My wife and I finally decided to get AP's back in Feb and after feeling a bit guilty about not getting them for our 15 & 17 year old girls, decided to surprise them with a trip to the park under the premise that my buddy at the DL Hotel was going to sign us in. Arrived at the TS lot around 7am, we were literally the 7th car in the parking lot...what a glorious sight. Made our way through a very quick and empty security check to the ticket booth where we surprised both girls with AP's. Needless to say, they were very happy.
Waited about 15 minutes at the entrance gates and to rope drop with a goal of riding Pan first...hadn't ridden it in 2 years. As you are all probably well aware, many people have this same idea so there was a mass rush to through the Castle where a long line quickly formed. Fortunately, we only waited 20-30 minutes so it wasn't that bad. Really enjoyed the ride, everything looked great.
Sent the girls over to Space Mtn to pick up fast passes while the Mrs. and I headed over towards Indy. Stand By was 25 minutes, took us only about 15-20 to get on. Then on to Pirates & Mansion, both were walk ons. From there, over to Thunder which was 20 min posted, took us 15. Some great, but fleeting views of SW land including the new tunnel for the train going into FL. Headed over to Red Rose Tavern where a line was already forming...really wanted to try the grey stuff so my wife stayed in line while the girls and I went over to ride SM. Met her back at RRT just after 11, she had our grey stuff as well as the lemon rose and one of the hard to get red rose cups. They grey stuff truly was delicious, we liked it better than the lemon rose. Note, Disney has put a limit of buying 2 cups per guest...we only bought one.
So at that point, we had ridden arguably the 6 most popular rides in the park in 3 hours (Splash was closed most of the day). Not bad at all. And then the crowds and the heat started taking it's toll...
Disneyland was starting to get much more crowded so we decided it was time to head over to DCA as the FP times for Soarin' were getting closer to 5pm and we didn't want to ride that much later. Did I mention it was getting hot? Beer helps with that.
Entered a very busy DCA, girls went to get FP for Soarin' and we got a beer, met them and planned on riding Grizzly. Not sure what was going on there beyond crowd control issues, but they were not letting anyone in the stand by line, were only letting FP folks enter. The ride was operating fine. Just odd, have not seen that before. So our plan to cool down that way was a no go. Made the walk over to Screamin and while the stand by said 35 min, they were using the extra line out on the pier so the girls decided they didn't want to do that. They finally settled on the SS Swings while we finally got our Pacifio's and then convinced them to try Screamin again. Yeah, they got over and now the line was 50 min so once again, a no go. Wife and I made a walk through the Food and Wine booths and while there were plenty of yummy options, we decided to hold off this time as the servings were pretty small. Maybe next time.
Time for lunch so we met the girls back at Boardwalk Pizza/Pasta as my oldest wanted a slice of the "yummy" pizza while my youngest shared the pasta with chicken (soooo good). Girls headed off again to get FP for Screamin and we agreed to meet to try single rider at RSR. Then we get the call from my oldest that her blood sugar had dropped quite a bit and she was feeling shaky. She's a type 1 diabetic one the heat can play havoc on blood sugar. So we get her a Sprite and decide it's best for all of us to take a break and cool down/rest inside the nice air conditioned Flo's V8 Cafe. Girls get their second'ish wind and we wait about 20 min to ride Luigi...fun ride, definitely better than the poorly executed tires. Back over to Sreamin for our FP time. First time in years that I get a bit of an upset stomach after riding it...I guess that's what turning 50 does to you : )
After that, we head over to watch the BatB preview then to Soarin for our 5pm FP and everyone is pretty much burned out. Run back over to Disneyland to get youngest daughter some PJ's she had her eye on and to clear out our locker. I tried to convince them to do Autopia but that pretty much fell on deaf ears. Quickly on a bus back to TS lot (I will never park in M&F) and on our way home to Corona after a quick dinner outside the park.
All in all, a fun day with a couple of bumps in the road. The first few hours were great and it's crazy to think that we accomplished more in the first 3 than we did the remaining 7 or so. But that's the joy of the Disneyland crowds combined with Spring Break peak week. The girls were very happy to have AP's again and my oldest is now at that age where she and her friends can drive down together and share the cost for parking. It's a bit sad to think that after 17 years of taking the girls to Disneyland that they won't need (or always want) to go with us. Thankfully we've raised two incredibly responsible girls.
Waited about 15 minutes at the entrance gates and to rope drop with a goal of riding Pan first...hadn't ridden it in 2 years. As you are all probably well aware, many people have this same idea so there was a mass rush to through the Castle where a long line quickly formed. Fortunately, we only waited 20-30 minutes so it wasn't that bad. Really enjoyed the ride, everything looked great.
Sent the girls over to Space Mtn to pick up fast passes while the Mrs. and I headed over towards Indy. Stand By was 25 minutes, took us only about 15-20 to get on. Then on to Pirates & Mansion, both were walk ons. From there, over to Thunder which was 20 min posted, took us 15. Some great, but fleeting views of SW land including the new tunnel for the train going into FL. Headed over to Red Rose Tavern where a line was already forming...really wanted to try the grey stuff so my wife stayed in line while the girls and I went over to ride SM. Met her back at RRT just after 11, she had our grey stuff as well as the lemon rose and one of the hard to get red rose cups. They grey stuff truly was delicious, we liked it better than the lemon rose. Note, Disney has put a limit of buying 2 cups per guest...we only bought one.
So at that point, we had ridden arguably the 6 most popular rides in the park in 3 hours (Splash was closed most of the day). Not bad at all. And then the crowds and the heat started taking it's toll...
Disneyland was starting to get much more crowded so we decided it was time to head over to DCA as the FP times for Soarin' were getting closer to 5pm and we didn't want to ride that much later. Did I mention it was getting hot? Beer helps with that.
Entered a very busy DCA, girls went to get FP for Soarin' and we got a beer, met them and planned on riding Grizzly. Not sure what was going on there beyond crowd control issues, but they were not letting anyone in the stand by line, were only letting FP folks enter. The ride was operating fine. Just odd, have not seen that before. So our plan to cool down that way was a no go. Made the walk over to Screamin and while the stand by said 35 min, they were using the extra line out on the pier so the girls decided they didn't want to do that. They finally settled on the SS Swings while we finally got our Pacifio's and then convinced them to try Screamin again. Yeah, they got over and now the line was 50 min so once again, a no go. Wife and I made a walk through the Food and Wine booths and while there were plenty of yummy options, we decided to hold off this time as the servings were pretty small. Maybe next time.
Time for lunch so we met the girls back at Boardwalk Pizza/Pasta as my oldest wanted a slice of the "yummy" pizza while my youngest shared the pasta with chicken (soooo good). Girls headed off again to get FP for Screamin and we agreed to meet to try single rider at RSR. Then we get the call from my oldest that her blood sugar had dropped quite a bit and she was feeling shaky. She's a type 1 diabetic one the heat can play havoc on blood sugar. So we get her a Sprite and decide it's best for all of us to take a break and cool down/rest inside the nice air conditioned Flo's V8 Cafe. Girls get their second'ish wind and we wait about 20 min to ride Luigi...fun ride, definitely better than the poorly executed tires. Back over to Sreamin for our FP time. First time in years that I get a bit of an upset stomach after riding it...I guess that's what turning 50 does to you : )
After that, we head over to watch the BatB preview then to Soarin for our 5pm FP and everyone is pretty much burned out. Run back over to Disneyland to get youngest daughter some PJ's she had her eye on and to clear out our locker. I tried to convince them to do Autopia but that pretty much fell on deaf ears. Quickly on a bus back to TS lot (I will never park in M&F) and on our way home to Corona after a quick dinner outside the park.
All in all, a fun day with a couple of bumps in the road. The first few hours were great and it's crazy to think that we accomplished more in the first 3 than we did the remaining 7 or so. But that's the joy of the Disneyland crowds combined with Spring Break peak week. The girls were very happy to have AP's again and my oldest is now at that age where she and her friends can drive down together and share the cost for parking. It's a bit sad to think that after 17 years of taking the girls to Disneyland that they won't need (or always want) to go with us. Thankfully we've raised two incredibly responsible girls.
