Trip update. Overall the trip went really well and I didn’t have too many issues.
7:15 security, and gate arrival
7:30 Gates and moved to right hand side of rope drop to tomorrow land (booked Indy G+) [Highly Recommend you look up ‘fishing for LLEP’ threads] Bough G+ ILL$ for Radiator Springs Races (not worth it, soloQ was shorter)
FYI Rope drop was much more relaxed than at WDW.
8:00 Rope dropped and followed a nice family over to Space mountain (pretty cool queue compared to FL) I would side the ride was about the same as Florida other than that.
in sequence (only standby) I was able walk right on to Matterhorn (not super impressed), then Alice, Then Mr. Toad. (4 attractions so far)
9:00 Cancelled Indy prior to loosing it and rebooked for SM as it was now down. Walked through Sleeping Beauty Castle (Actually really cool IMHO, I can’t understand why we cant have that in FL)
9:15 G+ onto SM (it was up now) [way wetter than FL); and got another immediate G+ for HM [Aside from preshow and hatbox, identical to FL?]; then a break to get Beignets and Mint Julep.
9:45 booked Indy G+ and got on the DL Railroad (way cooler than FL)
10:15 Indy (Why do we have Dinosaur instead of this? Amazing.) Booked 11:00 ROTR (It was an easy G+ to get, and I just went for it anyways) Booked 11:45 BTM
10:45 Walked onto Smugglers Run soloQ (maybe 5 minutes)
11:10 Walked onto G+ ILL$ for ROTR (maybe 5 minutes)
11:30 Galaxy’s edge walkthrough
11:45 BTM G+ (wait was about 15 minutes in LL) (12 Attractions)
Here I booked at 1:45 GOTG G+ (I’m almost definitely sure I did because I also set my 2 hour timer)
12:15pm Lunch at Jolly Holliday to get a Matterhorn Pastry
12:30pm Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
1:00pm Hopper to DCA; Radiator Springs Racers (about a 15 minute ILL$ Wait, RSR is what they should have replaced Test Track with when they upgraded, its really good.)
**1:30pm Noticed I no longer had my GOTG G+ Pass. **
Quickly booked Soarin’ for 4PM instead to start stacking for after a break. I asked a CM who basically shrugged me off and said “you lose your G+ passes when you hop from DL to DCA” I don’t think this is true though.
1:45 SoloQ Web Slingers (about a 30 minute wait, Basically Spiderman TSM, but theming and preshow is super cool)
2:30 SoloQ Grizzly River run (Cool raft ride, Kali is probably better though and less cramped on the raft) (16 attractions)
3:00 I had a Beer Tasting Session which was ok and pretty good considering only $25.
3:15-4:45 I took a break back to the hotel to rehydrate and call the family. Booked GOTG for 5:45
4:45 Soarin’ G+ (Its OK outside of Patrick Warburton); Couldn’t stack G+ like in WDW, you have to use all passes first. Also are bare feet on Soarin’ ok?
5:15 Philharmagic Break (theater was empty)
5:45 GOTG G+ (Going to get hate, but this is nearly as good at ToT, probably top ride to me at DL) Booked Incredicoaster G+ (20 Attractions)
6:30 Incredicoaster gets Cancelled twice rewarding LLEPs (Use anywhere)
7:15 Walked through Avengers Campus, cars land, hollywood land and met some characters that were out. (Moonknight)
8:00 StandbyQ for Monsters Inc (45 minutes, longest wait all day)
8:15 Walk to Pixar Pier, never got any passes and decided to start heading out to Downtown Disney, park was way crowded at this point. Pixar pier is also basically Dinoland + crowds and I wasn’t a huge fan of anything there solo.
9:00 Grabbed some food and made my way back to DL.
9:30 Star Tours G+
9:50 Buzz G+
10:15 Snow White G+
10:30 Pinnochio G+
10:45 Small World Walk on
(All in- 26 Attractions)
11:00 Completely too tired, did some Mainstreet photos, castle, shopping, etc. down main street and headed out.
Overall I was blown away with just how much I was able to do in a day, and this was on a bit more crowded day and I didn’t get as many LLEP as I had hoped.
The morning was way better, everyone was friendly and rides and queues were much more relaxed. By 8pm people were getting upset at each other and there wasn’t much room to walk anymore.
I would honestly recommend doing 8am-1pm then return at like 9pm-midnight and do 2 days , 1 park each. I just didn’t have the time for this.
To answer some of my own questions for the benefit of others:
- Uber from LAX-> Disneyland was $60 for single person and took about 40 minutes early in the AM with no traffic. Arrive at 7-7:15 for best positioning.
- G+ first pick should try to be something thats closed to get a LLEP, enough rides don’t immediately fill up like at Florida until 10AM.
- Best food was the Mint Julep place between Pirates and Haunted Mansion.
- Trader Sam’s is ridiculously far away from the park and through 2 security checkpoints. I honestly wouldn’t bother with it unless you don’t plan to go back to the park. I cancelled my reservation I got on the way there realizing I wouldn’t make it back to the park in less than 2 hours round trip.
- Pixar Pier and DCA in general is tough to navigate once crowded and at night. It’s basically parts of Epcot, HS and AK all mixed together.