Pat-n-Eil
07-01-2004, 08:06 PM
We took off on Monday morning at 4:00am from our home here in Northern California. We arrived (after stopping at the Apricot Tree for Breakfast) at the Paradise Pier hotel at about 11:45 am. We self parked and found it an easy walk from our spot in the parking structure to the hotel with our bags. Our room was ready and we checked in and went upstairs. Our room was clean and comfortable. The beds were very comfortable and the climate control worked well. We had a 12th floor room with a view of DCA which was great. We could see and hear the Electric Light Parade very clearly and also the fireworks from Disneyland.
The first day we entered DCA about 12:00. We got FastPasses for Soarin' on our way to Tower of Terror. We grabbed FastPasses for ToT and then went in the Standby line which wasn't all that long. We got into the TV room in about 15 minutes. My family all agrees that we like this ride very much. It has repeatability (and we found out later that we love it at night time). Our only caveats were that the queue, while being well themed, didn't offer too much to take in down in the boiler room.. and the elevator portion is really fun, but we all wished it were about twice as long as it is. Pretty much the sentiments others have expressed on this board.
We spent day 1 at DCA.. went back to the Paradise Pier around 5:30 and had dinner at the PCH grill. I had tried to research whether this place was good, bad or indifferent and aside from negative comments about their Minnie & Friends breakfast, I never got much info. I can tell you now that we enjoyed two nice meals there during this trip. Pretty basic fare - hamburgers, pizza & salads mostly.. You can substitute grilled chicken for the burger on the sandwiches.. and the pizza was quite good! This happens to also be quite reasonable. After having spend nearly $32 for 4 corn dogs and 4 drinks at the Corndog Castle earlier that day, we were glad to have a full sit down meal for only about $10 more for dinner. Our waiter (whom we got for both meals) was very attentive, had fun with my kids (even though they are teenagers now) and was very pleasant. His name was Danny and he was great.
My wife and I turned in and let the kids go back to DCA until it closed at 9:00.
Day 2 we started out early and got to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast at the Disneyland Hotel at about 7:00am. This was a good move as we were able to get in, have breakfast, get lots of character interaction and pictures taken and were done by 8:00am. We went to the monorail station, immediately boarded Monorail Blue and hit the park by 8:15. We promised ourselves to do something new each time we go there, and this time it was to try the Peter Pan ride. This was the first thing we did. It was fine - kind of neat the way it works.. but having no history with this ride and with my kids being 13 and 16, it didn't hold a whole lot of magic for us... but I got some pictures anyway.. and at least now I can relate to people who talk about it on here.
From there we went to Great Thunder Mountain Railroad, where we heard but did not see the Goat. Is he now a g(h)oa(s)t? Anyhow it was very fun to ride this coaster again. From there we did the usual.. Indy, PotC, HM, Splash.. not necessarily in that order. We found it funny that the gun battle at the end was between the three Pirates on the right and NO pirate on the left!! Bullets from nowhere were landing to our right! We rode the Jungle Cruise and had Danny as our captain. We thought he was funny & clever. I must say that Tuesday was extremely pleasant in the park. The weather was overcast and cooler in the morning before burning off and being sunny, but still pleasant. The crowds were great!! There were people there, but nothing like the crushing madness we experienced last year during Thanksgiving. Early in the park is always nice, but on Tuesday it stayed very pleasant all day long. We were overjoyed. Wednesday was a bit more crowded, but still we found it fairly easy to move around.
I must also say that the park looks great! I told one of the castmember's who was sweeping up so too. (His name was Cary, at the end of Main Street near tomorrowland). In fact, we were interviewed twice this trip.. once exiting DCA and once exiting Disneyland.. and we told both survey takers that we thought everything was much better, cleaner, nicer this time than it was last November.
We did all of the things we love.. like the Walt Disney Story/Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction - which I swear must be my wife's favorite. We love the haircut that private Cunningham gets before his picture.. and I can still here the voice of Lincoln in my ear whispering "You must liiivvve."
Our last day, Wednesday, my wife wasn't feeling so good, so after her early in the day departure it was just me and the kids. My son kept volunteering to run and get FastPasses(which I had done earlier in the day) so I didn't have to anymore. That's good too, my feet were starting to hurt! I didn't have one single attraction go down on me this time and all in all it was a fantastic trip. We park hopped quite a bit and found the lines to DCA were actually longer than Disneyland. DCA was anything but a ghost town.. larger crowds than before, but it stilled handled them easily.
Bottom line things I took away from our trip this time:
1. Tuesday's seem to be good days to go, crowd wise.
2. The PCH Grill is worth a shot for dinner. We really enjoyed it. (they don't serve lunch).
3. The Paradise Pier Hotel is very nice. At $200/night less than the GCH, we'll be staying there again.
I'll post pictures once I get them organized, thumbnailed and uploaded.
The first day we entered DCA about 12:00. We got FastPasses for Soarin' on our way to Tower of Terror. We grabbed FastPasses for ToT and then went in the Standby line which wasn't all that long. We got into the TV room in about 15 minutes. My family all agrees that we like this ride very much. It has repeatability (and we found out later that we love it at night time). Our only caveats were that the queue, while being well themed, didn't offer too much to take in down in the boiler room.. and the elevator portion is really fun, but we all wished it were about twice as long as it is. Pretty much the sentiments others have expressed on this board.
We spent day 1 at DCA.. went back to the Paradise Pier around 5:30 and had dinner at the PCH grill. I had tried to research whether this place was good, bad or indifferent and aside from negative comments about their Minnie & Friends breakfast, I never got much info. I can tell you now that we enjoyed two nice meals there during this trip. Pretty basic fare - hamburgers, pizza & salads mostly.. You can substitute grilled chicken for the burger on the sandwiches.. and the pizza was quite good! This happens to also be quite reasonable. After having spend nearly $32 for 4 corn dogs and 4 drinks at the Corndog Castle earlier that day, we were glad to have a full sit down meal for only about $10 more for dinner. Our waiter (whom we got for both meals) was very attentive, had fun with my kids (even though they are teenagers now) and was very pleasant. His name was Danny and he was great.
My wife and I turned in and let the kids go back to DCA until it closed at 9:00.
Day 2 we started out early and got to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast at the Disneyland Hotel at about 7:00am. This was a good move as we were able to get in, have breakfast, get lots of character interaction and pictures taken and were done by 8:00am. We went to the monorail station, immediately boarded Monorail Blue and hit the park by 8:15. We promised ourselves to do something new each time we go there, and this time it was to try the Peter Pan ride. This was the first thing we did. It was fine - kind of neat the way it works.. but having no history with this ride and with my kids being 13 and 16, it didn't hold a whole lot of magic for us... but I got some pictures anyway.. and at least now I can relate to people who talk about it on here.
From there we went to Great Thunder Mountain Railroad, where we heard but did not see the Goat. Is he now a g(h)oa(s)t? Anyhow it was very fun to ride this coaster again. From there we did the usual.. Indy, PotC, HM, Splash.. not necessarily in that order. We found it funny that the gun battle at the end was between the three Pirates on the right and NO pirate on the left!! Bullets from nowhere were landing to our right! We rode the Jungle Cruise and had Danny as our captain. We thought he was funny & clever. I must say that Tuesday was extremely pleasant in the park. The weather was overcast and cooler in the morning before burning off and being sunny, but still pleasant. The crowds were great!! There were people there, but nothing like the crushing madness we experienced last year during Thanksgiving. Early in the park is always nice, but on Tuesday it stayed very pleasant all day long. We were overjoyed. Wednesday was a bit more crowded, but still we found it fairly easy to move around.
I must also say that the park looks great! I told one of the castmember's who was sweeping up so too. (His name was Cary, at the end of Main Street near tomorrowland). In fact, we were interviewed twice this trip.. once exiting DCA and once exiting Disneyland.. and we told both survey takers that we thought everything was much better, cleaner, nicer this time than it was last November.
We did all of the things we love.. like the Walt Disney Story/Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction - which I swear must be my wife's favorite. We love the haircut that private Cunningham gets before his picture.. and I can still here the voice of Lincoln in my ear whispering "You must liiivvve."
Our last day, Wednesday, my wife wasn't feeling so good, so after her early in the day departure it was just me and the kids. My son kept volunteering to run and get FastPasses(which I had done earlier in the day) so I didn't have to anymore. That's good too, my feet were starting to hurt! I didn't have one single attraction go down on me this time and all in all it was a fantastic trip. We park hopped quite a bit and found the lines to DCA were actually longer than Disneyland. DCA was anything but a ghost town.. larger crowds than before, but it stilled handled them easily.
Bottom line things I took away from our trip this time:
1. Tuesday's seem to be good days to go, crowd wise.
2. The PCH Grill is worth a shot for dinner. We really enjoyed it. (they don't serve lunch).
3. The Paradise Pier Hotel is very nice. At $200/night less than the GCH, we'll be staying there again.
I'll post pictures once I get them organized, thumbnailed and uploaded.