"I can't believe we're staying here!" An Feb'16 DLR PTR (TR link Post #355)

[franandaj]

Congratulations! How many waitlists do you have going? Do you have the 17th and 18th for both a studio and a one bedroom?

The good news is that you can just pack up your bags, have a bellman hold them for you and then go check into the resort. At 4PM you'll get a text with your room # and when you're ready the bellman will bring up your bags. Not ideal, but it's certainly less painless then schlepping your bags across the street.

The most likely time for the waitlist to come in is between now and January 16. All the folks who booked it thinking they *might* go that week will be firming up plans before the points would go into holding. If they're like me they can still bank them to next year as late as April 29, so they can virtually cancel with no penalty. I would hold out. Keep checking too, the 17th may come up and I'd check the 16th as well, you might get a studio and not have to switch rooms and be homeless for a day.

 

[skier_pete]

Congratulations! How many waitlists do you have going? Do you have the 17th and 18th for both a studio and a one bedroom?

The good news is that you can just pack up your bags, have a bellman hold them for you and then go check into the resort. At 4PM you'll get a text with your room # and when you're ready the bellman will bring up your bags. Not ideal, but it's certainly less painless then schlepping your bags across the street.

The most likely time for the waitlist to come in is between now and January 16. All the folks who booked it thinking they *might* go that week will be firming up plans before the points would go into holding. If they're like me they can still bank them to next year as late as April 29, so they can virtually cancel with no penalty. I would hold out. Keep checking too, the 17th may come up and I'd check the 16th as well, you might get a studio and not have to switch rooms and be homeless for a day.

I just have the 1-bedroom for the 17th and 18th. I don't want to keep switching rooms, and I really don't want to be in a studio. I considered putting in for a 1-bedroom on the 17th only, but worried if they BOTH came through. So - I'm just leaving is "as is". I am less worried now, as I said, I really just wanted to get at least two night. Three would be better, but two is fine!

 

[PrincessInOz]

YAY for one of the waitlist coming through!!!

 

[skier_pete]

I was JUST about to write a tirade about how upset I was that it seemed that World of Color is going to be closed for our trip based on the fact you can't book dining packages for it, but I was looking at latest hours posting on February 2nd - and it's showing that World of Color is back UP on this date!!!

I have been really upset that it might not be playing. One of the big things I really wanted my mom to see is World of Color, it is so amazing. Hopefully this means it WILL be running when we get there.

For the record - I completely HATE that Disneyland announces everything with only about 45 days advance notice. As an uber planner - it just completely drives me bonkers. I suppose as a locals park people are rarely into planning things well in advanced, but as someone that is coming half-way across the country to visit - I really want to be able to get my plans in place, dammit!!

Well - only another two weeks until they actually release Park Hours and schedules. As of February 2nd they are still showing Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise down as well, I really hope those two are up by the time we get there. I would think even locally that the Presidents Weekend must see a bit of a surge in popularity amongst visitors...you would think those rides would be back up and operating.

One things for sure, I don't know that we are ever going to plan a trip out there at THIS time of year again.

 

[franandaj]

Sorry you're so frustrated, but you know they say that Californians are so spontaneous, even our natural disasters are unplanned!

 

[rteetz]

Well that's good World of Color showed up. Whenever I do finally get to Disneyland that is going to be a focus of mine to see that show.

Disneyland is quite the different place in terms of people who go there and the planning. That is one reason we haven't seen the ADR craze or full on MyMagic+ system go there.

 

[skier_pete]

Sorry you're so frustrated, but you know they say that Californians are so spontaneous, even our natural disasters are unplanned!

Hopefully someone will be spontaneous enough to cancel 2 nights of their stay on the 17th and 18th! I do realize that for most people it is there local theme park, and no-one is really going to plan things out in advance, it's just such a departure from having everything all planned out six months in advance. I LIKE early planning, I was one of those people that was upset when they moved ADRs to 90 days instead of 180...but of course there must have been more because they did end up changing it back.

Actually - I was looking at the map of the VGC and I was quite stunned to see how SMALL the DVC wing actually is. I guess in my head I knew it was only like 48 rooms - but it is really no wonder it is so hard to get into.

Well that's good World of Color showed up. Whenever I do finally get to Disneyland that is going to be a focus of mine to see that show.

Disneyland is quite the different place in terms of people who go there and the planning. That is one reason we haven't seen the ADR craze or full on MyMagic+ system go there.

Yes - this isn't our first trip to Disneyland so i am very familiar with how things work there. I actually haven't even bothered to think about ADRs yet (if any).

However, the thing is, park touring strategies are still very important in Disneyland - maybe more important depending on the time of year. Probably not if you are local resident, but for someone that rarely goes, it is critical. You have the old FP system to deal with, you also have a larger selection of single rider lines to take advantage of. There are a LOT of rides to try and hit, and while the individual lines rarely get as long as some at WDW (you'll never see a 2-hour wait for Soarin or TSMM for example) that doesn't mean smart strategies should be used to take advantage of the fast-loading rides versus slow-loading rides. On top of that, it's very simple to treat the two parks as a single big park because of their relative closeness - for instance last trip we wanted to only get wet once, so we rode Splash Mountain followed immediately by Grizzly River Run, and then back to our room to change. It's the difference between a 40 minute wait/ride between DAK and MK versus a 2-minute walk between DCA and DLR.

A guess what I'm saying is while the advanced planning isn't there - the touring strategies very much are...

 

[PrincessInOz]

Here's hoping that WoC is up and running!

 

[skier_pete]

Here's hoping that WoC is up and running!

Looks like it will be - see the next post!

 

[skier_pete]

Happy New Year everyone!

So...the park hours are starting to come out - our first of three dates have come out today - and in fact it's probably pretty easy to predict what the other two days will be at this point. More importantly, the refurb/closure schedule seems set. There's some good news and some bad news around this.

First - the good news:
World of Color and Paint the Night / Disneyland Forever WILL be up and running during our stay! These both seemed iffy at one point or another, but right now Monday (which we won't be entering the parks) and Tuesday nights are showing these shows as operational - and hopefully Wednesday and Thursday will be as well.

The bad news:
The closure list is worse than just all the Rivers of America stuff. Below I list all the attractions and how bad I consider it on a scale of 1 to 10.

Mark Twain Riverboat / Sailing Ship Columbia / Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes / Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island (3 out of 10) - To me, the Rivers of America attractions are nice filler, but I don't have any real love of them outside the railroad itself

Disneyland Railroad (7 out of 10) - The DLRR is one of those attractions that just feels so "Walt" to me, and so I find it quite disappointing it won't be operational. Two related reasons, we were hoping to manage to sneak a ride on the Lily Belle (this wasn't 100% certain, but we now know how to request it) and also the dioramas are very cool. It's also a nice way to get from the back of the park to the front.

Jungle Cruise (9 out of 10) - This is probably the one that will be the most missed by our family. It's a favorite attraction, and the JC in DL is different enough from the WDW one that it's a lot of fun. It's also one of DDs favorites. There's little chance it will be open, as they are showing closure until April.

Splash Mountain (4 out of 10) - It's probably a higher ranking for me, but lower for the rest of the family. We've only done the DL version twice, but the time we went with DD we all got completely soaked and she was completely miserable and this is her big memory of Disneyland - so she would probably have refused to ride it anyway. DMom wouldn't ride it, and DW is happy NOT to ride it, so of the group, I am the only one that will miss it as it is a favorite of mine. However, in the cooler winter weather it's probably not a great loss - so I ranked it fairly low.)

Autopia (1 out of 10) - We rode this last trip - we all hated it. Enough said.

Fantasmic! (3 out of 10) - I would probably be ranking this higher if the other nighttime shows weren't running....DW and I have seen it here, and DD still doesn't like the show - though she probably hasn't seen it since she was 6. Honestly if it HAD been running we might not even have seen it.

Soarin' Over California (7 out of 10) - So apparently Soarin' is only open on weekends as they are testing the programming for the new movie - so it won't be open during the week while we are there. I normally wouldn't rank this quite so high - but this was sort of a "last chance to see" thing as the next time we see Soarin' it will be with the new movie. Plus one of the few major attractions my mom would go on...plus....

Aladdin Musical (7 out of 10) - Not really in refurb - closed for good in December, and unfortunately being replaced with a Frozen show. Like we need another one of those. Though we've seen it before, it's a nice piece of entertainment that will be missing.

Grizzly River Run (8 out of 10) - Pretty disappointed this isn't running for a number of reasons..(1) DD has never ridden it, (2) with us staying at the Grand, it's a nice opportunity to change clothes after getting wet, (3) the lack of rides at DCA in general.

So on that last point - DCA for all it's billion dollar makeover doesn't have a lot of top attractions. Sure you have plenty of rides in Bug's Land and Paradise Pier - but many of these are "C" level attractions at best - and Bug's Land I am wondering if DD will have finally outgrown these type of rides.
The top rides - the "E" and "D" tickets at DCA consist of the following:
Soarin (CLOSED)
Grizzly River Run (CLOSED)
Radiator Spring Racers (DM won't ride)
Tower of Terror (No one will ride but me)
California Screamin' (No one will ride but me)
Toy Story Midway Mania

So - this leaves DCA with one headliner (RSR) that most of us will ride, and a second-pseudo headliner (TSMM) that is a family favorite for sure but isn't any different from the one in DHS. So DCA has barely a day's worth of worthwhile attractions - which makes me feel less upset about us being unable to stay at the VGC for the whole trip.

Another interesting bit about DCA - Fastpasses won't be very necessary. Here's the list of open attractions with FP in DCA:
California Screamin’ / Paradise Pier (Single Rider/ Me Only)
Goofy's Sky School / Paradise Pier
Radiator Springs Racers / Cars Land (Single Rider)
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror / Hollywood Land (Me Only)
So at best Fastpasses in DCA are for RSR and for Goofy's Sky School.

It just the more I look at it, the more I feel we are making the right choice to add Sea World and limit Disney to three days.

Next update should be in a few more days when the full week's schedule is out - I'll hopefully be putting up a rough Itinerary of our three days.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Those closures definitely make it worth your while to head to Sea World.
Shame about GRR, Soarin' and Aladdin.

 

[khertz]

Shame about all of the closures, but yay for World of Color! I am still fuming a bit about that being closed while we were there last year. It's pretty much our #1 reason for wanting to visit the California parks! I guess we just need to plan a return trip sooner rather than later.

And yes, the 45 days for park hours is so annoying when you're used to having a lot longer. I don't mind the more narrow window for ADRs (I actually prefer it!) but park hours at 60 days too would be nice. And it drove me nuts planning for March that they don't release the whole month at a time!

 

[skier_pete]

Those closures definitely make it worth your while to head to Sea World.
Shame about GRR, Soarin' and Aladdin.

Yeah - I agree - I just found out Sea World will be running a "Lunar New Year" celebration if we go the day we are planning, which I think is pretty cool!

Shame about all of the closures, but yay for World of Color! I am still fuming a bit about that being closed while we were there last year. It's pretty much our #1 reason for wanting to visit the California parks! I guess we just need to plan a return trip sooner rather than later.

And yes, the 45 days for park hours is so annoying when you're used to having a lot longer. I don't mind the more narrow window for ADRs (I actually prefer it!) but park hours at 60 days too would be nice. And it drove me nuts planning for March that they don't release the whole month at a time!

I agree that World of Color is probably one of the top 5 reasons we are going out there at all. I can actually forgive all the other closures with World of Color being on. Hopefully we'll get to see it at least once if not twice!

I also don't care about the 45 day ADR. However, If WDW switched to that there would be such a madhouse to try and get a reservation - MUCH worse than it is now. I do think releasing info a day at a time is pretty weird too.

 

[skier_pete]

Plans starting to fall in place - or at least the park hours are fully out.

Here's the park schedule for all three days we will be there:
Dsneyland 9 AM - 10 PM
DCA 9 AM - 9 PM
Soundsational Parade (DL) 4:15 PM
Paint The Night (DL) 8:00 PM
DL Forever (DL) 8:40 PM
Pixar Play Parade (DCA) 5:15 PM
World Of Color (DCA) 9:00 PM

There are early entry/Extra Morning hours at Disneyland on Tuesday and Thursday, and at DCA on Wednesday. They are at 8 AM.

My initial thought is even though we are staying the VGC two of the mornings and we could take advantage of all 3 of them, maybe we won't. 8 AM starts are pretty early to get 4 people ready and out of the room. With the fact we really can't take mid-day breaks since we will be switching rooms so much, I am leaning towards just targeting the 9 AM starts at the parks that are NOT open. IDK, perhaps we will "wing" it and take advantage of some of them if we are all up early and ready to go. But I'll assume not.

Tuesday - Day 1:
9 AM entry to DCA directly from hotel. (This is very cool!)
Hit Carsland first, and then head over to Paradise Pier to ride TSMM and maybe some others. Pull FP+ for World of Color
11 AM check out of room (may do this before we enter the park).
Back into DCA to perhaps hit a few things (FP for RSR maybe?) then head over the DLR - Lunch at Diamond Horseshoe? - Pirates/Big Thunder Mountain/HM -
When room becomes available - do we get a text? - 2- 4 PM head back to hotel. Rest up a bit. Maybe pool time if weather permits.
5 PM - head back into DCA to see the "lighting" of Carsland. Dinner at Flo's perhaps?
7:30-7:45 PM - Be in line for World of Color. Hold a spot for show.
9 PM - World of Color
9:20 PM back to our room to drop off DD / DMom
9:50 PM Drinks at Trader Sams??

Wednesday - Day 2:
Check out of room
9 AM entry to Disneyland - head to Tomorrowland first - Subs / Hyperspace Mountain / Star Tours and such. Also Star Wars Launch Bay / Super hero headquarters.
12 PM - Lunch (Keeping location on the QT)
2 PM - Head to DCA if there is anything else we want to do there else stay in DLR before leaving GCV
3:30 PM - Head over to Carousel inn - check in for TWO whole nights in the SAME room!
5:30 PM - Back to park - DISmeet for Dinner / Paint the Night / DL Forever Fireworks.

Thursday - Day 3:
8 AM Early Entry to Disneyland to hit Fantasyland attractions.
At this point - we have to look at what we DIDN'T do the other days. And we'll just go from there.
Since we ACTUALLY have a room - maybe take a mid-day break today.

So - that's my initial run down. Disneyland just doesn't set up for the level of planning that WDW does, and much of this plan could be thrown out and tossed around as we go. For instance: I could very well picture that with the time change, we are all awake very early our first day, in which case if we are up and ready to go for 8 AM, we would start in DL instead of DCA. In that case maybe we skip early entry the last day. Who knows - there's a lot more "Winging it" going on.

I feel fairly certain that we will be able to easily hit all the rides in the park that we want to. I am also sure we'll utilize FP to a degree, but WDW has spoiled me without having to run around getting Fastpasses. I really have no clue how the crowds will be - hopefully midweek they will be fairly low. However, it IS President's week, so there could be slightly more crowds than normal for such an off-peak time.

I will continue to update if any of our waitlists come through - or anything changes.

 

[skier_pete]

This makes me sad - saw this on twitter - image showing the things that will be closed when we are there.

 

[franandaj]

That's really brutal when you put it that way!

 

[skier_pete]

That's really brutal when you put it that way!

I know - the left side of the maps has 6 functional attractions. (BTMRR, PofC, Indiana Jones, Tiki Birds, Haunted Mansion and Winnie the Pooh) and something like 8 closed ones. At least they didn't close down my Tiki Birds! No Richard Sherman performances I should know about, right?

 

[skier_pete]

WAITLIST CAME THROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




I CAN"T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!!!!

Of course this may change plans slightly - but I don't think too much. We may end up canceling the first day in the studio...unless I can convert it to the "pay for points" reservation. I'll be calling when I get home from work. Still - this IS AWESOME!!!

As my trip report says - I CAN'T BELIEVE WE ARE STAYING HERE!!!

 

[rteetz]

WAITLIST CAME THROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




I CAN"T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!!!!

Of course this may change plans slightly - but I don't think too much. We may end up canceling the first day in the studio...unless I can convert it to the "pay for points" reservation. I'll be calling when I get home from work. Still - this IS AWESOME!!!

As my trip report says - I CAN'T BELIEVE WE ARE STAYING HERE!!!

Woohooo! Happy you got it!

 

[franandaj]

WAITLIST CAME THROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




I CAN"T BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!!!!

Of course this may change plans slightly - but I don't think too much. We may end up canceling the first day in the studio...unless I can convert it to the "pay for points" reservation. I'll be calling when I get home from work. Still - this IS AWESOME!!!

As my trip report says - I CAN'T BELIEVE WE ARE STAYING HERE!!!

I told you it would!