Disneyland Review

I just came back from disneyland after a week there.  I spent a month researching through the blogs to find all the info I could get and now want to group it together for soemone else, (because it was a pain in the a..).  1) I booked the disney package which was ok.  I also booked medeval times on Monday night and the deluxe universal tour on thursday.  We planned to arrive sunday at 2pm so we didn't trust the airlines and didn't book anything for that night.  That worked well cause our flight was three hours delayed and the day was a write off.  2) We stayed at the marriot near the convention centre.  A liitle far so you have to book or buy the transit passes.  The bus service is decent except for one morning we needed to get to the Grand Califorian Hotel for a character breakfast and it wasn't running at 7am.  I will stay closer next time and walk. We did take the concierge plan with the hotel which got us free breakfast and allowed us to grab water, pop, and fruit to supplement lunch.  Food is expensive for certain places but we just spent on dinner and did fruit & fries for lunch. 

The days: Monday...planned for Toontown with passes but got there at 7:55 and never got through the gates until 8:20.  so decided to do it on Friday.  (get to the gates a liitle earlier than that if you can but with 2 kids 6-9, like me, good luck.  Did Tomorrowland right away.  Did star tours at 8:30  10 out of 10 -no wait, buzz lightyear 8/10 -no wait, fast passed space mountain right away, did autopia 7/10- 15 minute wait, then went to space mountain with no wait 8/10. My 6 year old hated that one but at least I could say "hey you survived that one so this one will be a piece of cake!   Note: use the fastpasses...can't believe how many people were lined up for space mountain at 9:30ish staring at us as we went by??  Then we went to the jedi training academy for the 10:30 show.  We lined up at 10 then my kids were too shy to get up on stage...duh....a waste of a 1/2 hour.  Show was good, 8/10.  We then did a early lunch at 11:00ish at the cafe right there...good seating.  We then went to Innoventions which was average 6/10.  We walked over to Adventureland and fastpassed Indiana Jones then came back and did Honey I Shrunk the Kids.  This was a blast and my favorite of the park.  My 9 year old freaked out ??????....but it awas 10/10.  We then walked back over to Adv. land and did the Tiki room.  I thought it sucked but my 9 year old loved it, 7/10.  Then we shopped for a bit and did Indiana which was great.  Regular line up was 40 minutes FYI, and the kids got scared but loved it.  10/10.  It was about 2:00 and the kids were exhausted so we left to walk back to the hotel and go to medeval times.  Picked up at 4:45 pm and I had upgraded to royality package and the kids loved it!  9/10. 

Tuesday:  Arrived again (we walked again!) at 7:55ish but the gate was quick since we had magic morning passes (get in 1 hr before the regulars), Note: we had breakfast again at the conceirge lounge at 7:00am so we didn't have to stop and eat.  The plan was to do Fantasy land but we made a beeline for Nemo right away and try to finish Tomorrowland.  Still a 30 minute wait for Nemo and it was a 8/10.  Top attraction at the park my a...We then did Astroblaster which is a 6/10 ride but the little kids love it and they let single riders on the line up for this sucker is 40 minutes later.  Then to Fantasy Is....oops, Where there was already large waits at Peterpan and Alice in Wonderland..40 minutes.  We did Dumbo 6/10 and for kiddies, Mr Toad 6/10 for kiddies, Mad tea Party 6/10 for kiddies, Casey jr. train 5/10 for kiddies, Pinnocchio 7/10 for kiddies, Carrousel 5/10 for kiddies.  Then we had a early lunch at about 11:00ish again.  Most of the fantsyland rides waits were not too bad 15 minutes max.  We decided to go over and fastpass Big Thunder at Frontierland and go to the jungle cruise 7/10..Ad land, Pirates of the Carribbean 10/10 (no fastpass here, a 40 m inute wait..N.O. Square, and Mark Twain's boat 4/10..Frontierland, and Tarzan's treehouse a play area, while we waited for the fastpass time.  We did Big Thunder 9/10, scared the kids, and ended the day for the time being.  Approx. 1pm we went back to the hotel for a swim  (busing it from now on) and went to the rain forest cafe at 4pm.  Book reservations for dinner or the wait will be extreme for the popular places.  It was a good dinner.  Then we went back to the park and went on Alice 40 minute wait, 7/10 in Fantasy Land, Peter Pan 45 minute wait 7/10 in F.L. , Sleeping beauty walkthrough 5/10, Canal boat ride  5/10 but is sort of cool with all the minitures.  We stayed for the fireworks and did some shopping.  The fireworks are best seen in front of the castle for full effect...but we saw them behind. 

Wedneday:  We did a character breakfast at The Californian hotel with chip & dale at 7am.  A little tooooo early but was good and fun for the kids.  Then we were off to the park around 9:00ish.  We sort of brain cramped the day away partly cause we were tired.  The plan was to finish off the park and go to Cal. Adv. just across the lot but instead we re-did Star Tours, Buzz, Indiana FP, Pirates, Tiki (the things I do for my kids), & took the railroad. Some new ones we did was the Haunted mansion FP in New Orleans 8/10, Winnie the pooh ride 5/10, and lunch sometime in there.  the day seemed to fly by and we had reservations at the Blue Bayou Restaurant at 4pm,  which  is in the Pirates ride area.  You get the same quiet area and dark night sky/feeling as the riders.  Not worth the money unless your without kids and along the water.  Skip it if you have little ones.  My 6 year old fell asleep during dinner and his evening was done.  I took him back to the hotel and he slept for 13 hours.  The wife and my 9 year old proceeded to re-do most of the good rides and did  the snow whites scary adventures 6/10, etc. 

Thursday:  We had booked a tour of L.A.and the Universal park.  It was a ton of fun and a nice break.  If you go don't miss the simpson's ride, but backdraft was decent, the tour was good, Terminator was great, Jurassic park was great, Shrek 3-d was great etc.  Everything was ok for my 6 year old but we skipped the mummy rollercoaster ride.  Since he did the 80 foot drop at Jurassic he was willing to do the Splash mountain one (50 feet) in disney on Friday. 

Friday:  We got to the park at 7:45 and went in slow.  We went to Toontown with the passes we had (it normally opens 1 hr after the park does and lets passes only in.  It was fun for the kids with a show.  We got on the kids roller coaster there twice with no wait and my 6 year old loved it.  We also did Roger Rabbit's ride 6/10 before leaving.  Not much else there unless you want to meet the characters there and see the houses they live in.  We then finished Disneyland by doing Splash mountain with no wait 8/10, and small world (it's not so painful as it sounds) 7/10.  The only ride/area we did not see was the Matterhorn bobsled (kids just refused to do it with all that screaming), the main street opera show (which I wanted to see), the princess faire (no explaination needed with 2 boys), Tom Sawyers Island (just never seemed to go) , and Davey Crocketts canoe. 

We headed to Cal Adv. park at 10am when it opens.  People say to make a beeline to Toy story but EVERYONE IS DOING THAT!  40 minute wait 20 minutes after opening.  We decided to hit everything else while 90% of the parkgoers were lined up for that ride.  A couple were not working which sucked.  Mulholland Madness, Golden Zephyr, and the Sun ferris wheel.  We fastpassed Soarin over Cal. right away and then walked right on to the Grizzly river run, both in Golden State.  That was 10/10 but it did scare my 6 year old good...but he was a great sport about it.  Then we did the Orange Stinger 6/10 a kiddie one, Jumping Jellyfish 6/10 a kiddie one, at Paradise Pier.  We then walked over to the Hollywood Backlot and spent quite a bit of time in the disney animation area.  Crush's turtle talk is a 10/10, every 30 minutes on the hour, sorcerer's workshop is neat (this is a walk in area I believe),  & the Character close up. Then we did the Soarin and it was very good but they need to upgrade the film a bit but still it's a 9/10.  We then went BACK to Hollywood area and did Monster's Inc.with a 20 minute wait 6/10 and sucked more than it should have...NOTE TO DISNEY...we saw the movie ...CHANGE THE RIDE!  Muppet's 3D which rocked 10/10 and 15 minute wait, and had lunch at the weiner place which was good but the slowest service in the Western Hemisphere.  JUST NUKE THE FRIGGIN DOGS !  30 minute wait in line.  Then we caught the aladdin musical at 1:50pm and yes it's as good as you here!  40 minutes of 10/10 entertaimment.  We then decided to accept the torutre and did the 45 minute wait for Toy Story.  It was a 10/10 but wow the lineup!  then we did the Animation Academy in Disney Animation back at Hollywood.  It was ok.  We finsihed the day off with a Bug's life which freaked out my 9 year old again???,  but not as much, but it was great 10/10.  We left at 5pm to go to Goofy's Kitchen at the disneyland hotel at 6pm & check out downrtown disney.  There are some rides the kids would not go on...Califorian Screamin, Twilight Tower of Terror, Maliboomer and we missed a couple of things.  We needed that 1/2 day on Wed.  They also changed the Pixar parade without any notice to 6:15 pm from 5:15 pm so we missed it.  Thanks Disney! 

Goofy's kitchen was great and we pigged out.  Just do it and don't look at the bill.  We then went back to Disneyland to end the vacation and to see the Fantasmic show.  50,000 people jammed into a area that holds 30,000 ...just a shat show...we saw what we could but get there really early and grab a seat.  And to the nasty Disney worker who was a btch to every one she talked too, thanks for a happy ending to my vacation!  CLEAR THE WALKWAYSAND KEEP MOVING...IT DOESN'T MATTER THAT THERE ARE 30 PEOPLE IN FRONT OF YOU NOT MOVING.....yeh kiss my a....

Hope this helps you out.  it was a great time.

Rob