OhioStateBuckeye
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2007
Just came back from a great California trip, we celebrated the 4th at Disneyland, then want camping at Pinnacles National Park and ended up in San Francisco and toured Lucasfilm.
Here are my observations, let me know if you have any questions or things I could help you with!
Flights:
Got amazing deals with Southwest. I really won't fly with anyone else. No change fees, I would quickly check my flights each morning and if the price went down I could rebook and get a voucher for future Southwest flights.
Airports:
We flew into LAX. We had done a one way rental through the car comparison site Zalyn. Was very satisfied with the price. Taking the shuttle to the rental center was very easy.
We flew out of San Francisco. We had no issues at the airport, but then again, when you get to the airport at 4:30 you often won't have issues. I thought this was a fun airport since the runway is right on the water.
Hotel:
I booked the Super 8 on Katella like I've booked in the past. Except...when we arrived I discovered I had not, I'd booked the one on Disneyland Drive. The Super 8 on Katella became a King's Inn. I have no idea how this happened, I am usually a militant planner and booker. Dunno if I it was being super tired from my new work hours or what. The hotel itself was nice and updated. Parking, breakfast and wifi were free.
The walk was terrible. You had to walk around the entire Disneyland park before you could enter. We are fast walkers and it took 35 minutes. There was no way that was happening so after the first day we saved our feet and took an uber. That fluctuated in price from $5-$12. I found it easiest to be picked up at the Harbor drop off/pick up area. It was convenient to start the day being dropped off at Downtown Disney, the security lines were much shorter over there.
Max Pass:
Max Pass was amazing and probably saved our trip. The parks were pretty crowded and we would have had much higher wait times without this.
Photopass was included, but to be honest we did not see many photopass photographers this trip. It seemed there were only a few in the same places and the line was always long, like the Toy Story cars in Carsland.
We didn't have an issue signing up for this, on your first day you have to take a quick picture of everyone's ticket, and be sure to memorize your credit card three digit security number because you will have to enter it.
So convenient to be rope dropping Peter Pan and book a Radiator Springs Racers fp.
I think the only negative is that there is no way this $10 price point per day sticks once Galaxy's Edge opens.
July 4th:
The only special activities I could find were the fireworks tag on the end of the Pixar fireworks and two performances by a military band.
I don't think the crowds were much different most of the day. Probably about 3-4 hours before fireworks Main Street started to get really slammed.
The park was more crowded than I thought it'd be, since it was a Wednesday. We were just doing fastpass after fastpass ride but by the time we tried to find a spot for fireworks it was too late. The area by IASW was shut off because it was at capacity. Some of that Disney luck happened to kick in though, we ended up by the Storybook Land Canal boats and jumped in line. They were warning us that the boats would stop loading as soon as the fireworks started, but we boarded our boat with two minutes to spare. Our wonderful skipper steered us to a good vantage point and stopped the boat. So instead of fighting crowds and tired feet, we sat in our own little 15 person 4th of July fireworks boat. Alls well that ends well, right?
Dining:
I made all my ADRs in advance and was glad I did. It may have been the holiday but I found day of availability to be few and far between.
Fantasmic Blue Bayou dinner. I just love eating at Blue Bayou. We requested a waterside table as a party of 2. We had to wait 15 minutes, which meant we were seated at our original reservation time anyway since we'd arrived early.
We both ordered the gumbo, surf and turf and then my boyfriend had the creme brulee and I had the sorcerer mickey dessert. We both very much enjoyed our food. We got our seat cushions and tickets for the first Fantasmic.
Seating started an hour before the showing, we were 10 minutes late and got seats in the second row back, which I kind of prefer over front row because the railing is in your view for front row.
After the show everyone stood up and crowded forward for fireworks. On second though, I wish I'd booked this for July 4th, then we could have watched the fireworks from our area and not had to camp a spot.
Carnation Cafe lunch. I much prefer to sit outside for this meal, I feel like the inside gets super loud. My boyfriend had the turkey sandwich which he enjoyed, and I got the sourdough bacon cheese melt, which was amazing. One thing that I did notice is that the Carl and Ellie specials were not on the menu. I didn't end up asking about it so I'm not sure what happened.
Storytellers' Breakfast. This is the best Disney buffet I have ever eaten at. The food is so far above all the other buffets it isn't even measurable. They had taken the eggs benedict off the menu but my waiter had them make it for me anyway. The smoked salmon is also delicious. I am a bit sad that we saw Kenai a few days before he left. I guess the masses want character meals with the fab 5 characters, but I must not be part of the masses because I like seeing rare characters at meals. Even though I think the food is top notch, that was probably our last meal at Storyteller's because we can see the Fab five everywhere and I don't need to pay Disney's character buffet prices to see them.
Lamplight Lounge dinner. This got a lot of bad reviews, but we loved it. We had the Ratatouille, which might be the best thing I ate over the course of the trip, and also the Lobster Nachos which were great. I think the drink effect they do with the non alcoholic Infinity Fizz is one the best drink effects I've seen.
I had the open ocean with a splash which was delicious.
Also, this ADR is going to be so coveted once WOC starts back up. We sat downstairs at the bar and would have had a great view had the show happened.
We also had lunch at Trader Sam's one day, which was awesome as always. They were out of the new piranha cup which made me sad.
Well that is a very brief overview...anyone have any specific questions I can help you with?
Here are my observations, let me know if you have any questions or things I could help you with!
Flights:
Got amazing deals with Southwest. I really won't fly with anyone else. No change fees, I would quickly check my flights each morning and if the price went down I could rebook and get a voucher for future Southwest flights.
Airports:
We flew into LAX. We had done a one way rental through the car comparison site Zalyn. Was very satisfied with the price. Taking the shuttle to the rental center was very easy.
We flew out of San Francisco. We had no issues at the airport, but then again, when you get to the airport at 4:30 you often won't have issues. I thought this was a fun airport since the runway is right on the water.
Hotel:
I booked the Super 8 on Katella like I've booked in the past. Except...when we arrived I discovered I had not, I'd booked the one on Disneyland Drive. The Super 8 on Katella became a King's Inn. I have no idea how this happened, I am usually a militant planner and booker. Dunno if I it was being super tired from my new work hours or what. The hotel itself was nice and updated. Parking, breakfast and wifi were free.
The walk was terrible. You had to walk around the entire Disneyland park before you could enter. We are fast walkers and it took 35 minutes. There was no way that was happening so after the first day we saved our feet and took an uber. That fluctuated in price from $5-$12. I found it easiest to be picked up at the Harbor drop off/pick up area. It was convenient to start the day being dropped off at Downtown Disney, the security lines were much shorter over there.
Max Pass:
Max Pass was amazing and probably saved our trip. The parks were pretty crowded and we would have had much higher wait times without this.
Photopass was included, but to be honest we did not see many photopass photographers this trip. It seemed there were only a few in the same places and the line was always long, like the Toy Story cars in Carsland.
We didn't have an issue signing up for this, on your first day you have to take a quick picture of everyone's ticket, and be sure to memorize your credit card three digit security number because you will have to enter it.
So convenient to be rope dropping Peter Pan and book a Radiator Springs Racers fp.
I think the only negative is that there is no way this $10 price point per day sticks once Galaxy's Edge opens.
July 4th:
The only special activities I could find were the fireworks tag on the end of the Pixar fireworks and two performances by a military band.
I don't think the crowds were much different most of the day. Probably about 3-4 hours before fireworks Main Street started to get really slammed.
The park was more crowded than I thought it'd be, since it was a Wednesday. We were just doing fastpass after fastpass ride but by the time we tried to find a spot for fireworks it was too late. The area by IASW was shut off because it was at capacity. Some of that Disney luck happened to kick in though, we ended up by the Storybook Land Canal boats and jumped in line. They were warning us that the boats would stop loading as soon as the fireworks started, but we boarded our boat with two minutes to spare. Our wonderful skipper steered us to a good vantage point and stopped the boat. So instead of fighting crowds and tired feet, we sat in our own little 15 person 4th of July fireworks boat. Alls well that ends well, right?
Dining:
I made all my ADRs in advance and was glad I did. It may have been the holiday but I found day of availability to be few and far between.
Fantasmic Blue Bayou dinner. I just love eating at Blue Bayou. We requested a waterside table as a party of 2. We had to wait 15 minutes, which meant we were seated at our original reservation time anyway since we'd arrived early.
We both ordered the gumbo, surf and turf and then my boyfriend had the creme brulee and I had the sorcerer mickey dessert. We both very much enjoyed our food. We got our seat cushions and tickets for the first Fantasmic.
Seating started an hour before the showing, we were 10 minutes late and got seats in the second row back, which I kind of prefer over front row because the railing is in your view for front row.
After the show everyone stood up and crowded forward for fireworks. On second though, I wish I'd booked this for July 4th, then we could have watched the fireworks from our area and not had to camp a spot.
Carnation Cafe lunch. I much prefer to sit outside for this meal, I feel like the inside gets super loud. My boyfriend had the turkey sandwich which he enjoyed, and I got the sourdough bacon cheese melt, which was amazing. One thing that I did notice is that the Carl and Ellie specials were not on the menu. I didn't end up asking about it so I'm not sure what happened.
Storytellers' Breakfast. This is the best Disney buffet I have ever eaten at. The food is so far above all the other buffets it isn't even measurable. They had taken the eggs benedict off the menu but my waiter had them make it for me anyway. The smoked salmon is also delicious. I am a bit sad that we saw Kenai a few days before he left. I guess the masses want character meals with the fab 5 characters, but I must not be part of the masses because I like seeing rare characters at meals. Even though I think the food is top notch, that was probably our last meal at Storyteller's because we can see the Fab five everywhere and I don't need to pay Disney's character buffet prices to see them.
Lamplight Lounge dinner. This got a lot of bad reviews, but we loved it. We had the Ratatouille, which might be the best thing I ate over the course of the trip, and also the Lobster Nachos which were great. I think the drink effect they do with the non alcoholic Infinity Fizz is one the best drink effects I've seen.
I had the open ocean with a splash which was delicious.
Also, this ADR is going to be so coveted once WOC starts back up. We sat downstairs at the bar and would have had a great view had the show happened.
We also had lunch at Trader Sam's one day, which was awesome as always. They were out of the new piranha cup which made me sad.
Well that is a very brief overview...anyone have any specific questions I can help you with?