April 2017 check in thread, come in and chat!

[BarbieGal457]

I am actually sitting here thinking of what clothing to bring! I am all done otherwise, since we can't make dining reservations yet, so I am trying to prepare in other ways. I am a big over-packer so this will probably be helpful. I've been passing the time doing my research on Disneyland dining as I've been twice, but each time only for a day so I have a bunch of places I want to eat at!

 

[Aurora_Australis]

Last time we went it was late Sept and the weather was so lovely! Shorts and tees, not even a cardigan at night. This time we start in Seattle where it will be around 13-15 apparently so we will pretty much have to pack our entire wardrobes I think!

 

[Aladora]

Ok guys who are all organised and planned out, I am sooo behind where I would normally be for a WDW trip. Our flights are booked but still have a final balanceto pay, our hotels all sorted, but have no tickets for any part of our trip!! I am beginning to panic now, I have to get Disney, Universal, Warner bros, San Diego stuff and anything else we want to do!! Also was thinking of a baseball game at some point in the 2 week trip??? So is WOC only on F/S/S? I am such an amatuer when it comes to the West coast!!

It looks as though last April WOC was every night so you will have options there!

As for panicking, don't worry, you can really wing most of the trip! Getting last minute dining reservations s really no big deal, the only one you will want to make a few weeks out is Blue Bayou and I just did a quick search on the app and there is still availability for 3 at Blue Bayou tomorrow at 8:00pm.

I am actually sitting here thinking of what clothing to bring! I am all done otherwise, since we can't make dining reservations yet, so I am trying to prepare in other ways. I am a big over-packer so this will probably be helpful. I've been passing the time doing my research on Disneyland dining as I've been twice, but each time only for a day so I have a bunch of places I want to eat at!

I am a habitual overpacker! Last time we went to DL, we did not check any luggage so I was limited to what I could pack in 3 small carry-on sized bags. We went in September so it was HOT which helped because it takes a lot less space to pack shorts and tank tops than jeans and sweaters.

Last time we went it was late Sept and the weather was so lovely! Shorts and tees, not even a cardigan at night. This time we start in Seattle where it will be around 13-15 apparently so we will pretty much have to pack our entire wardrobes I think!

We have been really lucky with the weather every time we go to Anaheim. Even our February 2015 trip was warm enough for shorts and tees, with a light hoodie in the evening but Seattle can be tricky especially the rain.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

Disneyland is MUCH easier to wing than Disney World.

I am really hoping they stop this dining nonsense in regards to paradise Garden Grill. I need their regular food back by the time we go. Anybody heard anything about that? I knew the latin one was ending on the 17th..but now an asian one has popped up through the 5th of Feb. Now I'm worried this is a year long thing. PGG is one of our favorite places for food because it was fresh and light and the area to sit was fun and cool.

 

[BarbieGal457]

I am a habitual overpacker! Last time we went to DL, we did not check any luggage so I was limited to what I could pack in 3 small carry-on sized bags. We went in September so it was HOT which helped because it takes a lot less space to pack shorts and tank tops than jeans and sweaters.


We have been really lucky with the weather every time we go to Anaheim. Even our February 2015 trip was warm enough for shorts and tees, with a light hoodie in the evening but Seattle can be tricky especially the rain.

It's funny you mentioned Seattle regarding another poster - I will be in Seattle prior to Disneyland! My boyfriend moved there for work so I'll be flying from Philly, stopping in Seattle a few days and then we're on to Disneyland. We last went to Seattle and Disneyland last August and did it all in only 4 days (brutal - 3 flights, 3.5 days, back and forth across a bunch of time zones, almost a full day spent flying...) so I too used only a carry-on. It was SO HOT I really didn't need much, like you had said, but being from Philly I see the high predicted as 70 and I currently can't remember what that feels like! I bought a set of eBags which has made packing so much easier and I can fit a lot more so I predict even further over-packing for me!

 

[seacruise]

Hi,

We are flying in on Easter (from Seattle) and planning on spending 3 or 4 days at the parks before heading down to San Diego for a few days afterwards. Staying at the HoJo's again and just realized I booked a park (fireworks) view room, but there are of course typically no fireworks during the week in April. Oh well, still like waking up to that Disneyland view. Plus, we may get there early enough to watch them on Sunday night from the hotel.

Haven't really planned or booked anything yet other than our flights and the hotel at Disney. We did WDW and a Disney cruise last year so are really done with the advanced planning. Love Disneyland for how easy it is in comparison!

Still debating 4 days vs 3 days. We did 4 days on our last trip for the 60th which seemed like plenty. With so much closed now and not that much new, maybe 3 days and add an extra day in San Diego. The thing that's stopping me is how inexpensive it is to add a 4th day at Disney vs. doing something else that day.

 

[Aladora]

Hi,

We are flying in on Easter (from Seattle) and planning on spending 3 or 4 days at the parks before heading down to San Diego for a few days afterwards. Staying at the HoJo's again and just realized I booked a park (fireworks) view room, but there are of course typically no fireworks during the week in April. Oh well, still like waking up to that Disneyland view. Plus, we may get there early enough to watch them on Sunday night from the hotel.

Haven't really planned or booked anything yet other than our flights and the hotel at Disney. We did WDW and a Disney cruise last year so are really done with the advanced planning. Love Disneyland for how easy it is in comparison!

Still debating 4 days vs 3 days. We did 4 days on our last trip for the 60th which seemed like plenty. With so much closed now and not that much new, maybe 3 days and add an extra day in San Diego. The thing that's stopping me is how inexpensive it is to add a 4th day at Disney vs. doing something else that day.

So many of us from PNW! If you want me to put you on the list in the first post, just let me know your actual dates.

As for 3 vs 4 days, we have always done either 4 or 5 days on each of our trips and we always seem to find plenty to do. Could you go for the 3 day ticket and add an extra day while you are there if you feel you need more Disney time or do you have to decide pre-trip?

 

[Aurora_Australis]

I didn't even think about adding another day! We will get 3 day tickets and after we check out, are staying at an LAX hotel. But our flight the next day doesn't leave til 10pm so really, we could have another disney day and still have all of the day before we fly out to go to the beach etc.

How late can you add an extra day if we decide we want to do that?


Also, we'll be in the park on Easter Sunday but curious what might be open in LA on Good Friday. In Aus, Fri-Mon are all public holidays and typically nothing is open on Fri and Sun (although that is just starting to change). Will we be able to do stuff and go out to dinner still on Good Friday?

 

[Aladora]

I didn't even think about adding another day! We will get 3 day tickets and after we check out, are staying at an LAX hotel. But our flight the next day doesn't leave til 10pm so really, we could have another disney day and still have all of the day before we fly out to go to the beach etc.

How late can you add an extra day if we decide we want to do that?


Also, we'll be in the park on Easter Sunday but curious what might be open in LA on Good Friday. In Aus, Fri-Mon are all public holidays and typically nothing is open on Fri and Sun (although that is just starting to change). Will we be able to do stuff and go out to dinner still on Good Friday?

You can upgrade your ticket as late as your last day of use. So if you are going Friday, Saturday and Sunday then you could add an extra day on Sunday and go Monday. You can not, however, add the extra day on Monday. (In this example)

 

[lvdis]

I didn't even think about adding another day! We will get 3 day tickets and after we check out, are staying at an LAX hotel. But our flight the next day doesn't leave til 10pm so really, we could have another disney day and still have all of the day before we fly out to go to the beach etc.

How late can you add an extra day if we decide we want to do that?


Also, we'll be in the park on Easter Sunday but curious what might be open in LA on Good Friday. In Aus, Fri-Mon are all public holidays and typically nothing is open on Fri and Sun (although that is just starting to change). Will we be able to do stuff and go out to dinner still on Good Friday?

Be aware though, if you got a discount on your tickets when you purchased them, they don't "bridge" the price. They will only value them at what you paid for them. so essentially you will pay more to upgrade (more than just the cost to add a day that the signs at the ticket windows show). I was very frustrated with this on my last trip and didn't end up adding a day because the cost difference was much higher than expected.

 

[Aurora_Australis]

Be aware though, if you got a discount on your tickets when you purchased them, they don't "bridge" the price. They will only value them at what you paid for them. so essentially you will pay more to upgrade (more than just the cost to add a day that the signs at the ticket windows show). I was very frustrated with this on my last trip and didn't end up adding a day because the cost difference was much higher than expected.

Hmm, might just see what the price diff for 4 day tickets is then, if not too much, we might as well. We are early risers so could easily express check out and leave in the pm.

 

[Aladora]

Be aware though, if you got a discount on your tickets when you purchased them, they don't "bridge" the price. They will only value them at what you paid for them. so essentially you will pay more to upgrade (more than just the cost to add a day that the signs at the ticket windows show). I was very frustrated with this on my last trip and didn't end up adding a day because the cost difference was much higher than expected.

We have upgraded tickets a number of times and every time we have had the price bridged. We've added days as well as upgraded to APs and have always had the full gate price of our tickets applied to the upgrade.

 

[lvdis]

We have upgraded tickets a number of times and every time we have had the price bridged. We've added days as well as upgraded to APs and have always had the full gate price of our tickets applied to the upgrade.

That sure wasn't our experience at Disneyland last January. I went to two different ticket booths on two different days and I went to the Guest Services in Disneyland since I wasn't getting anywhere at the ticket booth. The answer was a big no. They said if you buy discounted tickets from a 3rd party (I bought from getawaytoday) you should plan to buy for as many days as you might use.

We had decided to go in the night we arrived so we could catch Soarin before it closed and see WOC Winter Dreams before it ended. I told my family it would only be an extra $15 a piece to add a day so it would be worth it. Turned out they wanted to charge us $35 or $45 each to add that extra day. We had Fantasmic dinner tickets for what was originally supposed to be our last day and the CM at Guest Services asked why I would schedule that for a day I wouldn't have a ticket. We ended up cancelling the dinner and not adding to our tickets due to that. Not a good way to end the trip.

 

[Aladora]

That sure wasn't our experience at Disneyland last January. I went to two different ticket booths on two different days and I went to the Guest Services in Disneyland since I wasn't getting anywhere at the ticket booth. The answer was a big no. They said if you buy discounted tickets from a 3rd party (I bought from getawaytoday) you should plan to buy for as many days as you might use.

We had decided to go in the night we arrived so we could catch Soarin before it closed and see WOC Winter Dreams before it ended. I told my family it would only be an extra $15 a piece to add a day so it would be worth it. Turned out they wanted to charge us $35 or $45 each to add that extra day. We had Fantasmic dinner tickets for what was originally supposed to be our last day and the CM at Guest Services asked why I would schedule that for a day I wouldn't have a ticket. We ended up cancelling the dinner and not adding to our tickets due to that. Not a good way to end the trip.

That sucks that you had that experience. We were just there in September and had two 5 day hoppers from LMTClub and one 3 day hopper that I got by redeeming Airmiles. The Airmiles ticket was a regular paper ticket like you would get at any of the ticket booths or at the gate but the other two were an e-ticket that clearly had Last Minute Travel Club printed on then. I went right to the ticket booth and upgraded to APs without using the tickets first and was credited the gate amount for all three.

 

[Aurora_Australis]

Well we might just chance it! We planned to have a late morning and head to DtD anyway so I will ask on our second day and upgrade if its a good deal.

 

[nottellin']

Disneyland is MUCH easier to wing than Disney World.

I am really hoping they stop this dining nonsense in regards to paradise Garden Grill. I need their regular food back by the time we go. Anybody heard anything about that? I knew the latin one was ending on the 17th..but now an asian one has popped up through the 5th of Feb. Now I'm worried this is a year long thing. PGG is one of our favorite places for food because it was fresh and light and the area to sit was fun and cool.

What's going on with the Paradise Garden grill? It's one of my go-to places to for a quick meal. I actually love their pasta.

 

[ginger ninja]

Well we might just chance it! We planned to have a late morning and head to DtD anyway so I will ask on our second day and upgrade if its a good deal.

We were initially thinking 3 or four days wound be enough but as we are on site for 7 it would be nice to have that option to go in on other days if we want, the difference in price for us was £14 for five days over 4 booking in advance, so its a no-brainer for us!

 

[Winnowill]

In theory, Disney doesn't price-bridge discounted tickets; however, in practice, it seems like it's happening more and more. Our five-day PHs were price bridged when we upgraded to APs this past June. Saved us about $100.

 

[seacruise]

Hadn't thought about adding a day after the fact, but it seems like that might be more of a hassle than I want to deal with. Pretty much decided to go with the 4 day tickets. The price difference between a 3 day hopper and a 4 day hopper for the four of us is only like $100. Gives us the flexibility of going to the parks for a few hours and then heading to San Diego early in the day, or staying at DL for the whole 4th day and then driving down in the evening.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Hi all! Wanted to hop in because we just booked a short trip to CA for the week leading up to Easter. We're planning to do one day at the parks. Haven't done a whole lot of planning yet. Our initial thinking is that we'll just do DL not DCA but I'm still mulling everything over in my head. I was a little crestfallen to see that the Mattherhorn is going to be closed while we're there . This will be my third trip to DL and it's been closed each time. Oh well, so much else to look forward to though!

I saw the conversation above about adding days to tickets and I had a question somewhat along those lines -- we'll just be getting a one day ticket but if during the course of the day we decided to we want to hop to DCA, could we add the hopper feature at that point or are one-day tickets not upgradeable?

Looking forward to chatting with the other April visitors!