Reporting back!!
Crowds: not bad! Felt less crowded than previous trips, except for New Orleans which was a mess to walk through with the construction (but the shops were absolutely deserted with POTC closed so that was weird!).
@DLgal as you pointed out people were definitely more chill than at WDW for Sun-Wed. Thursday it was like the gloves came off. Strollers were battering rams, people were shoving through crowds, felt like MK. I couldn’t wait to leave. Maybe they were there for the holiday weekend? Idk but Thurs crowds were jerks. (I did love the group that shoved their way to the front of the tiki room waiting area only to give up like 2 mins before the doors opened and shoved their way back out since “nothing is happening”
).
G+ didn’t feel at all like the G+ I did at WDW. It was much more like old school MP. So much availability fairly close in.
Stayed GCH as it was a special trip. No early entry but that was actually ok. We couldn’t even make 8am openings. Parks were still pretty quiet 8:30-9am when we hit them and didn’t start feeling busy until 10:30-11ish. So, I actually didn’t miss Early Entry. We took the monorail into Disneyland 4 mornings which was awesome. Never more than a couple people in front of us to scan in and we always made it on the next arriving monorail. I know it’s not always running in the morning so I felt very lucky, especially as we drove over the masses at the main DL entry gates
Ride breakdowns are definitely a problem. I got into the habit of checking if the ride we were going to was operating before we trekked over to them. BTMRR, Indy, RSR, Snow White (so random lol) spring to mind as the stuff I saw closed most often.
We had TS reservations for breaks from the crowds. We were going to QS on our last day but as the crowds got worse I went on the app and got an 11:30 carnation cafe around 9am. SO happy we did because were not taking walk ups when we arrived (felt bad for the host CM, some lady came in and chewed the CM up one side and down the other because “the app said they had a waitlist option!”
).
OP, I still don’t feel comfortable saying you’re making a good decision with your money and will have a good time. I hope you do but everyone’s experiences are going to be different. Buy G+ for the first day to get some big rides with shorter lines in right off the bat. Get out in the parks early in the morning.