E.Jane
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2000
Just returned from our first ever trip to DL (we are WDW vets) - I thought I'd share some of our week, especially as I asked so many questions!
It was me (Granny), my daughter in law, and my 2 granddaughters (ages 4 and 11). We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott, Theme Park Entrance, and we had 4-day hoppers with genie+ added.
Dec. 5 - arrived into LAX an hour late, at 10 am. I was kind of dreading the LAX experience, however, it was smooth sailing all the way. By the time we got to luggage claim, our bags were on the carousel. I texted Wills Shuttles to let them know we'd arrived, and they picked us up within 3 minutes. The drive took 40 minutes, no hiccups on the way. We paid $130. Arrived at the hotel by 11:00 am - unfortunately our room wasn't ready, however, they took our bags so we could head straight to the parks! Initial impression of the hotel was great. Employees were very helpful, and the lobby was beautifully decorated. We are WDW vets, and have always stayed onsite, so this was our first Disney off-site trip. What struck me right away about this hotel was that it smelled like a Disney Resort! Initial impression - 5/5! We headed to DL right away and we really didn't have a plan as our flights are so often disrupted from Canada and planning on travel day has always been a waste of time! We grabbed some Mickey Pretzels and made immediate use of genie+ to go on Buzz. After that, we headed over to the carousel, snow white, Pinocchio, the Mark Twain river boat, and finally Splash Mountain. Let me tell you - Splash was NOT what I was expecting!!! I ended up in the front and was shocked at how short the nose of the boat is compared to WDW. I wasn't expecting the extra drops, and is it my imagination, or is that last drop steeper than WDW?! It was terrifying! LOL To top it off, me and one of my granddaughters got soaked. I mean, completely drenched. We had to call it a day at 4 pm, hoping our room was ready so we could get changed. Fortunately it was. The room was great - spacious, with 2 queens and bunk beds, so no one had to share. The fridge worked well, as did the microwave. The bathroom had double sinks, a bath/shower, and then a separate walk-in shower. We decided to just relax in the room, as we had been up since 2 am and we were all pretty exhausted. We wandered over to McDonalds for dinner, and honestly, it is by far the worst fast-food I've ever had. Whatever you do, don't eat here!! We called it a night at 8 pm and slept right through to 7 am.
Dec. 6 - I woke up first and grabbed some coffee, juice and muffins from the Bistro in the lobby. They serve Starbucks, and overall it was ok, I just couldn't seem to get a decently hot cup of coffee all week regardless where I went. We arrived at DL by 8:30ish, and I was surprised at how many people were there already. Touringplans.com had predicted a 4/10. I don't know what a 10 is like, but I can't believe this crowd was only a 4! I knew to expect possible crowds, and really, it wasn't any different than previous trips to WDW, but, I was somewhat disappointed in that I didn't get a good look around. For example, New Orleans Square is totally new to us, but I honestly didn't get so see what it was like - by the time we got there, it was shoulder to shoulder, and you had to just kind of go with the flow of people. Also, using the map in the app is frustrating. I wish I'd taken some time before this trip to better acquaint ourselves with the layout. I'd made a list of snacks and restaurants we wanted to try, but honestly, we had such a difficult time finding our way around, we didn't get to do any of it. But otherwise, we had a great day! We headed straight to Dumbo, waited 5 minutes, and then it went down. Decided to head to the Haunted Mansion and noticed Indy was down as we passed it. We were in line for 10 minutes at HM, and it went down. Decided to wait it out, and glad we did, as it was back up in about 10 minutes. We then rode Big Thunder (LL), IASW (LL), Millennium Falcon (LL) and Mark Twain again. It was about 1 pm at this point, so we headed back to the hotel for a break. We picked up some sandwiches at the Bistro, and they were good. Everyone fell asleep for about 3 hours! We headed back to DL about 5 pm stopping at Panera for dinner. It was ok, nothing special but did the job. We took the train from Main Street to Tomorrowland as the little one wanted to do Buzz again. After that we did the Mad Tea Party, the carousel and Peter Pan. PP was the longest wait we had all week, about 35 minutes.I can't recall what we did after that, but we called it a night about 9 pm.
Dec. 7 - arrived at CA late, about 9:30. We purchased LL for Radiator Springs, rode Maters, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, Jessies carousel and the Little Mermaid. Took another 4 hour break back at the hotel, and ate at the Bistro. Their menu is nothing extravagant but certainly enough variety to keep everyone happy. And the prices were better than in the park! When we returned to CA, we rode Soarin, saw Turtle Talk with Crush (who picked both girls to talk to!), Mickey's Philharmaic and Monsters, inc. We rode Maters twice. Waits were minimal, except Crush - we had just missed the beginning of one show and had to wait 25 minutes for the next. Called it quits about 8:30 and watched the fireworks from the patio of the hotel.
De. 8 - another DL day, and arrived about 9:00. We did a little shopping along Main Street, as we had a 10:10 reservation at the Plaza. We were actually seated about 15 minutes early. The food was good, the character interaction was fantastic!! Both girls thoroughly enjoyed them, especially when Tigger and Pluto had a dance-off right beside our table! After breakfast, we headed to Pirates, and had a paid LL for ROTR. It was at this point that the little one fizzled out completely, so mom had to take her back to the room for a nap. Myself and my older GD rode Millennium Falcon again, and Big thunder twice, as I had booked LL for all 4 of us. We headed back to the hotel and rested before our last evening. Fortunately, a 3 hour nap was what was needed, and the little one was fully recharged by 5 pm! We headed back to CA to ride Mater twice, Radiator Springs, and the Little Mermaid. We then hopped to DL and did Buzz, the carousel, dumbo (finally! but a 30 minute wait), and then the submarine. We made our way down Main Street just before the show, and watched from the back. Easy exist when it was over.
We flew home via SNA on the 9th - 15 minute Uber ride and the cost was $26.99 plus tip. Considering we had been quoted $110 for a shuttle, I was really glad I listened to everyone about the Uber!
Some observations :
It was me (Granny), my daughter in law, and my 2 granddaughters (ages 4 and 11). We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott, Theme Park Entrance, and we had 4-day hoppers with genie+ added.
Dec. 5 - arrived into LAX an hour late, at 10 am. I was kind of dreading the LAX experience, however, it was smooth sailing all the way. By the time we got to luggage claim, our bags were on the carousel. I texted Wills Shuttles to let them know we'd arrived, and they picked us up within 3 minutes. The drive took 40 minutes, no hiccups on the way. We paid $130. Arrived at the hotel by 11:00 am - unfortunately our room wasn't ready, however, they took our bags so we could head straight to the parks! Initial impression of the hotel was great. Employees were very helpful, and the lobby was beautifully decorated. We are WDW vets, and have always stayed onsite, so this was our first Disney off-site trip. What struck me right away about this hotel was that it smelled like a Disney Resort! Initial impression - 5/5! We headed to DL right away and we really didn't have a plan as our flights are so often disrupted from Canada and planning on travel day has always been a waste of time! We grabbed some Mickey Pretzels and made immediate use of genie+ to go on Buzz. After that, we headed over to the carousel, snow white, Pinocchio, the Mark Twain river boat, and finally Splash Mountain. Let me tell you - Splash was NOT what I was expecting!!! I ended up in the front and was shocked at how short the nose of the boat is compared to WDW. I wasn't expecting the extra drops, and is it my imagination, or is that last drop steeper than WDW?! It was terrifying! LOL To top it off, me and one of my granddaughters got soaked. I mean, completely drenched. We had to call it a day at 4 pm, hoping our room was ready so we could get changed. Fortunately it was. The room was great - spacious, with 2 queens and bunk beds, so no one had to share. The fridge worked well, as did the microwave. The bathroom had double sinks, a bath/shower, and then a separate walk-in shower. We decided to just relax in the room, as we had been up since 2 am and we were all pretty exhausted. We wandered over to McDonalds for dinner, and honestly, it is by far the worst fast-food I've ever had. Whatever you do, don't eat here!! We called it a night at 8 pm and slept right through to 7 am.
Dec. 6 - I woke up first and grabbed some coffee, juice and muffins from the Bistro in the lobby. They serve Starbucks, and overall it was ok, I just couldn't seem to get a decently hot cup of coffee all week regardless where I went. We arrived at DL by 8:30ish, and I was surprised at how many people were there already. Touringplans.com had predicted a 4/10. I don't know what a 10 is like, but I can't believe this crowd was only a 4! I knew to expect possible crowds, and really, it wasn't any different than previous trips to WDW, but, I was somewhat disappointed in that I didn't get a good look around. For example, New Orleans Square is totally new to us, but I honestly didn't get so see what it was like - by the time we got there, it was shoulder to shoulder, and you had to just kind of go with the flow of people. Also, using the map in the app is frustrating. I wish I'd taken some time before this trip to better acquaint ourselves with the layout. I'd made a list of snacks and restaurants we wanted to try, but honestly, we had such a difficult time finding our way around, we didn't get to do any of it. But otherwise, we had a great day! We headed straight to Dumbo, waited 5 minutes, and then it went down. Decided to head to the Haunted Mansion and noticed Indy was down as we passed it. We were in line for 10 minutes at HM, and it went down. Decided to wait it out, and glad we did, as it was back up in about 10 minutes. We then rode Big Thunder (LL), IASW (LL), Millennium Falcon (LL) and Mark Twain again. It was about 1 pm at this point, so we headed back to the hotel for a break. We picked up some sandwiches at the Bistro, and they were good. Everyone fell asleep for about 3 hours! We headed back to DL about 5 pm stopping at Panera for dinner. It was ok, nothing special but did the job. We took the train from Main Street to Tomorrowland as the little one wanted to do Buzz again. After that we did the Mad Tea Party, the carousel and Peter Pan. PP was the longest wait we had all week, about 35 minutes.I can't recall what we did after that, but we called it a night about 9 pm.
Dec. 7 - arrived at CA late, about 9:30. We purchased LL for Radiator Springs, rode Maters, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, Jessies carousel and the Little Mermaid. Took another 4 hour break back at the hotel, and ate at the Bistro. Their menu is nothing extravagant but certainly enough variety to keep everyone happy. And the prices were better than in the park! When we returned to CA, we rode Soarin, saw Turtle Talk with Crush (who picked both girls to talk to!), Mickey's Philharmaic and Monsters, inc. We rode Maters twice. Waits were minimal, except Crush - we had just missed the beginning of one show and had to wait 25 minutes for the next. Called it quits about 8:30 and watched the fireworks from the patio of the hotel.
De. 8 - another DL day, and arrived about 9:00. We did a little shopping along Main Street, as we had a 10:10 reservation at the Plaza. We were actually seated about 15 minutes early. The food was good, the character interaction was fantastic!! Both girls thoroughly enjoyed them, especially when Tigger and Pluto had a dance-off right beside our table! After breakfast, we headed to Pirates, and had a paid LL for ROTR. It was at this point that the little one fizzled out completely, so mom had to take her back to the room for a nap. Myself and my older GD rode Millennium Falcon again, and Big thunder twice, as I had booked LL for all 4 of us. We headed back to the hotel and rested before our last evening. Fortunately, a 3 hour nap was what was needed, and the little one was fully recharged by 5 pm! We headed back to CA to ride Mater twice, Radiator Springs, and the Little Mermaid. We then hopped to DL and did Buzz, the carousel, dumbo (finally! but a 30 minute wait), and then the submarine. We made our way down Main Street just before the show, and watched from the back. Easy exist when it was over.
We flew home via SNA on the 9th - 15 minute Uber ride and the cost was $26.99 plus tip. Considering we had been quoted $110 for a shuttle, I was really glad I listened to everyone about the Uber!
Some observations :
- I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Courtyard by Marriott - fabulous hotel for the price, we really didn't miss anything by not staying onsite, other than the early entry. We paid about $300/night vs $850 a night for the GC, or $700 for the DL Resort at the time I made my booking.
- Genie+ is definitely worth the cost, most of our rides were 5-15 minute waits.
- There are no birds plucking food from your hands in Tomorrowland in DL!!!
- Rides we noticed a big difference in: Splash, Big Thunder, Pirates, Guardian of the Galaxy (Tower of Terror) and IASW - DL versions are better in all cases!!
- The convenience of hopping between the parks, or staying across the street, can't be beat. I will say though that I missed AK, in particular, Avitar and EE. And Epcot - we always have dinner there several times per trip - I missed that.
- DL may be smaller than MK, but, we still managed to average 22,000 steps per day. So don't go with the expectation that it's going to be a noticeable difference over MK. It wasn't for us.
. Loved all of your descriptions--thanks for sharing!
