Hi friends! Felt compelled to do a trip report after the 14th because it was honestly one of the best Disney days I've had in a while. This past Saturday was the second day of our California resident tickets, and we're going back for our third day this weekend.
We got to the parking structure just after 7am after getting boarding groups while on the I-5 (BG 131, which is later for us than usual, but we drove under an overpass right at 7 so we blame that
). We got into the parks at around 7:40am just before rope drop, and there were very light crowds waiting at the front of the park (a common theme throughout the day). We spent some time shopping, I bought a hat, and we walked to the front of rope drop at around 7:50.
From rope drop, we headed to Fantasyland to knock out Peter Pan, Snow White, Alice, and Matterhorn. I used the Play app while in line for Pan to make Tinkerbell appear in the line for my friends and a few small kids in line behind us, which was a delightful way to start the day.
After grabbing breakfast from Maurice's Treats, we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Space, Autopia, Star Tours, and Astro Blasters. After all that, it's still 10:30am! 8 rides in 2.5 hours is record time for us, at least in post-pandemic Disneyland.
After Tomorrowland, we hit up Indy and Jungle Cruise. Indy's queue was being used up fully as intended, and it makes for a stronger queue experience instead of rushing through the temple in my opinion.
The only minor snafu we hit was at Jungle Cruise - we had to evacuate after a boat ahead of us gave out, so we hung out at the dock for about 15 minutes while they towed the boat back to the service dock and got a new boat out. In that time, we were able to see the green dye they use in the water being dispersed by the dock, so that was a fun neat detail.
We grabbed a quick lunch at Stage Door Cafe, which was disappointing - seems like they switched out the nuggets for cheaper tenders, so that wasn't fun. After that, we headed to Critter Country to ride Splash (in rough shape, unsurprisingly) and then got our BG called for Rise at around 1:30pm. At this point, we were still able to get Web Slingers boarding groups so we got one (257, which we ended up not using since it was called at 9pm and we were dead tired). Rise is amazing as always - the CMs we got were very enthusiastic and we were in a cell full of first-timers so it was a lot of fun.
We rode Smugglers Run with a really outgoing group of pilots which made the ride so much more funny, and then we rode Big Thunder before hopping over to DCA.
It was 4pm at this point and we had about 40 minutes before our Carthay reservation so we rode Soarin' - got super unlucky and got the far left seats so everything was especially wonky, but it was fine since we were really just looking to kill time in a pleasant ride with AC.
We went to Carthay Circle right at 4:40pm to check in and were seated immediately in a room off to the side of the main dining area, which was great. Our server Scott was very reassuring and knowledgeable about the menu. We started off with drinks - in order from right to left, I got the Aviation Cocktail, my sibling got the Pimm's Punch, and our friend got a Wildberry Lemonade (non-alcoholic), all pretty good! The punch was especially popular.
For our appetizer, we tried the Artichoke-Parmesan Fritters. It was served on top of a capers and bell pepper relish, which was delicious! Honestly the highlight of the meal, definitely recommend.
For our entrees, I got the Grilled New York. The steak cut like butter, and the raspberry chimichurri sauce it was served with was delicious. The creamed corn and hush puppies served on the side were great too. My sibling got the chicken arugula salad and they liked it too; not pictured was our friend's rigatoni pasta, which was great too.
For dessert, we got one of each, the Valrhona chocolate cream puff and the warm apricot butter cake. The apricot butter cake was the clear winner for me with the sorbet and fresh apricots complementing the cake, but the cream puff was good too.
I know we don't have the old menu to compare it to and that the new menu's proving to be a bit controversial, but at least to us Carthay Circle was well worth it. I still miss the fritters, to be honest. The service was top notch and among the best in the resort and will definitely come back for special occasions - we'll stick to Lamplight for more everyday trips.
We got after-dinner drinks at the Alfresco Tasting Terrace so we could pick up legacy magnets before the program ended (odds the Magic Key Terrace is this terrace rebranded?), and we rode Incredicoaster before hopping back to DL to round out the day with fireworks.
In all, we did 16 rides; we could've done more if we pressed on, but we didn't want to after our amazing dinner). Wait times never reached past 45 minutes posted, and even then we rarely waited longer than half an hour for most rides. Crowds were also noticeably lighter throughout the day - it only felt crowded in the usual bottleneck at Adventureland and in Main Street during the fireworks. All in all I couldn't ask for a better day trip.
We got to the parking structure just after 7am after getting boarding groups while on the I-5 (BG 131, which is later for us than usual, but we drove under an overpass right at 7 so we blame that
). We got into the parks at around 7:40am just before rope drop, and there were very light crowds waiting at the front of the park (a common theme throughout the day). We spent some time shopping, I bought a hat, and we walked to the front of rope drop at around 7:50.From rope drop, we headed to Fantasyland to knock out Peter Pan, Snow White, Alice, and Matterhorn. I used the Play app while in line for Pan to make Tinkerbell appear in the line for my friends and a few small kids in line behind us, which was a delightful way to start the day.
After grabbing breakfast from Maurice's Treats, we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Space, Autopia, Star Tours, and Astro Blasters. After all that, it's still 10:30am! 8 rides in 2.5 hours is record time for us, at least in post-pandemic Disneyland.
After Tomorrowland, we hit up Indy and Jungle Cruise. Indy's queue was being used up fully as intended, and it makes for a stronger queue experience instead of rushing through the temple in my opinion.
The only minor snafu we hit was at Jungle Cruise - we had to evacuate after a boat ahead of us gave out, so we hung out at the dock for about 15 minutes while they towed the boat back to the service dock and got a new boat out. In that time, we were able to see the green dye they use in the water being dispersed by the dock, so that was a fun neat detail.
We grabbed a quick lunch at Stage Door Cafe, which was disappointing - seems like they switched out the nuggets for cheaper tenders, so that wasn't fun. After that, we headed to Critter Country to ride Splash (in rough shape, unsurprisingly) and then got our BG called for Rise at around 1:30pm. At this point, we were still able to get Web Slingers boarding groups so we got one (257, which we ended up not using since it was called at 9pm and we were dead tired). Rise is amazing as always - the CMs we got were very enthusiastic and we were in a cell full of first-timers so it was a lot of fun.
We rode Smugglers Run with a really outgoing group of pilots which made the ride so much more funny, and then we rode Big Thunder before hopping over to DCA.
It was 4pm at this point and we had about 40 minutes before our Carthay reservation so we rode Soarin' - got super unlucky and got the far left seats so everything was especially wonky, but it was fine since we were really just looking to kill time in a pleasant ride with AC.
We went to Carthay Circle right at 4:40pm to check in and were seated immediately in a room off to the side of the main dining area, which was great. Our server Scott was very reassuring and knowledgeable about the menu. We started off with drinks - in order from right to left, I got the Aviation Cocktail, my sibling got the Pimm's Punch, and our friend got a Wildberry Lemonade (non-alcoholic), all pretty good! The punch was especially popular.
For our appetizer, we tried the Artichoke-Parmesan Fritters. It was served on top of a capers and bell pepper relish, which was delicious! Honestly the highlight of the meal, definitely recommend.
For our entrees, I got the Grilled New York. The steak cut like butter, and the raspberry chimichurri sauce it was served with was delicious. The creamed corn and hush puppies served on the side were great too. My sibling got the chicken arugula salad and they liked it too; not pictured was our friend's rigatoni pasta, which was great too.
For dessert, we got one of each, the Valrhona chocolate cream puff and the warm apricot butter cake. The apricot butter cake was the clear winner for me with the sorbet and fresh apricots complementing the cake, but the cream puff was good too.
The service was top notch and among the best in the resort and will definitely come back for special occasions - we'll stick to Lamplight for more everyday trips.We got after-dinner drinks at the Alfresco Tasting Terrace so we could pick up legacy magnets before the program ended (odds the Magic Key Terrace is this terrace rebranded?), and we rode Incredicoaster before hopping back to DL to round out the day with fireworks.
In all, we did 16 rides; we could've done more if we pressed on, but we didn't want to after our amazing dinner). Wait times never reached past 45 minutes posted, and even then we rarely waited longer than half an hour for most rides. Crowds were also noticeably lighter throughout the day - it only felt crowded in the usual bottleneck at Adventureland and in Main Street during the fireworks. All in all I couldn't ask for a better day trip.
