Originally Posted By fkurucz When: Aug 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 Who: Two of my teenage kids (g & b) and each brought a friend along, plus yours truly. Both friends were Disney first timers (and they loved it) How we got there: drove from metro Denver area. about 1050 miles each way. Spent the night in Mesquite NV on th eway down (very hot) and in Grad Junction CO on the way back. Where we stayed: At the Marriott Towneplace Suites. Using my coprorate discount code I was able to get a 2 bedroom suite for $90 a night (inluding taxes). Each bedroom had a queen size bed. There was also a sofa sleeper in the living room. It had a full kitchen, but only 1 bath. Its located near the corner of Katella and State College, so its much closer to the stadium than to DL. It does have an ART stop (once per hour) but we had a car. Highlights: We arrived midday Sunday and entered DL around 2:00 PM expecting a mob. It was quite the opposite. We were able to ride most of the favorites without needing fastpasses. So we go Monday expecting even lighter crowds. Bzzzzt!! Wrong!!! Mon, Tues and Wed were busier. Nothing that couldn't be solved with clever fastpass hoarding. We did manage finally ride the updated subs. We waited about 30 minutes. It was cute, but IMHO not worth waiting an hour or more (which appear to be the norm during our visit). We did not ride the new Toy Story ride. We tried arriving early once, but it was broken down. All other times it had lines worthy of a depression era soup kitchen. On Thursday we took a break from Disney and went down to San Diego. Spent time in La Jolla and drove back up the 101 to Carlsbad. Dining: Mostly in park, except for breakfast which was back at the hotel, just because I couldn't get the kids out of there. Blue Bayou, French Market, Rancho, Pizza Port, Carnation Cafe. Also Rain Forest Cafe and Bucca di Beppo. Weather: Was 84F during the day, but felt much hotter to us, probably because of the humidity difference from Colorado. Night time was perfect. That's all folks!
Originally Posted By SoThisIsLove What an angel of mercy to take their friends and how delightful it must've been to introduce first-timers to the delights of Disney. What a great report. Thanks so much for posting it, intrepid parent! xoxo
Originally Posted By momof4boys We were there the same time- I agree that the crowds on Sunday were MUCH better than the other days. And one day ( can't remember which one) even at 10:30 am it felt very hot outside. We were at Toy Story Mania the morning that it was broken down at opening. We probably crossed paths a couple of times! We also agreed the Nemo wasn't worth waiting in a line for much longer than 30 minutes. What fun to take your kids friends along-especially for their first trip! We took my oldest's friend one time ( now all the kids want to bring a friend but the kids are too big now to fit an extra in the car comfortably for a long drive). It is so fun to introduce people to DL!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Glad you had such a great time! Any particularly memorable moments you care to share in more detail?
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Any particularly memorable moments you care to share in more detail?>> Let's see: My son lost his wallet Sunday night, but he backtracked and found it at the Matterhorn. He has an AP, so it wouldn't have been a tragedy, then... On Monday his friend lost his wallet with a parkhapper with 3 days left on it. Once again back tracking did the trick and it was found at the Pizza Port. My kids tricked their friends into sitting in the front seats on Splash Mtn (so they wouldn't get wet). I did an Oscar winning perfomance of keeping a straight face as they told them this. They got extra soaked (I even got wet sitting in the back). Oscar came by our table to say hi at Carnation. We got a bayou side table in the BB without asking. We got to ride on the Columbia. Its been a long time. As much as I tried I couldn't talk the kids into rowing in the canoes. We thought of having dinner at the Garden Walk, but the restaurants all seemed to have huge lines.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^After the second wallet loss I confiscated the wallets. I wore cargo style shorts every day, with lots of pockets with either velcro or buttons, so from then on the wallets were safely tucked away. Also... my daughter's friend had never seen the ocean before. Of the two friends she was the one most blown away by DLR. I also noticed that Monorail Red had windows that could be opened.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo I love taking 1st timers when they get it. And wow, I cannot imagine never having seen the ocean before? What did she think?
Originally Posted By iamsally What a neat trip. And drivng from Denver!?! I get antsy on our 6 hour drive. We drove to Grand Lake in one shot a few years back. Took 21 hours.
Originally Posted By SoThisIsLove <<She didn't say much>> I would've been weeping from the sheer joy and majesty of the ocean...it's got to be one of the most special sights on earth....
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Kids huh? Did you take the new mini down? If so, how was it?>> Nah, we took the SUV. Only got 22 mpg on trip. Kind of hard to get 5 people and their luggage into a Mini.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<I would've been weeping from the sheer joy and majesty of the ocean...it's got to be one of the most special sights on earth....>> My daughter later told me that her friend was actually quite awestruck.
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<What a neat trip. And drivng from Denver!?! I get antsy on our 6 hour drive. We drove to Grand Lake in one shot a few years back. Took 21 hours.>> This was our first road trip to SoCal since 2002. The anticipation made the drive down bearable. The drive back, not so much. We also had some bad weather on the way back, plus a traffic jam coming down the mountain into Denver. They really need to widen I-70. It probably will never happen.
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 I'm glad you had a good time and were able to do so many things with your newbies in tow. I'm sure the kids will always remember this trip and how nice you were to take all of them along.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^It was actually a lot of fun. The kids friends were very well behaved.
