Introduction
After returning from our trip to Disney World in February with my wife's family, my mother wanted us to go to Disneyland together as a family. Fortunately, with my mother's favorite college basketball team laying a big egg in the NCAA Tournament, she had a bunch of Southwest miles built up. With my mother paying for airfare, we were ready to go to Disneyland in August! Another perk of my mom's work is that many people travel for business and someone was gracious enough to gift us enough points so our hotel was free as well! Without paying for both airfare and hotels, my wife and I could definitely afford a trip to DL even after early summer travels to Whistler, Canada. The beauty of being teachers is that we have lots of free time in the summer. The traveling party would include my mother, my wife, my brother, and my niece (5). Also meeting us in Anaheim for a few days in the parks was our old neighbors from Arizona. It had been a few years since I had been to DL, I went back in 2012, but it was for five hours after our basketball team finished playing at the University of Redlands. My wife hadn't been to DL since she was 5. My mom, brother and niece had gone the summer before, so I was surprised to see them wanting to go back so soon, but I was happy!
Day 1 - Arrival into Long Beach - August 1st
We had a late flight out of Spokane, WA, to Long Beach with a short layover in Oakland. Nothing too exciting happened on the way down there, we got there and our neighbor picked us up. We were staying at the Courtyard by Marriott across from the park. We could see Space Mountain and Matterhorn from our window which was awesome...and made it tough to want to fall asleep with excitement. We got unpacked and got into bed as quickly as possible with the hopes of rope dropping the next day.
Day 2 - Rope Drop DCA, then DL - August 2nd
My wife and I are crazy people. We flew red eye to WDW in February, and went straight to the parks after minimal sleep. We woke up at 6:15, got ready and hustled off towards DCA since it didn't have early morning hours. This would be our strategy every day, we'd simply rope drop the park without the extended hours and it worked well. Getting to the front gates at 7:00, we were only a few people back from the front of the line to enter the park. I was astonished how much easier it was to rope drop DL/DCA than WDW, and I believe its the ability to walk up, and that the park is open earlier and mostly a local park. WDW would be nuts already an hour before opening.
We raced to Radiator Springs Racers after being let into the parks officially. When we walked down the streets of Cars Land, my wife and I were in shock of how amazing and authentic it was to the movies. After being to Pandora at AK, our expectations for Disney were high. Walking down Cars Land was truly amazing. Radiator Springs Racers was a blast, much better than Test Track at Epcot. We also got a Fastpass booked for Incredicoaster after we walked into the park. Incredicoaster went down, so we decided to walk towards Guardians. I know I will be in the minority here, but I love the movies, and I preferred the Guardians ride over Tower of Terror. It was the perfect mix of terror and laughter, plus I just love the music. We used were able to snag another Fastpass for Toy Story MM, which was fun and I enjoyed it more than Buzz Lightyear. After TSMM, we used our Fastpass for Incredicoaster and were off. I missed the classic California Screamin', and thought some of Incredicoaster felt rushed in its production - especially the babies on sticks. Some of the tunnel effects were cool such as the Fire/Violet tunnel and the cookie smell. But other than that, same coaster, just a new skin. Snagged a Fastpass for Soaring and afterwards headed to DL to meet with my family and our old neighbors. Rope dropping DCA got us the major attractions, minus Grizzly River Rapids, in less than two hours.
Once we met up with my family, things got a little slower. But were able to get onto Jungle Cruise, POTC, FP for BTMM, Haunted, FP for Indy and then my wife and I took a short break for the afternoon. When we returned, we decided to venture back over to DCA since my family hadn't been there today. My niece had enough for the day, and wanted to go to the waterpark back at the hotel. So my brother and niece went back, so it was just the "old people" left. We ate at the Lamplight Lounge for dinner on the upstairs patio. I was a little underwhelmed. Outside of the Lobster Nachos, I felt like everything was overpriced, even for Disney. Also, Dash screaming "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!" every 90 seconds really killed any vibe they might have had out there. I'd suggest to Disney to possibly turn Dash down, or have his audio in the car instead of outside. We FP Incredicoaster, and rode Guardians one more time on our way home. We left before the parade so the walk home wasn't too bad. My wife and I had talked about going open to close, but the 16 hour days with the heat were too much!
I thought this animatronic was the most impressive AA I've seen in any of the parks. The dang dog looks real!
After returning from our trip to Disney World in February with my wife's family, my mother wanted us to go to Disneyland together as a family. Fortunately, with my mother's favorite college basketball team laying a big egg in the NCAA Tournament, she had a bunch of Southwest miles built up. With my mother paying for airfare, we were ready to go to Disneyland in August! Another perk of my mom's work is that many people travel for business and someone was gracious enough to gift us enough points so our hotel was free as well! Without paying for both airfare and hotels, my wife and I could definitely afford a trip to DL even after early summer travels to Whistler, Canada. The beauty of being teachers is that we have lots of free time in the summer. The traveling party would include my mother, my wife, my brother, and my niece (5). Also meeting us in Anaheim for a few days in the parks was our old neighbors from Arizona. It had been a few years since I had been to DL, I went back in 2012, but it was for five hours after our basketball team finished playing at the University of Redlands. My wife hadn't been to DL since she was 5. My mom, brother and niece had gone the summer before, so I was surprised to see them wanting to go back so soon, but I was happy!
Day 1 - Arrival into Long Beach - August 1st
We had a late flight out of Spokane, WA, to Long Beach with a short layover in Oakland. Nothing too exciting happened on the way down there, we got there and our neighbor picked us up. We were staying at the Courtyard by Marriott across from the park. We could see Space Mountain and Matterhorn from our window which was awesome...and made it tough to want to fall asleep with excitement. We got unpacked and got into bed as quickly as possible with the hopes of rope dropping the next day.
Day 2 - Rope Drop DCA, then DL - August 2nd
My wife and I are crazy people. We flew red eye to WDW in February, and went straight to the parks after minimal sleep. We woke up at 6:15, got ready and hustled off towards DCA since it didn't have early morning hours. This would be our strategy every day, we'd simply rope drop the park without the extended hours and it worked well. Getting to the front gates at 7:00, we were only a few people back from the front of the line to enter the park. I was astonished how much easier it was to rope drop DL/DCA than WDW, and I believe its the ability to walk up, and that the park is open earlier and mostly a local park. WDW would be nuts already an hour before opening.
We raced to Radiator Springs Racers after being let into the parks officially. When we walked down the streets of Cars Land, my wife and I were in shock of how amazing and authentic it was to the movies. After being to Pandora at AK, our expectations for Disney were high. Walking down Cars Land was truly amazing. Radiator Springs Racers was a blast, much better than Test Track at Epcot. We also got a Fastpass booked for Incredicoaster after we walked into the park. Incredicoaster went down, so we decided to walk towards Guardians. I know I will be in the minority here, but I love the movies, and I preferred the Guardians ride over Tower of Terror. It was the perfect mix of terror and laughter, plus I just love the music. We used were able to snag another Fastpass for Toy Story MM, which was fun and I enjoyed it more than Buzz Lightyear. After TSMM, we used our Fastpass for Incredicoaster and were off. I missed the classic California Screamin', and thought some of Incredicoaster felt rushed in its production - especially the babies on sticks. Some of the tunnel effects were cool such as the Fire/Violet tunnel and the cookie smell. But other than that, same coaster, just a new skin. Snagged a Fastpass for Soaring and afterwards headed to DL to meet with my family and our old neighbors. Rope dropping DCA got us the major attractions, minus Grizzly River Rapids, in less than two hours.
Once we met up with my family, things got a little slower. But were able to get onto Jungle Cruise, POTC, FP for BTMM, Haunted, FP for Indy and then my wife and I took a short break for the afternoon. When we returned, we decided to venture back over to DCA since my family hadn't been there today. My niece had enough for the day, and wanted to go to the waterpark back at the hotel. So my brother and niece went back, so it was just the "old people" left. We ate at the Lamplight Lounge for dinner on the upstairs patio. I was a little underwhelmed. Outside of the Lobster Nachos, I felt like everything was overpriced, even for Disney. Also, Dash screaming "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!" every 90 seconds really killed any vibe they might have had out there. I'd suggest to Disney to possibly turn Dash down, or have his audio in the car instead of outside. We FP Incredicoaster, and rode Guardians one more time on our way home. We left before the parade so the walk home wasn't too bad. My wife and I had talked about going open to close, but the 16 hour days with the heat were too much!
I thought this animatronic was the most impressive AA I've seen in any of the parks. The dang dog looks real!
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