Day One: Wednesday, April 24, 2019
We checked out of the Doubletree around 10am and headed over to the Disneyland Hotel to check in. While I didn't expect a room to be ready I knew that they allow early arrivals to get the front desk stuff out of the way and get to the parks while the rooms are readied. Well, I was quite pleased to find that a room was ready for us. Quite a treat.
I booked a 2-night stay with a 3-day park hopper ticket with MaxPass. Disneyland is running a promotion that expires at the end of May which effectively gives you 3 days for the price of 2. I booked through Costco Travel using their "Late Spring Offer with Limited-Time Special Ticket Offer" which gave me a $185 Disney gift card as a kickback on the package. With the gift card, which we used for all our food purchases, the package price was about $150 cheaper than if I had bought the hotel and tickets separately. The tickets were the "3-Day Special Offer Park Hopper® Ticket with Disney MaxPass and Magic Morning Early Access."
The overall check-in experience is pleasant, although still quite lengthy. I know Disney wants to provide high touch but there's got to be a way to streamline the process. Nevertheless, Titia was attentive and our package of tickets, gift card and welcome letter was ready and waiting for us.
We were given a choice of a couple room options. We had booed a "Standard View" and opted for a room with two queen beds vs one king. The 2-queen rooms are slightly larger than the single bed rooms. Plus, we got a room facing the pool which was better than facing the "outside world" which helped us stay in the magic the entire time.
The room was on the third floor at the end of the hall, making it quiet and convenient. Speaking of convenience, a bonus was being able to use the stairs next to our room to exit the building easily. Could not come back in that way but it did shave a couple minutes off whenever we ventured out.
A strange thing: When we got to our room there was a do not disturb door hanger. My key worked but I knocked all the same and a maintenance guy opened the door. He came out with his ladder and said he was just finishing something up. But I will say I think he was using the bathroom because there was a bit of a smell in there when we first went in. Yuck, tacky.
Other than that, the room was as advertised. Nice and big, with full length picture windows overlooking the central complex. The windows were covered in blue tint during the remodel a few years ago and you can see the hue in the picture above. Not a problem though.
Our building is the Fantasy building, the same one where the front desk is located. Each room has a headboard with the castle and fiber optic fireworks. They don't really sparkle, they just light up and a few fade on and off. There is a button on the nightstand that turns them on and when you first do it also plays "A Dream is a Wish" from Cinerella. There are two throw pillows, one on each bed, embroidered with "A dream is a wish your heart makes..." on one and "When you're fast asleep" on the other. Cute.
I bought the MaxPass option because I wanted to be able to book Fast Passes from the mobile app. Via Costco, MaxPass was I think half price, and it was totally worth it. You and your party have to enter a park in order to use MaxPass which is both good and bad. Good that it keeps people from grabbing the good passes early. Bad in that I was on property and it would've been nice to be able to book a pass from my room first thing in the morning. This issue was mitigated somewhat by the fact that we could take the Monorail, entering of course is the same as going through the main gate.
We got to the Monorail station around 11 and I pulled up the MaxPass options as soon as we entered the queue. The wait time was about 30 minutes. I'm used to getting on the next train at WDW so this was not that. But I've been to DL enough to not be surprised. This was the longest wait for the Monorail over our three days. I grabbed a MaxPass for Buzz as it was a close-in time.
Arriving in Tomorrowland, I noticed the park was crowded but not terribly so. The crowds the entire three days were moderate. We were after the spring break rushes and this was the first day after the Food & Wine Festival ended at DCA. From what I've been reading there's really no slow time at Disneyland anymore, but the time between spring break and Memorial Day is still a shoulder season and I was happy the crowds were managable.
First stop was Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. Wait time was less than 30 minutes. A line cutting family got in front of us (started with 4 people, grew to 12 because kids "were in the bathroom"). I complained to the cast member at the entrance and he first said he couldn't do anything but then pulled us over to the accessible entrance where our wait got shortened probably by about one sub-worth of guests.
Next, we rode Buzz which kept shifting to creep mode for wheelchairs, giving lots of chances to rack up points. Love when that happens and you get slowed down or stopped in an area with a clear view of some high scoring triangles. I booked an early afternoon MaxPass for Soarin.
I was told you could book MaxPasses for both DL and DCA at the same time because they are on two different systems. Well, that is only partly true. They are on different systems but I still had to wait a period of time before getting the next pass. However, you can book the evening spectaculars (World of Color or Fantasmic) as separate passes that don't block you from regular attraction passes. So we grabbed one for WoC.
Lunch at the Plaza Inn was delicious fried chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies and a buttermilk biscuit. About $17 which didn't seem too bad relative to some of the smaller meal prices. Plus we were using our $185 Disney gift card from Costco Travel which made it feel like the food was "free". Dangerous thinking!
After lunch, a blissfully relaxing ride on the Mark Twain. Got to see the new shortened river and changes made for Galaxy's Edge.
You can see the tops of some of Galaxy's Edge from the upper deck of the river boat, as you can see below. Not intrusive though.
After Mark Twain we went across to DCA to catch Soarin'. Still not a fan of all the CGI in this version of the attraction but it's a fun ride. My wife had not been on the new version and liked it until I spoiled it by telling her the polar bears were fake.
Afterward, we went to see the wait times for Radiator Springs Racers. 2+ hour standby line and 45 minutes for single rider. Decided to go back to hotel for an afternoon break instead.
A note on standby - It's gotten worse than ever. If you don't have a fast/max pass you are at the mercy of those passholders before you get on. They were actually announcing on some rides that the standby wait is estimated and may be adjusted - basically warning those people that they're gonna be in for a long day. It was handy that the Disneyland app lets you sort by Single Rider lines, helps find those ways to ride some stuff when the standby line is long and you don't have a pass.
After a couple hours' break back at the hotel we headed back to DCA for the evening. The single rider line for RSR was a bit shorter then (around 530p) at 30minutes so we got into that line. I've never been on this before. We got lucky and my wife and I both got to ride together. Oh, there was another line cutter - a teenage guy. The couple in front of us told him to get to the back of the line and we chimed in, shaming the kid to leave.
After RSR (fun!) it was a short wait for Little Mermaid, then Incredicoaster (MaxPass), then barbacoa nachos at the Lamplight Lounge. Really good nachos, so filling that ended up being my dinner.
After nachos we rode Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters. This ride is delightful. The cars move to a quick little Italian song, and there are maybe five different songs so each ride is slightly different with different choreography. So cute and happy, plus riding at night under the open air string lights and pleasant night sky was magical.
DCA closed at 10, Disneyland at midnight. We got some hot cocoa and made our way to the "Yellow" entrance for the reserved viewing area of World of Color. The hot cocoa was way too sweet. I could've paid more to get the one at the Ghiradelli shop but I figured the regular Disney one would be fine. Oh well. WoC is not a great show. Maybe it's the lack of fireworks but it felt like the show just ran on too long and didn't feel like anything more than a review of animated hits. Meh.
After the show, we headed back over to DL. The first Fantasmic plus Mickey's Mix Magic fireworks were over and the park was thinning out fast. We went to Fantasyland and knocked out four attractions (Snow White, Pinocchio, Mr. Toad, Story Book Land, before our 11pm Matterhorn MaxPass. So fun when the park is open late, the last couple of hours make up for a full day of crowds.
Matterhorn broke down, so we got our first of what I call "Super Passes" which is sent automatically when your MaxPass attraction becomes unavailable. This is formally called a "Replacement Fast Pass" and is good on any fast pass attraction at the same park. The pass has a start time (same as your original pass) but NO END TIME, making it good all day long. Plus you can get other regular MaxPasses at the same time, so it's handy to keep this super pass in reserve.
Interesting to note that nowhere on the page or on the pass itself does it state that you can only use at one park. It does say Disneyland Park but on the FastPass itself it just says "Multiple Experiences" and I didn't see any place that clearly said it wasn't good for park hopping. I found out later that the cast members don't always know this either - but I'll get to that. Also I just noticed that because it was so late the super pass was actually good for the next day too. Very generous.
We used this super pass for Space Mountain, which at 11pm still had a 50min wait in the standby line. After Space Mountain it was a quick ride on Star Tours (no wait) and my wife hadn't experienced the new multiple story lines so that was fun that it was new to her.
We timed it perfectly to be at closing in Tomorrowland where we could easily catch the Monorail back to our hotel. A nice bit of convenience for DL Hotel guests and I like using the monorail as transport and not just as a ride.
Around 1230am, time for a nightcap at Trader Sam's. This outdoor bar adjacent to the pool complex in the DL Hotel seems to be a hangout for cast members. There were quite a few people outside enjoying drinks and food as this bar is open until 2am. A lot of them seemed to be employees. Probably got off work at DCA although I am not sure I'd pay expensive Disney drink prices on a cast member salary. Anyway, the weather was still nice and it was a great way to end a busy, fun first day.