Sorry for the "pre-trip report," but with a little less than two weeks to go until we leave, figured I'd drop by to solicit a few more tidbits of advice if anyone has...some of you guys are experts at this
We have nothing planned for our arrival day on Tuesday, 8/27, except grabbing lunch and stopping off for groceries before checking in to our hotel. Our flight lands in LAX at 12:05p, God willing! My wife and I have discussed the possibility of doing a half-day at the parks. Our five y/o is really excited for "the parade," but she really wanted to see PTN. MSEP to the rescue, I suppose. Should I expect an issue waiting to buy our park tickets via the mobile app until after we check in and get settled? We planned on 3 days already, but the cost of a 4th day is negligible for the amount of extra time we might get. Still, I'd like to not waste the money if something pops up.
This will be both our daughters' first trip to DLR. Although, the oldest has been to WDW several times--she's more excited about a week in California. We planned to go to USH for a day, but really not sure what to expect. It really looks like we can get most everything done by mid-day if we show up at open. Do you all think going up to Griffith Observatory on a Saturday afternoon/evening is a bad idea? When my wife and I drove up that way from Anaheim in October (we cheated and did DLR without kids first!), it felt super far for us haha! We figured it'd be better to knock out all the northern stuff on the same day-less driving!
Back to Disney-related questions, we grabbed reservations for Blue Bayou/F! and a WoC dinner. However, a few bonuses from work left a little extra pixie dust in our budget. If there's a spot open for the dessert party, that's definitely a better choice than the reserved area from Wine Country Trattoria right? Go big or go home?
Last, we also learned in October that the character appearances are a little more ad hoc at DLR than the ones in Florida. This definitely leads to cooler interactions in our opinion. But...our little one is absolutely CRAZY about Moana. If we happen to see her pop up on the app, does she normally get mobbed? We don't want to lurk around the treehouse all day if we can avoid it! We also realize that she may not be there at all.
For us, DLR is all about planning for the best and going with the flow--but unlike WDW it doesn't require generating spreadsheets 6+ months in advance of our visit. We fully expect elbow-to-elbow crowds since it's the week before/Labor Day weekend. We've resigned ourselves to just being satisfied, walking around with fistfuls of churros and all!
Misc.: we cheaped out and booked Desert Inn and Suites. We stayed at the Castle Inn last year, but even that was super close for us. Four walls and a parking spot is all we were after...ha! We have a rental car the whole week, so we're not landlocked in the Anaheim resort area. We have nothing planned for Wednesday except a breakfast at Paradise Pier--we're probably going to Aquarium of the Pacific and beach after that day.