frozman
12-16-2012, 02:44 PM
So here I am at John Wayne airport, waiting for my flight back home, sad, but it was a great trip.
I didn't think the parks were too crowded, and I can't tell you how many times I found myself saying "this would not happen in Florida"...
-Space mountain, soarin, splash mountain, tower of terror, btmrr, all being walk ons an hour after park opened, with splash, btmrr, tot, and one day even soarin having 10 minutes or less for a better part of the day.
-doing 4 laps on splash mountain without getting off at 7pm
-90 minutes after Disneyland opened, longest wait on the info board was 15 minutes.
Of course there was one ride that reminded me of the hussle and bussle of Florida... Radiator Springs racers. That was between 50-90 minutes throughout my trip, when everything else had a very little wait, single rider was always around 20-25 minutes (not bad), but the fast passes... Omg. I went to the distribution area (which is next to its tough to be a bug for whatever reason) 45 minutes after park opening and the sign had just changed to 4:00-5:00 (park hours were 9-8) I had originally intended not to bother with fast pass for this ride as I am a single rider anyway, but there weren't too many people waiting, so I figured why not. I waited between 2-3 minutes for my fast pass, and when I got it, it was for... get this... 4:25-5:25, so yeah, 5 minutes every 30 seconds or so, and remember, I didn't think the parks were that busy. If you are there on a busy day, get your fast passes immediately, or risk not getting on that one. One thing to note, the radiator springs fast passes do not interfere with your ability to get another fast pass, at least not on quieter days, busy days i dont know, so you can get 3 fast passes at the beginning of the day at DCA... Radiator springs, world of color, and something else.
I stayed at the comfort inn maingate (which is actually pretty far south, just north of chapman), and I was very happy with that. It was a hotwire purchase for $44/night, would have been $72 on their site. The free breakfast was worth at least $8-9, and no resort fees, so I would be thrilled to stay here again.
One final thing I will say, I think I prefer OCTA to ART, in the past I've stayed at hotels with their own shuttles, but this time I had to use public transit. I was thinking back to a post I made on the wdw boards where someone was asking about a rumor that shades of green transportation was bad compared to wdw transportation, and I, along with a bunch of other posters immediately disagreed. Shades of green is like the octa bus, rather than being "every 20 minutes or so" like art and wdw, the octa bus has posted times so you know when to be there, and if stopping at the restroom could cost you 20 minutes. Plus octa is less expensive and, at least when I was riding, less crowded. If you are ever staying on harbor blvd anywhere near Disneyland (north or south) you may wish to take octa route 43 instead of art.
Well, now I'm going home, to the place where I belong. Have a good day!
I didn't think the parks were too crowded, and I can't tell you how many times I found myself saying "this would not happen in Florida"...
-Space mountain, soarin, splash mountain, tower of terror, btmrr, all being walk ons an hour after park opened, with splash, btmrr, tot, and one day even soarin having 10 minutes or less for a better part of the day.
-doing 4 laps on splash mountain without getting off at 7pm
-90 minutes after Disneyland opened, longest wait on the info board was 15 minutes.
Of course there was one ride that reminded me of the hussle and bussle of Florida... Radiator Springs racers. That was between 50-90 minutes throughout my trip, when everything else had a very little wait, single rider was always around 20-25 minutes (not bad), but the fast passes... Omg. I went to the distribution area (which is next to its tough to be a bug for whatever reason) 45 minutes after park opening and the sign had just changed to 4:00-5:00 (park hours were 9-8) I had originally intended not to bother with fast pass for this ride as I am a single rider anyway, but there weren't too many people waiting, so I figured why not. I waited between 2-3 minutes for my fast pass, and when I got it, it was for... get this... 4:25-5:25, so yeah, 5 minutes every 30 seconds or so, and remember, I didn't think the parks were that busy. If you are there on a busy day, get your fast passes immediately, or risk not getting on that one. One thing to note, the radiator springs fast passes do not interfere with your ability to get another fast pass, at least not on quieter days, busy days i dont know, so you can get 3 fast passes at the beginning of the day at DCA... Radiator springs, world of color, and something else.
I stayed at the comfort inn maingate (which is actually pretty far south, just north of chapman), and I was very happy with that. It was a hotwire purchase for $44/night, would have been $72 on their site. The free breakfast was worth at least $8-9, and no resort fees, so I would be thrilled to stay here again.
One final thing I will say, I think I prefer OCTA to ART, in the past I've stayed at hotels with their own shuttles, but this time I had to use public transit. I was thinking back to a post I made on the wdw boards where someone was asking about a rumor that shades of green transportation was bad compared to wdw transportation, and I, along with a bunch of other posters immediately disagreed. Shades of green is like the octa bus, rather than being "every 20 minutes or so" like art and wdw, the octa bus has posted times so you know when to be there, and if stopping at the restroom could cost you 20 minutes. Plus octa is less expensive and, at least when I was riding, less crowded. If you are ever staying on harbor blvd anywhere near Disneyland (north or south) you may wish to take octa route 43 instead of art.
Well, now I'm going home, to the place where I belong. Have a good day!