Attraction suggestions

Disneyland
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This will be a little long, please bear with me. Need a little itinerary help, or suggestions on how best to utilize Touring plans to plan.
Background: I’m taking my granddaughter, age 9 to Disneyland for the first time in August. It’s still a possibility that my 2 other granddaughters age 5 and 7 and their other grandma will join us (fingers crossed, find out later this week)
We will fly in on a Monday morning at SNA, staying at the Disneyland Hotel, plan to spend the afternoon at the pool, with dinner at Goofys Kitchen. My granddaughter (9) and I went to WDW last summer, the other 2 have never been to Disney (They are on my hotel res, waiting on Moms ok to buy their park tickets)

We have 3 day park hoppers. Reservations DL on Tues, DCA on Wed, DL on Thurs. Thurs evening after 8, we will be transferring to the Hilton near Universal. Friday is our Universal Hollywood day, and we will fly home on Sat.
My granddaughter has a DAS, due to some anxiety/ sensory issues, but as long as we keep the waits less than 20 minutes or so, and take some short break in a quieter area or show, or slow type ride like small world, etc things worked our well at WDW. We didn’t rope drop, but started close to opening time, and usually went back to hotel by nine, except for one evening for the fireworks.

My mom recently passed away; her greatest joys were family, especially her grandchildren, and travel. So when I inherited some money after her passing, I did responsible things like adding to college funds, etc, but I earmarked funds for travel splurges, and general grandchild spoilage. So, on both Tues and Wed afternoons, starting at 1pm, we will have a VIP tour.

The plan is to breakfast in the room (cereal, banana etc) walk to the park around opening, ride things or see shows that we perhaps don’t want to spend tour time on, like the animation class in DCA, or maybe small world or pirates,or the train that take longer to do. Eat a good lunch at noon before our tour, prob do a quick mobile order in the evening. Will end the tour with the fireworks on one day, Fantasmic the other, taking advantage of Tour reserved areas, so we won’t be waiting a long time or in too crowded an area which would be an issue for my granddaughter with the DAS. Definitely want kids to see the electric parade, hopefully the tour can help us out there also.

Wed will be for rerides or things we didn’t get to, I’m not sure what time WOC usually runs, but it’s probably too late, I’d like leave the parks between 8- 830, so we aren’t too late arriving to our Universal hotel. We plan to start that day with the Princess Adventure breakfast at Napa Rose, so a later start. I’ll have Genie +, mostly for photopass. Will probably buy Genie + for the non-Das grandkids/other grandma for Wed, as the DAS holder is not as adventurous as the others and they may want to ride things she won’t try. On the other days we will have the tour to take care of that, and will all do stuff together in the morning.

So, frequent DL’ers what are your suggestions for best shows or attractions our DL and DCA mornings?

I have been playing around with doing a touring plan, but unsure how to handle DAS. Check the app and use estimated wait times? When we did WDW last year, we usually got a return time from a moderate wait attraction, and then did a short wait time one nearby or a snack/bathroom break, photos, if we were doing a show or a meal,we would request a return time at a longer wait attraction, then return after the show or after the meal. I don’t know how or if I can build a touring plan around that. I’d prefer not to do a lot of land hopping.
And last summer, the fastpass/lightning lanes were only used for recovery passes, DAS, and tours, so with the extra people from Genie or ILLS, not sure how that affects the wait when we return. And haven’t done DAS request with the ap ( I have an Android which I’ve heard is buggy with the app), or scanned in without magic bands. I’m thinking about having our tickets on a lanyard clipped to my backpack for scanning; having used my phone for scanning into plays or concert or boarding airplane, I’m truly bad at it. ( And with having to scan in LL for 5 people, at potentially 2 check points…not good)

So morning attraction suggestions on tour days? Not Haunted Mansion,hard no from granddaughter.
How to set up touring plan with DAS to optimize those tour day mornings and our last day?

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Bumping this so others will see. I will get back to you.

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Ok it sounds like you are relatively well prepared! I usually tell people that 2 days is the bare minimum to see all of Disneyland Resort, with 3 days being recommended for first timers (4-5 is doable, but honestly not necessary and you’d get bored without other diversions to break it up in between). Add on VIP, DAS, and Genie+, and you will easily see and do everything you want to do. Don’t stress too much about the mechanics - you seem to have done your research, and you’ll figure it out.

One point I would like to make is that World of Color is my favorite nighttime show in any Disney park. Fantasmic is right up there and I know many people would put it first, but I wonder if there is a way you can work in both (or do WOC only if you’ve done Fantasmic at WDW?). Just my opinion.

You might find the thread below useful for answering this question. I’m linking my post comparing rides between DLR and WDW, but others in the thread answered the same question. As I said before, you should be able to ride and experience almost everything!

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I’m gonna seriously disagree with @Jeff_AZ he’s usually right but not in rating WOC over Fantasmic. In addition Fantasmic at DLR is so different and better than (at least the old) DHS version I would also argue it does not matter if you have seen DHs’s. See Disneylands before you see WOC.

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I agree with this.

But I’m going to stick to my guns on WoC! I love that show. But your point is why I said to try to see both.

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I would take a look at the link Jeff added but in general I really love dark rides and DLR feels like it has more of these. I would focus on these as they are mostly different than WDW with the exception of Little Mermaid, Pan and Pooh (I guess Toy Story Mania too is the same but you can’t miss that!). Pirates is 1000 times better here. I prefer BTMR and Space here too. If you found Space too jerky in WDW, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much smoother it is here.

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I think my opinion of WOC comes from the fact that I can never fully see it. I can see the top half at best. I’m 5’4” and since it’s standing room only I end up never ever in front even paying for the dinner seating. So it’s always half a show for me and stressful. Maybe it is as good as Jeff says lol. But Fantasmic has more of a storyline and a DRAGON! Plus a boat full of Disney characters.

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Fair enough. I am short too but I’ve had a couple of good views over the years being close to a railing. I actually hate that about every show in Disney except Fantasmic at WDW - the view is always obstructed!

The reason I love WoC so much is two things: one, I was just blown away by the effect of seeing such vivid colors in the water, as if it were buckets of paint. The light, water, and color is unlike anything anywhere else.

Second is the music. It has a very powerful soundtrack and hits all the emotional high points (and low points) just right. I’m a fan.

IMO, the original Fantasmic was perfect, but they ruined the score a few years ago. They disrupted the flow, so it’s not as good. But still good.

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Interesting. I haven’t seen it in a few years and I can never see the water in World of Color. Just the top half of the water projections and streams.

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Thanks for the suggestions. We’ve never seen Fantasmic, and I figured it would be more interesting to the kids.
We would definitely do WOC if the fireworks get canceled.

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I was in DLR in February with my grands (nieces and nephews) and we used DAS extensively. If you and your granddaughter are interested in the dark rides of Fantasyland, most of them use the exit for DAS and Mobility access. Just check with the CM’s at each ride. These are rides that do not have LL, so you won’t be competing with those who have Genie+. For the more popular rides, you will be given a return time. But for the others, they’ll basically let you right in.
DAS does enter through the LL for rides that have one - something to take into consideration.

If I was taking a trip to DLR and hadn’t been there before, I would focus on the following:

FL Dark Rides
Cars Land
Avengers Campus

There are lots of rides I think are better at DL than at WDW, but I would focus mainly on the things that are unique to DLR.

I would not take time to do these rides unless I really loved them or had plenty of time:

Star Tours
Little Mermaid
Soarin’ Over the World (but add it to list above if it’s Over California)
TSMM

If you have any DAS questions, please let me know!

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DD19 and I watched WoC from the splash zone in August 2019. View was incredible! And it definitely gave me a new appreciation for the show. We were drenched, however. And I kept thinking about how yucky the water must be. It was spraying right into our faces!! But we had the best view in the house. If we ever do that again, I’ll try to have a poncho with me.

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Thank you. Last summer, we went to CM at the ride and requested a return time, they scanned her magic band and gave us time to return. When we came back,we went to fast pass lane, said we had return time, then she scanned her magic band, then I did, and again and the next check point.
So, since there arent magic bands at DL, I get a time in the app, and then we scan our tickets or the bar code on phone at the lightening lane? Is there a place to scan or is it a CM with a scanner?
When we were at Universal last summer, I just had our tickets/express pass on a lanyard, with seperate plastic pockets fpr each of us, which had to be scanned by a worker in the express lane, or when hopping via the hogwarts train. That worked pretty well. I really dont want to drag my phone out, unlock, open the app, find the bar codes… I remember rolling my eyes (in my mind) when I was explaining to my mom how to use email, or record a show on the VCR…Now Im the tech fumble fingers. I’m THAT person who prints out her boarding pass. My local perfoming arts center requires phone scanning now, and I hate it, I always have the angle wrong or something, and have to try several times to get it to work. Sigh, Im old.

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Thanks for the heads up, Ill have to remember that if we watch WOC. My granddaughter won’t ride any water ridesi n regular clothes, she cant stand wet clothes on. We had the usual Florida rain in the afternoons at WDW and she had a rain jacket and a poncho on

We just change her into her swim clothes and water shoes before any water ride, and she’s happy. She still talks about her shorts getting splashed on the Frozen ride at Epcot last summer. So we have a list of rides she is going to change for. Its part of what we do during our wait time for DAS returns.

Right now list has Matterhorn, Splash, Pirates, Grizzly River, and now WOC, anything Im forgetting?

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All of the DAS is done through the phone. I guess you could go to a CM for a return time, but it’s much easier to do it yourself on the app. If the ride has a LL, there is a stanchion with a CM standing by where you scan your tickets. If you have physical tickets, I suppose you could use those. First granddaughter which pulls up her picture and CM verifies it is her. Then remainder of the party. We just scanned our tickets in the app. Only one scan at DLR, no double taps.

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How do you get the splash zone? I’d be willing to get wet….go ahead @OBNurseNH…

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:smirk:

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:rofl:

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