Well it has been a minute since my last post and lots of Disney has been in the news. Mufasa was released, Bluey is coming, and various ride closures on both coasts. I tend not to just rebroadcast news that is easily obtained elsewhere. I may give a link to an article or two, but I do not want to just echo what everyone else is saying. Which means I will not write a post just to maintain a schedule. Maybe I should be a bit more predictable but that could be a subject for another time.

As some of you know, Grandma and I are getting ready to take a trip to Disneyland. We have not been to the grand old park since its 50th anniversary. (Still got my Gold Ears) There has been a lot of changes since then, particularly with California Adventure and Downtown Disney. I have been keeping up with the construction going on and we are very happy that the Haunted Mansion is no longer using a virtual queue. I consider the virtual queue the embodiment of evil.

For this trip, there are no festivals, or holidays happening. There are no after hours events that we would have to spend more money on. So it is just going to be a nice low-key trip. One thing that we talked about was should buy a DisneyLand annual pass or not? Annual passes (called magic keys) only go on sale a couple of times a year and sell out very quickly. One reason is that DisneyLand is a locals park. That is locals tend to go much more often than tourists. We opted not to buy a magic key pass as our stay is only 10 days and we don’t plan on returning again for at least another year. This made even the most economical pass too expensive. Instead we went through a ticket broker (Get Away Today) for discount tickets. A word of advice here is to buy early. This locks in the price you pay and insulates you from any price hikes.

We are at the point where we could make advanced dining reservations. (ADR). You can make reservations at various on-site restaurants. This can be done starting 60 days before your arrival date. Reservations are a must if you want to experience character dining or fine dining at popular attractions such as the Blue Bayou in New Orleans square. ADR is the same for Walt Disney World and is one of the few policies that they share. We are not making ADR, preferring instead, quick service or counter service dining. The reason is simple. We do not want to be tied to a schedule. Once you have an ADR you have picked where and when you need to be. There is no must do restaurant for us at Disneyland like there is at Walt Disney World. So we are just going to sample all the snacks and fast food the park has to offer. My waistline will not be thanking me!

At this time, we are all set for Disneyland. You must still make park reservations even if you have date based tickets as we do. Our reservations for each park was made with the help of crowd calendars. We picked the park that is hopefully the least crowded for the day. Another thing about Disneyland tickets, Park Hopper is a must. Unlike the parks in Florida, Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are just yards apart. This makes it easy to wander between the parks over the course of a day. We will be using the Crushing It park strategy and see how it works at Disneyland Resort. I expect we may have to modify a bit, but we shall see.

We are also getting ready to go next Christmas to Walt Disney World. Since we are DVC, planning starts a whole year before your arrival date. This is because you can start booking reservations 11 months before your arrival date at your home DVC resort. This means planning starts early. At this stage we are discussing what days to fly and how many days to stay. Travel burns a whole day for us both directions. We are also taking the Grandkids and their parents, so school schedules come into play. In order to maximize the experience, we are planning on a split stay across 3 resorts. Our DVC home resorts are Animal Kingdom, Boardwalk Villas, and Bay Lake Tower. Disney Hollywood Studios and Epcot are an easy walk from Boardwalk and Magic Kingdom is a short stroll from Baylake. That leaves Animal Kingdom, where you must bus to the parks. BUT THEY HAVE ANIMALS! The Savanna view overlooks an African savanna complete with wildlife. Really makes up for it.

I will keep you all in the loop as we plan our WDW trip. Remember it is vacation and so should not be stressful. Like my park strategy, just go with the flow and pay attention to the dates. And most of all be flexible.

Until Next time