June 2017 Pre-Trip Report – WDW vets make their first DLR trip

Khokhonutt

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Let’s go to Disneyland! Meet the family!

This will be my first pre-trip report. I’ve done (post) trip reports in the past, but those were published on a personal website that I’ve since let go. I’ve read through a few pre-trip reports recently and found them helpful, both in the poster’s comments and in the responses they get, so I figured I’d give this a shot.

First let me introduce myself and the family:

That time when we had the chase the revenuers away:
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Me and the pups and the kids:
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My name is Jeff. I was born on an Army base in California. I mention that because technically I’ve been to Disneyland, but it when I was 1 or 2 years old, back in the 60s. I have no memory of going there, but I like to assume it helped kindle my love for Disney.

Since then, I’ve lived all over the country and lived overseas for a bit, while in the military. In the 70s I was lucky enough to live in Florida, where we made frequent trips to the Magic Kingdom, then EPCOT when it opened. Moving around, my trips to WDW were less frequent until 2004, when we made our first big family trip to stay on property and visit all of the current parks there. Since that time we’ve made 3 Disney band trips with our kids and their high school band, then one trip in 2011 with just our daughter.

I’m the planner in the family. I like to be thorough in knowing our options and I understand that to get the most out of your visit you need to have a plan. That said, I work hard to make sure we have all of our options, while leaving time for flexibility. I also try to impress on everyone that it’s not a disaster if something doesn’t work out. I find it sad to see some folks come back and hate their whole trip because one or two things didn’t go exactly as planned.

I met my wife in the military. She was checking IDs during Desert Storm and laughed at my last name, the first time I reported to our building. I figured the best revenge was to give her that last name. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. :) We made our first trip to WDW together when my wife was pregnant with our son. We went to EPCOT, because at the time they had no rides that would be a risk to the baby. That successfully started her love for the parks.

Our son will turn 25 this year. He has joined “the family business” and has been in the military since shortly after high school. His first trip to WDW was when he was 18 months old. We were traveling the country visiting family before a 2 year tour in Korea. We went to the Magic Kingdom that day with my Dad. My step-mom stayed home and took care of our then 6 month old daughter. I have to say that was one of my favorite trips to WDW. He was old enough to thoroughly enjoy the music, shows and sights. He wasn’t bothered by any of the rides, although we didn’t do any of the thrill rides that trip.

Our daughter will turn 24 this year. She also serves in the military at this time, joining after a year and a half of college. Her first trip to WDW was a trip to the Magic Kingdom when we returned from Korea. At that point our son was 3 1/2 and she was 2 1/2. They were huge Lion King fans, but the characters scared the crap out of them at the parks. I guess seeing a 6 foot tall version of Rafiki was a bit much for someone that small.

Our daughter’s boyfriend will also be joining us on this trip. He’s a great kid that we really care about. It appears there’s a future for this guy in our family, so we’re going to help him along with his Disney education. From what I understand he’s made a trip to Disneyland when he was young, but it's been a while and they didn’t stay long, so this will basically be his first big Disney trip.

The plan as we know it, so far…

We started planning this trip in 2015, with the idea we’d visit in June of 2016. We originally were talking about another WDW trip, but a few factors made us consider Disneyland. For one, FP+ was newly implemented at WDW and I was not a fan. There wasn’t enough information on how to make it work and I still think it is ludicrous that you would plan what day you were going to be in what park months in advance. We were also looking at when Avatar land would be open and wondered if it would be worth waiting for that. Then, considering both of the kids are stationed in the southwest US at this time, we started talking about making a Disneyland trip.

I actually credit HydroGuy for inspiring us to look seriously into Disneyland Resort. I’ve always had interest in visiting the park Walt built, but with it being across the country from North Carolina, where we live now, there was never a serious plan. One day I saw where someone on the WDW side posted a link to Hydro’s A DLR Guide for WDW Vets. Reading through that guide, I really appreciated Hydro’s perspective and that piqued my interest in Disneyland. All we had to add is the kids both living out west and poof, we’re planning our trip.

All along we were planning on a June trip, but when my daughter found out she was on a list to potentially be deployed in the summer of 2016, we pushed the whole plan out a year. We’re still planning on June this year, but we’re doing the last week of June at DLR and will spend the week of July 4th in Vegas.

Transportation:

Many people seem to think I’m crazy, when it comes to my choice to drive places, rather than fly. Since the kids have both moved, I’ve driven to/from Arizona and Nevada now a handful of times, from North Carolina. When each of the kids were assigned to their base, I drove them out to their base, spent the weekend helping them get settled, then flew back. Since then we’ve taken a family trip to Las Vegas that we drove out and back for. More recently we visited Arizona, driving out and back.

A few factors figure in my driving foolishness. For one, my family has always been travelers who drive where they go. My grandparents passed this on to my parents who passed it on to me. I’ve driven to most of the states in the US at this point, including a trip from North Carolina to South Dakota on my motorcycle for the Sturgis rally this past summer. For me, driving (anywhere except around Washington DC) is relaxing. I also feel like you don't really have a feel for the country, its sights, and the people unless you drive. Driving out west is beautiful, and you can really make time with their higher speed limits. Factor in the fact that I just can’t justify the price of flights from where we live (just outside Charlotte) and the fact that we typically travel with our dogs and you have our reasoning for driving.

Our current plan is to drive out to Vegas where we’ll stay with our daughter. We’ll board our dogs in Vegas while we go to Disneyland. Then we’ll pick the dogs up at the end of the week and stay to visit a few more days in Vegas before driving home. Our plan for the drive down to Anaheim is to leave Vegas at o’ dark thirty on Sunday morning, hopefully arriving in the Anaheim area by around 10am, local time. We’ve got 5 day park hopper tickets and we plan to be in the parks Monday through Friday. Then we head back to Vegas Saturday morning and pick up the pups.

Lodging:

We’ve got a suite reserved at Best Western Plus Park Place Inn & Mini Suites. The biggest thing I’ve wrestled with, so far, has been where to stay in Anaheim. At WDW we typically stay on property at the value resorts. We’ve chosen the value resorts mainly because when we’re awake, we’re typically at the parks. If we return to the resort it’s to nap, maybe take a quick dip in the pool and to sleep for the night. With that in mind, we’ve never been able to justify the cost of the fancier resorts versus having more money for fun in the parks. At DLR our decision was similar. We could have splurged on staying “on-property”, but that would have meant a tighter budget for other stuff. With the kids both making enlisted pay in the military, I like to help them out where I can and staying off property will allow more budget for that.

The fact that our hotel is very close to the parks, is intriguing. We’re used to the bus rides to the parks at WDW, which we never thought of as inconvenient. I’ve read that many DLR folks are taken aback by the bus rides, but we’ve always enjoyed them for their convenience of not having to deal with parking or finding our way around “the world” while we’re there. Being so close will be different and something I’m looking forward to experiencing.

We also like that breakfast is included in the room price. Our family differs in its appreciation of breakfast. I count on breakfast (and coffee) to get me started, while my kids are still generally fine with a pop tart. While the breakfast doesn’t appear to be extravagant, I think it gives us enough options to please us all. It also allows me to head down early while the others drag themselves out of the bed, where I can have a coffee and get my head ready for the day.

I think I’ll stop here for now. Next post, I’ll get into some of the more specific planning we’ve done so far…
 
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Our days in and around the park, the plan at this point…

We don’t have much in the way of specifics at this point, but I do have the following general thoughts…

As I mentioned in my first post, we plan to arrive in the area relatively early on Sunday. I’ve heard the horror stories of the Vegas to LA trip on Sunday and the LA to Vegas trip on Friday. I’m hoping the fact that I’m willing to drag the group out by 5am, to sleep in truck while I drive on Sunday morning will give us the best potential to get most of the way there without major traffic issues. I figure when we get through the desert, we’ll look for a place to grab breakfast, then head in to find parking. Google tells me we should make it from Vegas to Anaheim in 4 hours or so. With the hour or so stop for breakfast, I anticipate an arrival time of roughly 10am.

It’s not like we have solid plans for the day Sunday, so I won’t stress if we hit traffic. The biggest question mark I have at this point is parking when we get there. I’ve read the Best Western Plus Park Place Inn & Mini Suites doesn’t guarantee parking or check in until later in the day. I plan to call them and verify that, both before the trip and that day. Best case scenario would be to park there when we arrive and check into our room whenever it’s ready. That said, if we have to find parking for the first part of the day, we will. Then we'll move over to the hotel when it's ready.

Once we get parked, our Sunday plan is to explore the Disney Hotels and Downtown Disney, with a dinner reservation at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen. We’ve enjoyed resort hopping at WDW on early arrival days in the past and so I’d like to use this day to get a feel for the DLR hotels, in case we decide to stay at one in the future. I’d like to check out Trader Sam's, which we’ll probably plan for lunch. The rest of the day we’ll play by ear and wander. I’m guessing at some point in the afternoon our room will be ready. If all works out, we’ll move stuff into the room, then head back to DTD for dinner.

For the days in the park, we’ve always tried to start our trips at the Magic Kingdom. For me, it was my first park and it’s still the one that generates the most Disney Magic. With that in mind, I’d like to start Monday at Disneyland. I don’t know that we’ll use our Magic Morning that day as I’d like to give us time to soak things in and get our bearings the first day. We’re getting 5 day park hoppers, so I expect we’ll try to make it over to DCA at some point the first day, but I want to be back in DL for the fireworks that night. I’ve read all about the fireworks potential to cancel, so there will be dual reasons to see the fireworks on Monday. First, I’d just really like to end our first day with the fireworks, if at all possible. Second, I’m going with the general suggestion that you see the fireworks early, in case they get cancelled some or all of the rest of the week.

Tuesday through Thursday will be our more hard core touring days. We’ll hit the parks like we usually do with an early morning, hitting all the rides we can by lunch time, then head back to the hotel for an afternoon break, returning to the parks in the afternoon/evening for the rest of the night. We’ve got our list of must rides. We’d all like to hit the rides that are in both WDW and DLR, so we can do our own comparisons. I want to hit all the rides that are unique to DLR. Then we have our list of rides that we like to do, at least once during the day and once during the night. For example, I’ve always liked the Jungle cruise at night and during the day. It’s been suggested we do the Matterhorn both day and night as well. We’re also thinking the same for the monorail, since we all love how the parks look at night and imagine the ride above the parks at night would be cool.

Friday will be our wildcard day. If we’ve not ridden everything we want by Friday, we’ll hit the rides we’ve missed so far. If we’ve hit everything we want, it’ll be our day to hit our favorites again until we run out of time. I’ve heard from many that 3 days in the parks is fine, but for 2 main reasons we’re doing 5 days. First, we have what I call a leisure-aggressive touring style. Like I posted earlier, I know you need a plan. I know you need to choose rides and ride them, as opposed to wandering to a ride, seeing the line is long, then wandering to another ride. I know how to make fairly efficient use of Fastpass to optimize your ride times. That said, we also enjoy wandering and finding the little details that may distract you from hard core touring. For that reason, I like to build in flex time to our schedule. Our second reason for the 5 days is this could be our only trip to DLR. That’s not anything against DLR, it’s just a reality that the resort is across the country from where we live and we have a lot of other places we want to travel to and see. If this is our one and only trip to DLR, I don’t want to leave anything on the table, so we chose 5 days for this visit.

While we’re in the parks, we’re thinking we’d like to eat at the Blue Bayou Restaurant. That may be our only table service meal. Going with the when in Rome, do as the locals do general idea, we plan to hit mostly counter service for meals. There seem to be lots of good options to try. That also keeps overall food costs down, which is important to the kids. We also had a less than perfect experience with using a dining plan our last trip to WDW, so we don't want to schedule a ton of meals. Don’t get me wrong, the food was great, when we did the dining plan, and we tried most of our “always wanted to try this place” places. We mainly just felt tied down to the ADRs, they drove when we were in the parks at what time, most of that trip. We also felt like we were always eating and full. I’m a big eater, and it was still just a little too much food.

I am planning to splurge and treat the group to the WOC dessert party. I realize that’s not a cheap option, but I like the idea of having the seats in a defined spot without killing a bunch of time waiting on a hopefully good spot. Right now I’m thinking we’ll get reservations for that on 2 nights (probably Tuesday and Thursday). Just to cover any chances for bad weather. If the first night goes well, we’ll cancel the second.

Saturday I expect we’ll head out early, but not ridiculously early, to head back to Vegas. We’ll all want to get back and pick up the pups. We also have to be out of the hotel by 11am. We’ll likely grab our breakfast, then hope to be back in Vegas for a late lunch and relax time.

I think that's most of my thoughts at this time. I'd love to hear any tips and tricks folks might have for us. I may do one more post, covering what we generally do to prep for a day in the parks, but I've got to think on that one a bit more.
 
Some other stuff that comes to mind…

So an interesting twist for us this trip is that I purchased one of the old PhotoPass packages before they got taken offline, back in November of 2015. I have to imagine Disney will still honor it in some manner, but I haven’t really look seriously into how PhotoPass has changed since then. I’ve read that the photographers are not as prevalent at DLR as they are in WDW, but we still enjoyed getting fun pictures of the whole group, our last trip. Here are a few of our favorites. We were there celebrating our daughter’s graduation, my wife’s birthday and our 20th anniversary.

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In regards to pictures in the parks, we’ve really gotten to where we primarily use our phones. I went through a period where I carried a nice DSLR camera and lenses into the park. I did like some of the pictures I got, but I didn’t care for hauling the camera and bag around or having to worry about it getting wet. We also have a GoPro that I’m still flip flopping on bringing to DLR. It’s cool and all, but to a certain extent I find constantly using something like the GoPro can be distracting. I'm guessing at this point that for this trip we’ll probably just carry our phones and then our external battery pack chargers. I mentioned the chargers on another thread, because I think they’re a great accessory for your phone on pretty much any vacation. We like the Anker brand. We’ve ordered them from Amazon. We've had a 10,000mAh unit for years and I recently added a 13,000mAh model that I use on my motorcycle. They're a little bigger than the little pen size models, but each unit will keep multiple phones charged for a full day of vacation use.

The other item I’m tossing around is getting a subscription to RideMax for this trip. Our last trip to WDW in 2011, the Disney app was pretty basic and didn't provide much other than park maps and general info. We ordered and used the touringplans.com app for that trip, mainly for wait times and fastpass return times. It was considered the best one at that time and it was well worth the $15 (I think) that I paid for it. I’ve read that touringplans.com still does well for WDW, but is not as strong in DLR. RideMax seems to be the better choice for DLR. I’ve never actually created touring plans using any of the apps, so I’m mildly curious about that. I’ve heard the Disney app has grown up quite a bit. Can anyone speak to whether, if you’re only after wait times and fastpass return times, is the Disney app sufficient now?

One of the only other items to consider at this point is the weather. Being a weather forecaster in the military, I do a lot of weather research before we travel different places. I know we won’t be able to plan on an accurate forecast until a week or so out, but I know enough now to know what general clothing options we’ll need. The good thing about us driving is we can plan on about anything we need and we’ve got plenty of room to haul it along. For any locals who may read this, who is your best meteorologist in the area is? There’s a big difference between a TV weather guy/gal and a meteorologist. Most cities have that one weather geek who really gets into the forecast models to make their forecast and as a result, they're usually the most accurate resource in the area. I’m curious if anyone knows who that might be in the LA area. I’d like to see what they have to say as we get closer to our trip.

Ok, this time I’m really done. For now. Most likely… :)
 
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Subscribing. Great start so far. We're also making our first DL trip in the summer so love hearing about other's experiences. We did WDW once two years ago and loved it so are giving DL a try.
 


Great start! I like all your organization and your pre-trip thoughts. You are definitely on the right track. Get as many FP as you can when you are allowed to. Radiator Springs Racers as well as Hyperspace Mountain is a must-do for us!
Blue Bayou was very nice - the ambiance is great. Thought the food was standard, but solid. I have a review in my trip report. I thought the best food was at Carthay Circle and the most fun Character meal was Goofy's Kitchen for brunch, although it was a little noisy. Good idea in catching the fireworks your first day in the parks. They do get cancelled. Luckily they did not for us. the fireworks are nice but not as dramatic as WDW. World of Color is a must-do and I'd get an FP for this (which you can get at any time even if you have FP for other rides) so you are guaranteed a spot to stand.
Getting around DLR is much easier than WDW. Walking between parks is really nice rather than waiting for a bus, plus Downtown Disney is right there as well. The Monorail from DL takes you right to Downtown Disney, closer to the Disneyland hotel. It's all very convenient.
You will be able to do everything you want to in 5 days in June. For us we did almost everything for 5 days in September and our park hours were only from 10-8pm every day. I still felt the parks were crowded in Sept, compared to WDW which is pretty empty in Sept.
Looking forward to more!
 
Great start! I like all your organization and your pre-trip thoughts. You are definitely on the right track. Get as many FP as you can when you are allowed to. Radiator Springs Racers as well as Hyperspace Mountain is a must-do for us!
Blue Bayou was very nice - the ambiance is great. Thought the food was standard, but solid. I have a review in my trip report. I thought the best food was at Carthay Circle and the most fun Character meal was Goofy's Kitchen for brunch, although it was a little noisy. Good idea in catching the fireworks your first day in the parks. They do get cancelled. Luckily they did not for us. the fireworks are nice but not as dramatic as WDW. World of Color is a must-do and I'd get an FP for this (which you can get at any time even if you have FP for other rides) so you are guaranteed a spot to stand.
Getting around DLR is much easier than WDW. Walking between parks is really nice rather than waiting for a bus, plus Downtown Disney is right there as well. The Monorail from DL takes you right to Downtown Disney, closer to the Disneyland hotel. It's all very convenient.
You will be able to do everything you want to in 5 days in June. For us we did almost everything for 5 days in September and our park hours were only from 10-8pm every day. I still felt the parks were crowded in Sept, compared to WDW which is pretty empty in Sept.
Looking forward to more!

Thanks for the input. I read through your 2016 trip report and enjoyed your perspective as a WDW vet.

I get what you're saying about Blue Bayou. The general impression I've got is that it's better for the ambiance than the food. That said, Pirates has always been one of my favorite rides, so it's a must do for me. At this point I don't know that we'll plan any other table service meals in the parks, partly for budgetary considerations and partly for time. There are a bunch of the counter service places that have caught my eye, so for now our plan is to hit as many of those as we can.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the differences between DLR and WDW. I'm not approaching it from a, "which one is better" perspective. More I'm interested to see where the similarities and differences are. I also really like Disney history, so there will be great appeal from that perspective for me.

I'm curious, have you guys eaten at any of the restaurants in Downtown Disney at DLR? One of the things I'm waffling on now is dinner on Sunday, when we arrive. We won't have park tickets and plan to eat dinner in Downtown Disney. Originally we were thinking Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, mainly because when we're traveling I like to get something we can't get at home. We have a couple of Cajun places here, but Ralph's looked nicer than what we have. But then, on Christmas eve we were in Atlanta and ate at a place called Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, which now has me considering other options. Just curious if you have any input on the DTD restaurants.

A couple of general updates for the post:
  • I talked a little bit with a couple folks regarding our drive from Vegas. They confirmed we should be good with an early leave time, but advised checking Google traffic and Waze to be sure there are no issues when we leave. Apparently the worst of the trip between Vegas and LA is typically between Vegas and the CA/NV state line (unless there's a wreck in the desert). Our plan is still to get on the road no later than 5am. We'll check the traffic apps, with I-15 remaining our primary route, but I have a couple of alternate routes if needed.
  • In terms of the weather, so far we don't have a specific weather source in the LA area. One of the moderators said they'd look around, but in the meantime, we'll stick with our usual weather planning. Having been a weather guy when I was in the military, I typically check National Weather Service (NWS) forecasts when I travel, along with Accuweather and the weather channel forecast page. NWS is a good source for the official area advisories, watches & warnings, but their forecasts are usually the most pessimistic, i.e. if there's a chance it'll happen they're going to forecast it. Most of that has to do with them being a government entity, so they have to cover their bases for legal reasons. Accuweather is usually the most optimistic forecast, i.e. everything tends to look wonderful until the weather actually starts happening. While I've quit watching the weather channel since they started favoring the Jim Cantore sensationalism (by naming their winter storms and such), their web forecasts are usually pretty middle of the road and relatively reliable.
Thanks again for following along!
 
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Thanks for the input. I read through your 2016 trip report and enjoyed your perspective as a WDW vet.

Thanks! I have fun in both parks. They are different beasts, and each have their own pros and cons.

I get what you're saying about Blue Bayou. The general impression I've got is that it's better for the ambiance than the food. That said, Pirates has always been one of my favorite rides, so it's a must do for me. At this point I don't know that we'll plan any other table service meals in the parks, partly for budgetary considerations and partly for time. There are a bunch of the counter service places that have caught my eye, so for now our plan is to hit as many of those as we can.

Yes definitely, if you're a fan of Pirates, then Blue Bayou is a real treat. It's always been on my Disney bucket list to do so and I'm glad we did! We did not eat as much counter service as we'd liked. For the most part, our TS meals filled us up for a long time and then we'd just grab some snacks like a pretzel, or churro. I must say though, we really enjoyed the fried chicken dinners at Plaza Inn which turns into quick service during dinner. Sadly though it closed so early on our trip that we were only able to eat there once for dinner.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the differences between DLR and WDW. I'm not approaching it from a, "which one is better" perspective. More I'm interested to see where the similarities and differences are. I also really like Disney history, so there will be great appeal from that perspective for me.

Yup, definitely the way to see DLR vs WDW. I love them both!

I'm curious, have you guys eaten at any of the restaurants in Downtown Disney at DLR? One of the things I'm waffling on now is dinner on Sunday, when we arrive. We won't have park tickets and plan to eat dinner in Downtown Disney. Originally we were thinking Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen, mainly because when we're traveling I like to get something we can't get at home. We have a couple of Cajun places here, but Ralph's looked nicer than what we have. But then, on Christmas eve we were in Atlanta and ate at a place called Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, which now has me considering other options. Just curious if you have any input on the DTD restaurants.

We did not eat at any of the restaurants in DTD. I wish we did but we just weren't hungry enough for a full meal when we got back from the parks. The only place we ate at was Earl of Sandwich, although tasty, isn't exactly unique. I've heard good things about Ralph Brennan's though, especially their beignets. I dont' know why we didn't try them there since I do love myself a good beignet...either I forgot they had them there, or we were too full from a meal.

A couple of general updates for the post:

  • I talked a little bit with a couple folks regarding our drive from Vegas. They confirmed we should be good with an early leave time, but advised checking Google traffic and Waze to be sure there are no issues when we leave. Apparently the worst of the trip between Vegas and LA is typically between Vegas and the CA/NV state line (unless there's a wreck in the desert). Our plan is still to get on the road no later than 5am. We'll check the traffic apps, with I-15 remaining our primary route, but I have a couple of alternate routes if needed.
  • In terms of the weather, so far we don't have a specific weather source in the LA area. One of the moderators said they'd look around, but in the meantime, we'll stick with our usual weather planning. Having been a weather guy when I was in the military, I typically check National Weather Service (NWS) forecasts when I travel, along with Accuweather and the weather channel forecast page. NWS is a good source for the official area advisories, watches & warnings, but their forecasts are usually the most pessimistic, i.e. if there's a chance it'll happen they're going to forecast it. Most of that has to do with them being a government entity, so they have to cover their bases for legal reasons. Accuweather is usually the most optimistic forecast, i.e. everything tends to look wonderful until the weather actually starts happening. While I've quit watching the weather channel since they started favoring the Jim Cantore sensationalism (by naming their winter storms and such), their web forecasts are usually pretty middle of the road and relatively reliable.
Thanks again for following along!

Again such good attention to detail!
I have driven from Vegas to LA before...but that was before you had real-time GPS. We definitely hit some traffic but we also didn't leave as early as you plan to. I think with Waze you should be ok to avoid the heavy traffic routes.
Hope you guys get some good weather! I mean, it's pretty much the norm in California so the rainy weather they've been having recently is definitely a rarity!
 


I think it's great you're getting 5-day park hopper tickets! We are going to be in DL at the very beginning of June and are planning on 4-5 days. We've done 3 day trips before, but it always feels really rushed and hurried, so I'm looking forward to having enough time at the parks on our next trip to really savor stuff.

There isn't much between Las Vegas and LA. Barstow would probably be your first opportunity for a decent breakfast. Since you'll be travelling in June, you won't run into any real weather other than super hot temps in the desert. Make sure you bring along some extra drinking water just in case. Monsoon rains don't usually start in the desert until later in June or in July.

1 thing I really like about DL/DCA is how there are a lot of decent CS options at both parks. So you don't have to eat the same boring hamburgers and hot dogs the whole time you're there!
 
I think it's great you're getting 5-day park hopper tickets! We are going to be in DL at the very beginning of June and are planning on 4-5 days. We've done 3 day trips before, but it always feels really rushed and hurried, so I'm looking forward to having enough time at the parks on our next trip to really savor stuff.

There isn't much between Las Vegas and LA. Barstow would probably be your first opportunity for a decent breakfast. Since you'll be travelling in June, you won't run into any real weather other than super hot temps in the desert. Make sure you bring along some extra drinking water just in case. Monsoon rains don't usually start in the desert until later in June or in July.

1 thing I really like about DL/DCA is how there are a lot of decent CS options at both parks. So you don't have to eat the same boring hamburgers and hot dogs the whole time you're there!

Thanks! It's good to get some validation on our planning. I 100% agree on allowing extra time to appreciate the details. I'm thinking the same about the desert and water. We'll be bringing water for the trip anyway, so we should be covered there. We'll just have to make sure we have some left for the return trip. It's funny you say that about the CS options. My wife and I were talking about that very thing last night. :)

The one update to our plan, at this point, has to do with the Sunday we arrive. I talked to the folks at the hotel. They said they can't guarantee parking before 1pm. That said, they told us we could stop by when we get to town and check. Our room might be ready. If not we'll have to wait.

If we do have to wait, I'm seriously considering making a run down to the Dim Sum place ChunkyMonkey mentioned in her trip report. I'm a sucker for all kinds of Asian food and I'm thinking the run down to the mall to grab something unique to eat may be a better bet than trying to find (expensive) parking while we wait on 1pm. We also decided to play our food plan in and around DTD that day by ear, so that helps with the flexibility that day.
 
Our family are suckers for good Asian food as well! On our next trip this May/June, I really want to try out the food at Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai, which is a Japanese ramen noodle place in Buena Park. http://ramenbannai.com/location/. They also have a location in Costa Mesa. They are open Sundays starting at 11am.
 
“Since we’re sharing…”

I thought I’d share some of our planning strategies/traditions in this post. I’m sure some of the stuff we do isn’t going to match every family, but so far it’s worked well for us.

Communication:
As with anything in life, I think communication is key. Since our first trip to WDW, the rest of the family has been pretty content with me doing the planning and them having the fun when we get there (of course I have fun, too, but you know what I mean). Even though I’m mainly doing the planning, I’ve always tried to keep them engaged. I like to assign “homework”. Things like, “List your top 5 must-dos for the trip”, “If you could only eat one place, where would it be?” When everyone lived in the same house, I’d have them make me a written list for their response. Now that we’re separated by many states and miles, we do much of our planning via email, phone or text.

My goal with the homework is that I get them thinking of the things they want to do, so I’m not just assuming. It also gets them thinking about the trip and what they’d like to do. I’ve said before I don’t go with a goal of a perfect trip, but it just makes sense to me to have an idea of what we’d would like to do. And with that in mind, I don’t want to assume and I want everyone to weigh in.

Other information I send includes links to the forums and other sites that I find especially interesting. Since we’re all adults now and share some of the trip expenses, I share budgeting info as well. I’ll share packing tips, ideas we have on what we’re going to wear and bring. We talk about food and eating plans. We try to pretty much share any ideas we have, so everyone is in the loop.

As far as budgeting communication goes, we have something that works well for us. Since our kids have been adults and out on their own we (thankfully) continue to enjoy family vacations. On those vacations, and with this one as well, we typically agree on our cuts of the rooms, tickets and stuff like that. We also have an agreement on meals that unless otherwise stated, we’re all covering our own meals. My additional deal with them, in regards to meals, is that any time I insist on a “fancy” meal, Mom and Dad will cover that meal. And just to be sure there’s no confusion, we’ll usually state before we enter the restaurant what the payment plan is.

Transportation planning and packing:
I mentioned in an earlier post we’ll be driving out to Anaheim. Our vehicle of choice for these trips is our Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck. It’s not the best on mileage, but it’s good for a truck. The big bonus is it's got plenty of room to carry us and as much crap as we choose to haul with us. Since we have the luxury of a large vehicle, we don’t necessarily over pack when it comes to clothing, but we do plan for most reasonable scenarios. For this trip that will mean:
  • A sweatshirt and/or light jacket for any potentially cool mornings or evenings.
  • Ponchos or rain jackets for rain.
  • Multiple pairs of shoes, both for options and so we have a dry pair of one pair gets wet.
  • A couple of spare outfits, in case we sweat our way out of an outfit (or do what I typically do and spill lunch on a shirt).

We’ll also bring drinks and snacks to keep in the room. We don’t typically do a bunch of eating in the room, but it’s always nice to have some water and a small snack if you want it. I also bring along sunflower seeds (in their husk) for the trip out and back.

If you’ve never used sunflower seeds as a means to keep you awake while driving, you have to try it. I’ve always found that caffeine alone can be unsafe when driving long distances. Eventually with too much, I get the shakes and it actually hurts my concentration. Instead, I take a few sunflower seeds and put them in my cheek (kind of like a tobacco chewer would do). I then take an empty water bottle and I shuck the seeds one at a time using my mouth, I spit the husks in the bottle and eat the seeds. I’m telling you that simple activity occupies your mind in a way that you almost never get sleepy. Don’t get me wrong, you have to stop and rest, but those times when I feel like my eyelids are getting heavy, I pop in a few seeds and I’m completely alert and awake. It really works well.

Our list of “stuff” that we usually bring is pretty extensive. Everything from tools in the truck (doesn't everyone keep a tow strap in their vehicle?), to food and water for the dogs, to the normal medication and day to day items. I won't list all of the normal stuff, but I thought I'd list a few of the things I suspect not everyone does:
  • Spare pillows. We like them for taking a nap on the road on the while we're driving (the passenger of course). We also sleep with 2 pillows each at home, so we like to have spares on the road, if the hotel doesn’t have enough.
  • A fan. It may sound odd but we started sleeping with a box fan when we were doing shift work in the military. The white noise helped us sleep during the day when other stuff was going on. We’ve now gotten dependent on that white noise, so we have a travel fan that goes with us pretty much anywhere we can take it. It really helps, especially for daytime naps when the hotel can be a little noisy.
  • Chargers. I’m sure everyone has a bunch of things they need to charge on a trip like phones, cameras, etc. With that in mind we’ve got a couple of things we do to optimize our charging capabilities. If you’re looking for aftermarket charging stuff, I’m a big fan of Anker (ordered from Amazon). Their products are good quality, come well packaged and are fair priced. Our charging “hub” is an Anker 40W USB Charger PowerPort 5. It basically turns a single plug from the wall into 5 USB power ports. That charger will charge our phones, our camera and our two portable chargers. Speaking of the portable chargers, we have 2 Anker portable chargers. These chargers are like the little pen sized USB chargers you may have seen for charging your phone, only on steroids. Our one charger is a 10,000mAh unit and the other is a 13,000mAh unit. They’re a little bigger than a phone, but small enough to fit in your pocket and they can charge multiple devices at a time. You actually could get away with one of these chargers (we have before), but we ended up with two so we'll bring them both.
  • Laptop. While I love what I can do on my phone, I still run to the laptop or desktop computer for any real work. I have a small convertible laptop that is nice for trips. It’s small, light and can be flipped over to act like a tablet. While I’ll have a copy of all of our hotel and ticket information on my phone, our master copy will be on the laptop, along with access to our Disney account. We'll also use the laptop with an external USB harddrive as the place where we offload pictures and video at the end of the day.
  • HooToo. What's a HooToo you say? It's a mini router/bridge that a friend recommended that's nifty for use on trips to make connecting to wifi easier for the family. Basically it's a pocket sized unit that can be configured either as a router, like you have at home with a wired connection, or as a wireless bridge. It's cool because you can setup a secure connection for your phones to this bridge and once you've configured it to connect to a hotel network, there's only one signin for everyone. You only jump through the hoops of connecting to the hotel network once. It also works around systems where they try to charge you for every device you connect.
Well, let’s see if this will all fit in one post. If you made it through all of this rubbish, congratulations and thanks for sticking with me! Till next time…
 
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I just signed on to watch your thread too! First off, thank you and your family for serving.

Your upcoming trip sounds really fun! It would have been nice for you if the Disney Discount for veterans was larger so you could stay onsite. The Magic Mornings ( for Disneyland on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday) and Early Entries (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday) can make a big difference. On Monday morning, being at the gates when they open at Disneyland is smart.

Restaurants. I have found for my family, counter service and some of the sit down restaurants cost just about the same. Check out the menus for all the eateries at the Disneyland website, this website and allears dot com. Plus, check out the food thread too. Many people post pictures from the restaurant (Filiment I think is the name of the poster who does such a great job on posting pics and describing. Carnation Café is a TS restaurant that has a decent menu. The plus is Monday - Friday Oscar was working there. He just celebrated his 60th year with Disneyland! We've done late breakfast and early lunch here. My family likes the early lunch better. Hubby : chicken fried chicken, son: burger, daughter 1: potato soup, daughter 2: salad, me: meatloaf, appetizers - fried dill pickles and a plate of French fries. My son has a hard time sharing his French Fries.
Tomorrowland Terrace, (now called Galactic Grill or something like that, not sure) has a decent menu for breakfast. It's CS that's always busy. Hubby gets the breakfast burrito, son and daughter #2 get a breakfast platter, daughter #1 doesn't want anything (but picks off everyone's plate) I get a yogurt parfait and we put a fruit platter in the center of the table for all. Disneyland has really good fruit.
Flo's in Carsland has an okay breakfast. They have a fruit platter there too.
In DTD, Tortilla Joes is a good. Their chicken burrito is very large, but very delicious. Same with the nachos. Daughter #2 ordered them before, then stated she didn't like them because there was too much cheese on them! They were delicious.
Naples, Restaurante is owned by the same company that owns Tortilla Joes, and Catal in DTD. Food is good, but pricy. The 3 restaurants all have take out windows too.
The first time we took our kids to DL was when they were 7. They really enjoyed Rainforest Café, so we make it a point to have lunch there once.
There's an AMC Theater in DTD. We usually see 2 movies when we are there. It is a nice change to catch a movie, then have a nice lunch. Everyone is refreshed and ready to get on the monorail and have more fun.
I do have to say, Whitewater Snacks in the Grand Californian Hotel (easy to get to from DCA- across from Grizzly Rapids' exit) is the place we visit the most on our trips. They open for breakfast and stay open to 9 I think. The is a nice variety to choose from and the prices are reasonable. It is a great place to go and relax. We tend to sit outside under the covered patio (use the doors by the register) those tables by the fence. I enjoy peeking into DCA watching the people hurry by, hearing all the sounds while we sit and enjoy a meal as a family. Once in a while, you may even catch site of a Disneyland cat.
Starbucks are nice in both parks. Daughter #2 and I are particularly fond of the Starbucks in DCA! They do have a couple of sandwiches and salads for lunch/dinner, and of course, a couple of breakfast sandwiches as well as all the other goodies too! They take Starbucks cards there and you earn the points, but you cannot use the Starbucks rewards in the Starbucks in the parks, you can at the Starbucks in DTD (there are now 2).
I am rambling now. Last tip is to bring plenty of sunscreen. This includes the chapstick that has SPF in it. Plenty of water too. There is a Costco if you have a membership, that is close, and a Target too.
 
I just signed on to watch your thread too! First off, thank you and your family for serving.

Your upcoming trip sounds really fun! It would have been nice for you if the Disney Discount for veterans was larger so you could stay onsite. The Magic Mornings ( for Disneyland on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday) and Early Entries (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday) can make a big difference. On Monday morning, being at the gates when they open at Disneyland is smart.

Restaurants. I have found for my family, counter service and some of the sit down restaurants cost just about the same. Check out the menus for all the eateries at the Disneyland website, this website and allears dot com. Plus, check out the food thread too. Many people post pictures from the restaurant (Filiment I think is the name of the poster who does such a great job on posting pics and describing. Carnation Café is a TS restaurant that has a decent menu. The plus is Monday - Friday Oscar was working there. He just celebrated his 60th year with Disneyland! We've done late breakfast and early lunch here. My family likes the early lunch better. Hubby : chicken fried chicken, son: burger, daughter 1: potato soup, daughter 2: salad, me: meatloaf, appetizers - fried dill pickles and a plate of French fries. My son has a hard time sharing his French Fries.
Tomorrowland Terrace, (now called Galactic Grill or something like that, not sure) has a decent menu for breakfast. It's CS that's always busy. Hubby gets the breakfast burrito, son and daughter #2 get a breakfast platter, daughter #1 doesn't want anything (but picks off everyone's plate) I get a yogurt parfait and we put a fruit platter in the center of the table for all. Disneyland has really good fruit.
Flo's in Carsland has an okay breakfast. They have a fruit platter there too.
In DTD, Tortilla Joes is a good. Their chicken burrito is very large, but very delicious. Same with the nachos. Daughter #2 ordered them before, then stated she didn't like them because there was too much cheese on them! They were delicious.
Naples, Restaurante is owned by the same company that owns Tortilla Joes, and Catal in DTD. Food is good, but pricy. The 3 restaurants all have take out windows too.
The first time we took our kids to DL was when they were 7. They really enjoyed Rainforest Café, so we make it a point to have lunch there once.
There's an AMC Theater in DTD. We usually see 2 movies when we are there. It is a nice change to catch a movie, then have a nice lunch. Everyone is refreshed and ready to get on the monorail and have more fun.
I do have to say, Whitewater Snacks in the Grand Californian Hotel (easy to get to from DCA- across from Grizzly Rapids' exit) is the place we visit the most on our trips. They open for breakfast and stay open to 9 I think. The is a nice variety to choose from and the prices are reasonable. It is a great place to go and relax. We tend to sit outside under the covered patio (use the doors by the register) those tables by the fence. I enjoy peeking into DCA watching the people hurry by, hearing all the sounds while we sit and enjoy a meal as a family. Once in a while, you may even catch site of a Disneyland cat.
Starbucks are nice in both parks. Daughter #2 and I are particularly fond of the Starbucks in DCA! They do have a couple of sandwiches and salads for lunch/dinner, and of course, a couple of breakfast sandwiches as well as all the other goodies too! They take Starbucks cards there and you earn the points, but you cannot use the Starbucks rewards in the Starbucks in the parks, you can at the Starbucks in DTD (there are now 2).
I am rambling now. Last tip is to bring plenty of sunscreen. This includes the chapstick that has SPF in it. Plenty of water too. There is a Costco if you have a membership, that is close, and a Target too.

Thanks for all the info and the kind words.

Yeah, we looked into the military discount tickets. I'm glad they offer that program for military families, but when we looked at the total picture of our plan for the week, the difference in cost was very minor for what we decided in the end. The fact that we're travelling with 5 people made a difference. Where everyone lives did, too. In regards to early entry, I get what you're saying. We've always taken advantage of the early entry at WDW, which is one of the reasons I waffled so much on staying on property versus off. In the end, the cost difference made the decision easy, but the time of the early hours also was a factor. When we're going to be in DLR, assuming park hours are the same as last year, the parks will open at 8am, with early entry at 7am. While making the 7am entry wouldn't be too hard for my wife and I, coming from the east coast, the kids are all on pacific time. While the military has made them both better morning people, getting up at 5am-6am every morning of a vacation (to rouse 5 people, get them ready and fed, etc) makes it less of a vacation. We'll likely do our MM on the Tuesday we get there, to get it out of the way while we have that early vacation energy. Then we'll just do our best to do what we can making regular rope drop the rest of the days.

I appreciate all the food info as well. I've spent a good amount of time looking at the various food options and menus. Several factors went into the plan we currently have. Cost is one factor, but there are several others.
  • Flexibility is a big factor. Our first big trip to WDW is basically our gold standard for the way we would like all vacations to go. It was a great trip, not just for the stuff we planned, but in large part due to the flexibility we left ourselves to explore and make last minute decisions. One of the reasons I am so anti FP+ at WDW is I'm not a fan of planning every minute of a vacation. I strongly believe you should go into a vacation knowing all of your options, but IMHO the vacation can downhill quickly if planning and a vacation schedule hinder what should be a time to relax and have fun. Our last trip to WDW food had a slightly negative impact on our trip. On that trip we decided to splurge on a dining plan. Part of it was awesome, in that we tried a bunch of restaurants we had always wanted to try. But we also felt like we were constantly a slave to our reservation schedule. We had to be in certain parks at a certain time in order to make the reservations we'd made months in advance. We were also stuffed with food, trying to get the value out of our meals that we had paid for.
  • Another factor has to do with some of our meal preferences. While we're all pretty diverse and adventurous eaters, we all have our own preferences. Breakfast, for example, is one of my favorite meals. I like the time it gives me to start the day, have a coffee and wake up. I'm glad to get up an hour earlier to accommodate breakfast. My wife is happy with the breakfasts I make and the ones we go out for, but it's not her favorite. If I made dessert for breakfast, it would be closer to her favorite. :) Our kids are a mixture of not wanting to waste time on breakfast and occasionally enjoying a big breakfast. For those reasons, I like that we have a breakfast at the hotel that's included. I can get up an hour early and enjoy, while the rest get ready. I'm not closing the door to a breakfast or two in the park, though.
  • The list of things we "have to try" is another reason I want flexibility. Blue Bayou is a no brainer, since we all like the POTC ride and movies. Then there's the list of corndogs, soup bowls, etc that I've listed off various "must have" threads. And given the rift churros seem to create between WDW and DLR lovers, I've got to try at least one churro in DLR. :) All of that has me thinking we may snack our way through DLR, rather than sticking by a strict 6am breakfast, noon lunch and 6pm dinner schedule. I also know eating off hours can be a good plan at the parks, which works well with the eat a little whenever you're hungry plan.
  • We're also leaving the door open for other counter service meals, but even in DTD we like food court type options you seem to have by eating at the CS window offerings instead. That seems to allow for everyone to grab a little of what they're hungry for at the time and perhaps share. That said, if we find something that really looks/smells good, we'll either see what the wait is or see about a reservation later in the week, since I've heard you have better luck with that at DLR versus WDW.
The one place I had not looked into, that you mentioned, is Whitewater Snacks. How do you usually get there? I had always understood the GCH entrance to CA was for DLR resort guests only. Or is that just for early entry?

Again, thanks for all the cool info!
 
So my wife and I had an idea about designing trip shirts for all of us. Unfortunately it looks like that idea will be a no go, due to Disney copyright rules. I thought I'd share here, both to help folks and because I'm at least going to try to share the images I put together, because hey, I put the time into creating at least part of them. I'll admit that I'm not an artist, but I do dabble in computer related photo editing and such. I thought if I put together these images we could use them on the shirts, assuming there was no money being made on them. What I failed to consider is that the printer makes money off doing the work and if they do that with copyrighted material, they can get in trouble.

I did use and modify the art in the images, but I was amused that Disney even protects the Disney font (the front of the shirt got flagged, even with minimal art). For those looking to have trip shirts made, you can have them made, but for the most part you can't use anything that mimics Disney owned fonts, images and designs. So, for example, you can get a Disney shirt with a castle. That castle just can't look exactly like Cinderella's or Sleeping Beauty's castle. Disney also allows you to design your own shirts on their store site, the options are just relatively limited.

Anyway, this is what we came up with as our t-shirt idea. All of the fronts would match with the following image:
01%20Shirt%20Idea%20Front-M.jpg

Then for each of the shirt backs, I asked everyone in the group for their favorite Disney movie. I took that info, decided on a quote and art to go with that quote. This is what we came up with...

For my wife:
01%20Shirt%20Idea%20K%20Back-M.jpg

For my daughter:
01%20Shirt%20Idea%20N%20Back-M.jpg

For my daughter's boyfriend:
01%20Shirt%20Idea%20B%20Back-M.jpg

For my son:
01%20Shirt%20Idea%20D%20Back-M.jpg

And for me:
01%20Shirt%20Idea%20J%20Back-M.jpg

Oh well, it was still fun project. In the end we decided we'll all just get one more shirt of our choice at the parks, if we don't come up with a better idea between now and then. :)
 
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Whitewater snacks is my favorite place to eat and I'm always so surprised more people don't talk about it. The nachos there are the best! It's just such a relaxing spot to enjoy a meal.

You can get there through the GCH entrance of DCA. It's only the mornings that are restricted to guests only.
 
we'll either see what the wait is or see about a reservation later in the week, since I've heard you have better luck with that at DLR versus WDW.
We have had really good luck with making and changing reservations at DLR restaurants.
The one place I had not looked into, that you mentioned, is Whitewater Snacks. How do you usually get there? I had always understood the GCH entrance to CA was for DLR resort guests only. Or is that just for early entry?
In the mornings, that is true, but, you can exit from CA into the GCH at any time. To get to Whitewater Snacks from CA, across from Grizzly Rapids is the entrance to the hotel. Go there, when you get to the end of the walkway, turn left. It is all the way down at the end of the building. You will see the signage for it. The pool is on the right. (The nachos are really good. The individual size pizza comes with a good salad. Most beverages are refillable here too.)

There are so many good snacks and meals to try at DLR. You could snack your way through your vacation and still not try all the goodies! For example, from the Cozy Cones in DCA, dill popcorn is yummy. So is the Pear-o-dise drink. Pacific Wharf has really good choices when everyone wants something different. The soup bowls are good and the serving sizes can run big. For example, the salads at Cocina Cucamonga Mexican Grill are very big. They could be split between 3-4 people easily.

I know you will have a great time!


Again, thanks for all the cool info!
 
Whitewater snacks is my favorite place to eat and I'm always so surprised more people don't talk about it. The nachos there are the best! It's just such a relaxing spot to enjoy a meal.
You can get there through the GCH entrance of DCA. It's only the mornings that are restricted to guests only.

In the mornings, that is true, but, you can exit from CA into the GCH at any time. To get to Whitewater Snacks from CA, across from Grizzly Rapids is the entrance to the hotel. Go there, when you get to the end of the walkway, turn left. It is all the way down at the end of the building. You will see the signage for it. The pool is on the right. (The nachos are really good. The individual size pizza comes with a good salad. Most beverages are refillable here too.)

Excellent. My kids are all about some nachos, and it seems like a great option for an air conditioned lunch break.
 
For the days in the park, we’ve always tried to start our trips at the Magic Kingdom. For me, it was my first park and it’s still the one that generates the most Disney Magic. With that in mind, I’d like to start Monday at Disneyland. I don’t know that we’ll use our Magic Morning that day as I’d like to give us time to soak things in and get our bearings the first day. We’re getting 5 day park hoppers, so I expect we’ll try to make it over to DCA at some point the first day, but I want to be back in DL for the fireworks that night. I’ve read all about the fireworks potential to cancel, so there will be dual reasons to see the fireworks on Monday. First, I’d just really like to end our first day with the fireworks, if at all possible. Second, I’m going with the general suggestion that you see the fireworks early, in case they get cancelled some or all of the rest of the week.

The only thing I've seen that stands out as remotely problematic that I haven't seen mentioned yet is that MM is only available at Disneyland with a 5 day parkhopper ticket. It's also only on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays in the Disneyland park (the other days have EE for resort guests at DCA) so you'll have to decide if you want to use it on Tuesday morning or Thursday morning.

I just want to say I love a family that vacations together with their adult children. As an adult who tries to vacation with her parents at least once a year it's nice to see other families making that effort too. Hubby and I will be heading to the parks in June too for a 5.5 day trip using the APs we bought last August on an 8 day trip to Disneyland. I think 5 days will be awesome, but then I'm of the opinion that you can never have enough park time!
 

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