{"id":8145,"date":"2020-02-01T04:01:53","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T04:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eaumaison.us\/?p=8145"},"modified":"2020-02-01T04:01:53","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T04:01:53","slug":"overview-of-the-whole-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eaumaison.us\/index.php\/2020\/02\/01\/overview-of-the-whole-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Overview of the whole trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Planning the Trip<\/strong><\/p>\n

We flew in on Sunday, had MTW in the parks, and came home Thursday.\u00a0 We really packed in a lot of rides during our trip, and it never felt rushed.\u00a0 Three days for two parks was perfect.\u00a0 I planned this trip for the off season for low crowds.\u00a0 I think it worked, since most rides never reached 1 hour wait time, and most were 10-25 minute stand-by lines.<\/p>\n

But there was a new ride in Galaxy’s Edge, The Rise of the Resistance, that inflated crowds a bit.\u00a0 Especially in the morning, because you had to be in the park at exactly opening time in order to get a boarding group for the ride.\u00a0 So there were massive lines to get through the turnstiles, and then roaming around Main Street prior to rope drop.\u00a0 I think more locals were visiting than usual, and sticking around until their boarding groups, because of the new ride.\u00a0 Even so, compared to the previous week and the weekend crowds, we had a relatively low crowd situation.<\/p>\n

I also rocked the Fastpass system.\u00a0 In Disneyland they use kiosks to distribute paper tickets for Fastpass, or you can pay a daily fee per ticket to use the phone app called Maxpass.\u00a0 We took this option and we certainly got our money’s worth.\u00a0 We were able to practically walk on to the most popular rides, and using my phone I was able to stack up many Fastpasses as soon as we were eligible to get more.\u00a0 The Maxpass also lets you keep all the ride and pro-photographers shots from the park.\u00a0 I had fun collecting those and trying to get some good family shots.<\/p>\n

Oh, let me add that a downside to the off-season is that they do a lot of closures for refurbishments.\u00a0 The biggest disappointment was that the Haunted Mansion was closed.\u00a0 \u00a0It’s my favorite attraction and I had even talked with customer service back in November, to try to make sure it would be open when we came.\u00a0 It usually closes\/reopens to remove the holiday overlay, and should have been open for us the last week of January.\u00a0 But in late December, after we booked, they announced it will stay closed until Spring for major cleaning and repairs.\u00a0 \u00a0Dagnabbit!\u00a0 Other (less important) closures were the Carrousel, Snow White Scary Adventures, Grizzly River Run, the Red Trolley, the canoes and the riverboat.<\/p>\n

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Sad faces.\u00a0 Jack bemoaned its closure every time we walked by.<\/p><\/div>\n

Getting There<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Side note here:\u00a0 I was SICK.\u00a0 Like, seriously ill.\u00a0 I had had a head cold for a week, and then Friday night I got food poisoning or a virus of some kind.\u00a0 Saturday I had no strength.\u00a0 Literally, Ben had to pack for me and I could barely sit up on my bed to fold my clothes into the suitcase.\u00a0 It was miserable.\u00a0 We thought we might have to cancel the trip.\u00a0 I slept most of the day and worked on taking in water and simple carbs.\u00a0 Sunday morning I felt somewhat functional when we woke at 5 AM – meaning I could walk without feeling faint and eat\/drink a little more. Still had a stuffy nose and head, but we decided we could continue our trip.\u00a0 So that first day I was pretty out of it still.)<\/p>\n

(PS Ben was amazing at rallying everyone and doing double duty on the kids, plus making sure I was comfortable.\u00a0 He’s the best!)<\/p>\n

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We flew Southwest Airlines to California on Sunday into John Wayne airport.\u00a0 I strongly prefer using this little airport over LAX because of its size and proximity to Anaheim.\u00a0 We took a ride-share to our hotel with almost no traffic.\u00a0 When we got to the hotel it was too early to get our room, but they held our luggage so we could explore.<\/p>\n

We toured the hotel and then Downtown Disney.\u00a0 Our vacation package included a free pin and lanyard from the Pin Trader’s shop.\u00a0 We collected our freebies and thus sparked a collecting quest for Jack (more on that later).\u00a0 We got burgers for lunch, picked out Mickey treats, and toured the Lego Store.\u00a0 Needing to sit down, we found the observation deck in the hotel and enjoyed the view until our room was ready.<\/p>\n

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The room was great (more on that later).\u00a0 The kids went swimming in the barely warm pool.\u00a0 After I had a good rest we went out for dinner and dessert again, then back to an early bedtime.\u00a0 Gotta be rested so we could hit the park early!<\/p>\n

The next three days were all park days.\u00a0 We had park hopper tickets, so we could go back and forth as we pleased \ud83d\ude00\u00a0 Here’s a rundown of all the attractions we saw:<\/p>\n

Monday<\/strong><\/p>\n