We’re on our way right now. DH is driving, I’m looking through my park plans. We should be at the DLH some time in the afternoon (how late depends on LA traffic) and will visit friends for dinner.
Our first park day is tomorrow. I am listing details about our park plans below, for those of you as detail oriented & planning obsessed as I am. If you’re more the relaxed, wing-it type, the following probably isn’t your cup of tea...
Here are the basics. There’s me & my two daughters, using 3-day Park hoppers. We stay at DLH, have access to all EMH, ad are planning to use those early mornings excessively. DH joins us tomorrow all day & Friday afternoon—he’s in lectures at the conference that got us here the rest of the time. We will get Maxpass on our first day but will probably use the kiosks on Thu & Fri. I asked the kid which rides they want to do. They don’t care about Goofy’s Sky School or anything to do with Frozen in California Adventure & have little interest in any of the Fantasyland rides on Dland. No character meet & greets needed either. One kid hates Guardians & all water rides, the other hates them. One kid likes Haunted Mansion but hates Pirates, the other one avoids Haunted Mansion but loves Pirates.
We usually try to not spend too much time in food, so it’s typically counter service for us rather than sit-down. Won’t use the new mobile-ordering system much, since I’ll be using gift cards mostly.
So, here’s my plan... for your amusement, inspiration, or feedback if you’re a fellow planning nerd.
Tuesday night: lay out fannypacks for the kids, snacks, my park bag, and all our clothing, so we can simply grab & run the next morning.
Wednesday:
Get up 6am. Get dressed, grab our breakfast smoothies, and start speed walking to the CA turnstiles. Once they open for early admission, get our photos taken & trade our e-tickets for the real thing.
Hoof it to Paradise Pier while purchasing Max Pass & getting Incredicoaster FPs (DD2 was too scared to ride it when it was still California Screaming, but big sister talked her into trying it at least once). Return time (based on a combination of my writing down wait & return times for the past two weeks & the Touringplans software, FP RT should be a little after 8). I hope the Maxpass system won’t be quirky that day but will work smoothly!
If Toy Story Midway Mania is open, we start out by riding it as many times in a row as we can... one of our family traditions. Once the Ferris Wheel opens at 8 (I hope), two of us ride the swinging & the other two the non-swinging Gondolas.
By the time we’re done with that, the Incredicoaster FPs will probably be active. Before riding, I’m planning to get Soaring (hopefully next to instant at that time of day) FPs or Star Tours FPs (one of my favorite things about Maxpass is that I can book rides in the other park without having to run all the way over).
After riding Incredicoaster, we walk towards Soaring to ride it (with or w/o FP). If we have to wait for our FP return time for Soaring, we may ride Heimlich’s on the way over, just to say good-bye before the close down Bug’s Land.
Then we hop to
Disneyland. While walking towards Star Tours, I’ll keep checking RSRs for a late afternoon return time (or, alternatively, a suitably timed set of Indy FPs (fondly remembering the olden days, when the FPs for both parks were disconnected from each other). After using our Star Tours FPs, we do Jungle Cruise & then split up so one kid/parent can ride Pirates & the other HM. Then we swap kids (since both adults would like to see the new Pirates scene) & the same kid & the other adult ride Pirates again, while the other two look around & see which wait times are relatively short (Big Thunder? Winnie the Poo? Tarzan’s Tree House?). Otherwise, there’s always people watching.
By that time we’ll start heading towards Plaza Inn for lunch. DH & kids ride Mad Tea Party (my old-lady inner ear & fast spinning rides don’t agree with each other), while I wait at Plaza Inn, so we get one of the front spots at the slowly building lunch line. Meanwhile I check RSR & Indy return times.
After lunch: Get two Splash Mountain FP (and later, to be timed accordingly, two Buzz Lightyear one’s, so that DD2 can do Buzz while DD1 does Splash or, alternatively, trying to catch a couple of evening Incredicoaster FPs). All of us do Autopia, Indy, and Davy Crockett’s & Gibson Girl ice cream Sunday (the latter two being two more family Disney traditions). Splash/Buzz (while walking I’ll keep an eye out for appropriately timed Grizzly River Run return times).
Hop back to California Adventure.
RSR, GRR for one kid while the other does the Jumping Jellies, dinner (not sure yet where), Symphony Swings, Minster’s Inc., Sorcerer’s Workshop (this is usually one of our last day activities, but the kids want to do the Disney character personality test thing with daddy). If we got evening Incredicoaster FPs, two of us ride it while the other two stake out spots for PTN.
Watch the parade, then drag our tired bodies back to the hotel.
We’ll see how much of this actually works out as planned... I'll let you guys know!