backpacks and stuff (on their way to their jobs). Lots of characters strolling around too because there are only a few places for them to come onstage. Not good or bad different, just .something noticeably different!!
I didnt get as much of the Disney is the best ever vibe in Disneyland. No bad CM interactions or anything - everyone was perfectly pleasant, but you dont have the OMG Im so lucky to work for Disney and came from far away to do so obsession thing like at WDW (which I assume is partly the college program). In fact I saw maybe 5 people with name tags that werent California natives.
I felt like there were parts of DL that were very under staffed. Many rides seemed to have fewer CMs working than I am used to (and Im an off season girl). For example, Tritons carousel was run by 1 CM (as were most of the rides in Bugs land). Many of the Fantasyland rides, too had one, maybe 2 workers.
I feel like DL doesnt have some of the everything is perfect magic that WDW has - I have 2 examples. We were in line for the Circus train and we could see a big part of fantasyland. Right in the middle of the walkway a child had lost a shoe. No one picked up the shoe. My son and I made a game of watching this shoe for a good 10 minutes. I feel like at WDW that shoe wouldnt have lasted more than 2 minutes without a CM finding it (in the end, we did see a Dad find it, I assume it was his kids, lol).
Example 2 - Also at the train, there was a little lost boy - maybe 3? He managed to push his way up to the front of the line and then we (the riders in line) realized that none of us were his family. We told the CM and she just kind of looked confused. The train came back, she told the CM that was driving the train, but they never did anything. They never called anyone (there was just 2 CMs, the driver and the loader so it isnt like they couldve gone anywhere). While they were away doing something else - ride related, not calling security related - the little boys dad found him (it seemed like maybe Dad had known where he went all along). Anyway, I was just a little unnerved by that. It could be that it was a newer CM thing but I feel like when Ive seen lost kids at WDW, its been taken much more seriously.
I liked the size of DL and DCA A LOT! I was still super tired at the end of each day, but it didn't seem as overwhelming getting around with a sick kid (I offered to rent him a stroller and he declined so I think it seemed smaller to him, too).
Liked the DLH pool, and it was one of the big reasons I stayed there - if I did it again, I'd splurge for GC!!
Thanks for reading if you've read this far. I'm happy to answer any question if anyone has them.
