Got home from our epic adventure yesterday and realized I didn't post a recap of the CA side of the park hop!
Our flight to LAX was actually able to get off the ground a few minutes early from MCO and we made great time, landing more than 30 minutes early. We had shipped our luggage to CA in advance so we didn't have to wait at baggage claim. We were in our private Super Shuttle van en route to
Disneyland before our flight was even scheduled to land!!
Amazingly, LA traffic was not so bad that day. The driver even commented that it was lighter than usual! It slowed often and there was a lot of volume, but we never stopped moving! It took just over an hour to get from LAX to the Grand Californian. Given that we had 2+ hours before DCA closed and 3+ hours before DL closed, we checked in to the hotel and ditched our carry-ons in the room. We were headed down the the GCH DCA entrance by 6:00 pm.
And that's where we hit our first, and only snafu...
The kids' prepurchased park hopper tickets worked just fine. But my husband and my APs were not set up correctly and would not work. We had to go around to the main entrance and go to the ticket window. The castmember at the ticket window told us that our APs were not set up correctly (and that this was quite common with Premier APs bought in FL.) She brought in a supervisor to help, and he told us us that it was not an easy fix, unfortunately. I started freaking out, because everything had gone so well all day, and this was what was going to prevent us from completing our mission. I was worried that we would be spending our whole night at the ticket window. The supervisor explained that he had to open a ticket to go to IT to get our APs set up right. He said it has previously taken up to a few days in order to get done, depending on how backed up IT was. There was no way it was getting fixed that night. BUT thankfully, it is Disney, and service matters. So he made it right. He gave both of us complimentary 3-day hoppers and some vouchers for food (since we likely wouldn't be able to use our AP discounts either.) After a 45 minute detour, we were on our way into DCA, still with plenty of time!
One kid wanted to ride Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters and the other wanted to ride Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. So we did both!
By 7:30 pm we were walking across the plaza to Disneyland! It was really going to happen!
The wonderful
@Lesley Wake met us at the entrance. It was so nice to see a friendly face after the hours of travel and the AP issue!
We all walked over to Fanstasyland and rode Mr. Toad's Wild Ride together. WE DID IT!!!
Lesley made THE CUTEST medals for us and presented them to us. LOVE LOVE LOVE!
We took a photo in front of the Disnleyland castle (which came out awful, but whatever!) We were exhausted and realized that we really hadn't eaten, so we decided to head back to the hotel and crash. My husband grabbed some take-out from Downtown Disney on the way. My daughter, who still wasn't feeling well, crashed before he even got back. After inhaling our food, the rest of us crashed too!
Still can't believe we pulled it off!
So a summary of our day... a unique attraction and a photo in each of the 6 US parks:
- Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (Early Morning Magic) and a photo in front of Cinderella Castle
- Animal Kingdom: Na'vi River Journey (standby at rope drop) and a photo in front of the Tree of Life
- Hollywood Studios: Rock n Roller Coaster (with same-day FP and rider swap) and a photo in front of the Chinese Theater
- EPCOT: Spaceship Earth (with same-day FP) and a photo in front of it
- California Adventure: Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters (and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, both standby) and a photo in Cars Land
- Disneyland: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (standby) and a photo in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle
All in about 18 hours!
Thank you all for following along. It was so much fun to plan and strategize with you!!