Post by vtlovedw on Jan 31, 2023 12:41:43 GMT -5
First of all, thanks to everyone who replied to my original "DL Help" post! Here is a simple synopsis of our trip:
Day 1:
JetBlue Flights (BTV-JFK-LAX)...First plane had mechanical issues. Lots of rebooking. Finally departed at 10:30 AM (originally 6:05 AM). Long layover in JFK. Finally landed in LA at 6:15 PM, but had to wait for the next plane coming for our luggage (long story there...). Luggage arrived and got picked up by Happy Shuttle. We would HIGHLY recommend them as our original pick up time was 12:30 PM and they picked us up at 7:45 PM without any extra fees and even got an upgraded vehicle! Checked into the SunCoast Park Hotel in Anaheim around 8:40. This hotel was clean, quiet (except one night which the front desk took care of promptly) and an easy walk to the parks! Ordered Instacart and got everything we needed. Finally got to bed after being up almost 21 hours!
Day 2:
California Adventure Park. We "slept" in until 6:00 AM (9:00 our time - much needed after the previous day's lack of sleep). Headed to the park around 7:15. Very different feel from WDW with the 2 parks so close together and Downtown Disney right there as well. We headed straight to Radiator Springs at rope drop - as did everyone else, so it was almost 2 hours from the time we got in line until we got off (it broke down twice). Since we were DL rookies I didn't realize how this would go, but in hindsight we should've gone to do ALL the other rides at rope drop and then just bought the ILL for it (instead of buying G+) which would've worked fine and saved us $30...oh well. We had a great day and rode everything we wanted to! Spiderman, Monsters Inc., and Incredicoaster are super fun! The bakery tour was cool and we enjoyed the free samples! We also enjoyed our usual ice cream sundaes from Ghiardelli - delicious! Our DD who is quite picky found some food that she liked so that was a bonus! Unfortunately, the time change and lack of sleep caught up with us and we headed out before WOC - bummed, but I suppose it gives us a reason to go back (LOL).
Day 3:
Disneyland. This was the first day of the 100th anniversary celebration, so there were tons of CM's welcoming everyone into the park that morning - super cool! We purchased G+ again to help us with getting on rides since we only had the one day here as well. It was great to ride some new rides (Pinnochio, Snow White, Mr. Toad's, Alice, etc.) and to compare the same rides at WDW. SM, TMRR, and Winnie the Pooh are much smoother at DL! All the locals were commenting on how busy the park was, but honestly we didn't think it felt any worse than our busiest days at MK and we rode almost everything - even with many rides going down throughout the day. We got all the G+ rides we wanted and even rode RoR with a 35 minute wait at best at 2:00 in the afternoon (never seen the line that short as HS unless you go at park close!). We managed to power through our fatigue and stayed to watch the fireworks and rode a couple of rides after since the park was open until midnight.
Day 4:
We slept in. No parks as this was our DD's gymnastic's meet day. We did go to Downtown Disney to browse and have lunch. We had great burgers at Black Tap Craft Burgers. Then we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the meet at the Anaheim Convention Center. Meet went well, but it was long! We grabbed a quick dinner at Blaze Pizza (which we love at DS!) and then walked back to the hotel. We only had an hour to finish packing and DD needed to shower. We booked the hotel for Saturday night even though we were taking the red eye back - worked well to be able to go back to the hotel before flying home. Happy Shuttle picked us up and we had a pleasant ride to the ONT airport (wow small and easy airport to fly out of!). Flights home JetBlue ONT-JFK-BTV all went off without any issues this time and we did end up receiving a $100 travel credit each from JetBlue for the disaster on the way out.
We thoroughly enjoyed our whirlwind trip! Losing about 7 hours time due to travel issues on Day 1 did make it feel even more hectic, but glad we still got there last Wednesday. We enjoyed the random characters being out and about - very different from MK, Epcot, HS, and AK. The 100th Anniversary merchandise is nice - missed out on the purple hoodie though...so bummed as I saw it online before the trip, but figured I could buy it there (wrong!)...sold out! Thanks again to everyone who helped us do some pre-planning and kind of get a feel of what to expect! Not sure when/if we'll make it back, but it was tons of fun!
Day 1:
JetBlue Flights (BTV-JFK-LAX)...First plane had mechanical issues. Lots of rebooking. Finally departed at 10:30 AM (originally 6:05 AM). Long layover in JFK. Finally landed in LA at 6:15 PM, but had to wait for the next plane coming for our luggage (long story there...). Luggage arrived and got picked up by Happy Shuttle. We would HIGHLY recommend them as our original pick up time was 12:30 PM and they picked us up at 7:45 PM without any extra fees and even got an upgraded vehicle! Checked into the SunCoast Park Hotel in Anaheim around 8:40. This hotel was clean, quiet (except one night which the front desk took care of promptly) and an easy walk to the parks! Ordered Instacart and got everything we needed. Finally got to bed after being up almost 21 hours!
Day 2:
California Adventure Park. We "slept" in until 6:00 AM (9:00 our time - much needed after the previous day's lack of sleep). Headed to the park around 7:15. Very different feel from WDW with the 2 parks so close together and Downtown Disney right there as well. We headed straight to Radiator Springs at rope drop - as did everyone else, so it was almost 2 hours from the time we got in line until we got off (it broke down twice). Since we were DL rookies I didn't realize how this would go, but in hindsight we should've gone to do ALL the other rides at rope drop and then just bought the ILL for it (instead of buying G+) which would've worked fine and saved us $30...oh well. We had a great day and rode everything we wanted to! Spiderman, Monsters Inc., and Incredicoaster are super fun! The bakery tour was cool and we enjoyed the free samples! We also enjoyed our usual ice cream sundaes from Ghiardelli - delicious! Our DD who is quite picky found some food that she liked so that was a bonus! Unfortunately, the time change and lack of sleep caught up with us and we headed out before WOC - bummed, but I suppose it gives us a reason to go back (LOL).
Day 3:
Disneyland. This was the first day of the 100th anniversary celebration, so there were tons of CM's welcoming everyone into the park that morning - super cool! We purchased G+ again to help us with getting on rides since we only had the one day here as well. It was great to ride some new rides (Pinnochio, Snow White, Mr. Toad's, Alice, etc.) and to compare the same rides at WDW. SM, TMRR, and Winnie the Pooh are much smoother at DL! All the locals were commenting on how busy the park was, but honestly we didn't think it felt any worse than our busiest days at MK and we rode almost everything - even with many rides going down throughout the day. We got all the G+ rides we wanted and even rode RoR with a 35 minute wait at best at 2:00 in the afternoon (never seen the line that short as HS unless you go at park close!). We managed to power through our fatigue and stayed to watch the fireworks and rode a couple of rides after since the park was open until midnight.
Day 4:
We slept in. No parks as this was our DD's gymnastic's meet day. We did go to Downtown Disney to browse and have lunch. We had great burgers at Black Tap Craft Burgers. Then we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the meet at the Anaheim Convention Center. Meet went well, but it was long! We grabbed a quick dinner at Blaze Pizza (which we love at DS!) and then walked back to the hotel. We only had an hour to finish packing and DD needed to shower. We booked the hotel for Saturday night even though we were taking the red eye back - worked well to be able to go back to the hotel before flying home. Happy Shuttle picked us up and we had a pleasant ride to the ONT airport (wow small and easy airport to fly out of!). Flights home JetBlue ONT-JFK-BTV all went off without any issues this time and we did end up receiving a $100 travel credit each from JetBlue for the disaster on the way out.
We thoroughly enjoyed our whirlwind trip! Losing about 7 hours time due to travel issues on Day 1 did make it feel even more hectic, but glad we still got there last Wednesday. We enjoyed the random characters being out and about - very different from MK, Epcot, HS, and AK. The 100th Anniversary merchandise is nice - missed out on the purple hoodie though...so bummed as I saw it online before the trip, but figured I could buy it there (wrong!)...sold out! Thanks again to everyone who helped us do some pre-planning and kind of get a feel of what to expect! Not sure when/if we'll make it back, but it was tons of fun!
