Looking for Disneyland Information
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TV ClubHouse: Archives: 2003 March: Looking for Disneyland Information
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Archive through January 12, 2003 25   02/05 08:32am
Archive through February 19, 2003 25   03/23 08:28pm

Webkitty

Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 09:13 am EditMoveDeleteIP
I agree with Kar, go to a travel agent, tell them your needs, and they will fix you up with a package deal. Unless you have been there several times, and know what's what, the choices are overwhelming.
Also, buy one of the guides to Disneyworld. Birnbaums used to be a good one.
About your 19 year old son. I took my son and my niece when they were 16 and we had a ball together!

Happymom

Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 11:57 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Lizadee, if you don't mind changing hotels during your vacation, you may want to check into staying at a Disney hotel during your Disneyworld portion of the vacation. I haven't been to Disneyworld as an adult, but have been to Disneyland in Ca. The last time we went, we stayed at a Disney hotel and felt the extra $ was well worth it, saving us a lot of time. It was so much more convenient, even though we had no nappers with us. We were able to get right into the parks through special guest entrances.

Bastable

Wednesday, February 19, 2003 - 11:58 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Also check out www.mousesavers.com -- it's all about how to save money there. Tells you what discounts and promotions are going on. It's totally independent--Disney doesn't want you to save money!

(Another thing I know from http://www.budgettravel.msnbc.com)

Strawberry

Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 06:32 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I'm thinking about going to Disneyland/California Adventure this summer. I have gotten the fast pass in FL and it was crappy - does anybody know if it's better in CA? And do they have that in California Adventure?

Pamy - you were talking about AAA packages...I'd be interested in that. Is there a site where I can read info about that? I'd like all the info I can get.

Webkitty - did you go online to find info about travel agents or can I just look up different ones in the phone book? I've never used a travel agent before. I don't want to get a crappy one.

Bandit - I love Space Mountain too! It's better in CA than in FL. It goes faster and it's much darker!

I can't wait to go.

Myjohnhenry

Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 06:42 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Strawberry... AAA
That is their main site with links to their different state offices. If you are a member or decide to become a member then you might want to consider their travel agency services. I have always been happy with them in the past. They can give you all kinds of goodies and brochures and travel guides in addition to the ones you can buy that are great (like I knowthe Birnbaum one was when I went some 20+ years ago)

Heyltslori

Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 06:52 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
My FAVORITE Disney ride is "It's a Small World!!" :)
small

Reiki

Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 07:07 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Strawberry,

I've never been to DisneyWorld, but when I lived in California we went to Disneyland many times and I just loved it. Its not so spread out. I know you'll have a great time.

Hippyt

Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 07:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I was just sitting here thinking how much I love Disneyland!

Whoami

Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 08:17 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Wow! I bet I was under 10 the last time I went to Disneyland! I bet it has changed quite a bit!

Karuuna

Sunday, March 23, 2003 - 08:28 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I'm in DisneyLand now!

The fast pass is okay. It does help on the popular rides, not to eliminate a line, but to greatly shorten the waiting. It hasn't been terribly crowded here this week, in spite of it being spring break. The unfortunate part of the fast pass is you can only get one at a time, and even if you've used your fast pass on a ride, you can't get another till the window time on your last acquired fast pass is gone.

For example, we got a fast pass for Autopia - the wait time went from 45 minutes to 15 minutes. But we finished our ride a half hour before our fast pass "window" was up. We couldn't get a fast pass for another ride till the end of the window time passed.

California Adventure is okay, not as interesting as Disneyland, and except for the few really popular rides, the lines are negligible. We went there today, and didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes for anything (but we don't do the "thrill" rides).

If you're a Who Wants to be a Millionaire fan, you should check it out at Calif. Adv. You even get to play, (everyone in the audience plays along), and if you're the fastest, you'll be the next in the hot seat. (no cash prizes tho!) :)

Strawberry

Monday, March 24, 2003 - 04:21 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Sounds great Kar - I went to Who Wants to be a Millionaire in FL and wasn't that impressed. They have it in MGM I think. While we were playing the game the same seat got called twice. We kinda thought after that ... that it was rigged and that they weren't really pulling people out of the audience. Just seemed kinda rigged and that the computer just picks a number and if you are in that seat then you get picked. They were trying to act like they were actually going with whoever had the highest score in the audience, but the second time they called the same number nobody was in that seat. I saw some video on tv of California Adventure and it seemed kinda like an old carnival where they have all those skill games and stuff. I used to like doing those when I was a kid.

Thanks MJH for the link. I didn't think about just searching them on the net. I thought someone said earlier that they knew of special discounts from AAA. I think it was Pamy that was talking about that. I'll check that out and see what I can find out. I think Bastable posted a link also with discounts. Disney is kinda stingy with coupons and things. That sounds like a good website too. If anybody else knows about any deals ... let me know. I always like to find stuff like that. Thanks :)

Mware

Monday, March 24, 2003 - 06:21 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Strawberry - Don't know if you'd be interested in it, but Cinderella's Castle at WDW has a great character breakfast each morning. It fills up fast, though, so what you need to do is call Disney Dining Services at 7:00 a.m. eastern time exactly 60 days before the morning that you want to go.

It fills up really fast, and it's possible that by the time a representative picks up the phone that it'll be full, even if they pick up at 7:02!

So it's best to make sure you have a couple of different days in mind, and try 60 days before each of them. The kids loved this breakfast, and DW looks forward to it each time they go too!

Bob2112

Monday, March 24, 2003 - 10:36 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Hey Strawberry, the Who Wants to be a Millionaire game isn't rigged, but there is a trick that gets you up on the board. We went to the show twice at MGM in Florida and figured out near the end of the first show that you can enter your answer once they show answer C. If you know the answer is not A, B or C, then you should start pressing D before that answer is even shown. You will have to get every question correct and enter it as soon as the C answer is shown. We started this for the last game and 2 of us were able to get on the board in positions 8 and 10.

At the second show we attended and we had 3 of the top 10 places at every checkpoint (they would show audience standings after every 1-2 questions). When the current player finally got their question wrong, they started showing the audience numbers from 10 up through 1. My son came up #7 and then nothing until my wife came up #2 and then my seat came up #1! Yay for me.

It was way cool being on stage, but I was surprised how nervous I actually was. They run it just like the real show, excpet the audience is actually larger at MGM. I got the $250,000 question right and had to stop at $500,000 since I had no clue, no life lines and didn't want to lose the $250,000 pin since only 3-4 people had scored that high up to that point. I would have guessed wrong, so I guess I made the right call. 2 more right answers and we would have gotten a free trip to the real show in NY. Overall, I got a hat, polo shirt, 13 pins (one for each point level) and some other miscellaneous stuff.

During the entire time we were trying to get on stage, people around us kept looking at our seat numbers and trying to figure out why we kept showing up on the board. We didn't try the show at Disneyland, but I bet it is similar.

I agree with Karuuna about Disneyland being more fun/interesting than the California Adventure. We spent a day at both during the off season 2 years ago and found ourselves reriding a couple of the more popular rides at CA since we saw everything else. If you are able to hop between parks, then 1/2 a day is probably enough for CA.

Have fun! :)

Heyltslori

Monday, March 24, 2003 - 11:11 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Wow! Very impressive Bob!!!applause

Tabbyking

Monday, March 24, 2003 - 11:59 am EditMoveDeleteIP
california adventure is pretty sucky compared to the wonderful disneyland. if you can only do one, do disneyland. the cinderella motel is inexpensive and close by. all of the hotels have shuttles to the park, etc.
we have AAA and i found their 'discount' tickets to be exactly what the non-discount rate was on the disney webpage! we got a 'deal' for 4 days for 100 bucks each on the disney website. we took the motorhome and stayed in an rv park, but it was only 30 bucks a night for full hook-ups and we had a pool and laundry, etc. we went in summer, so that's not the best deal you might find, but pretty good considering they were hopper passes (we could go to either disneyland or california adventure back and forth each day or stay all day in one park. we did about 4 hours in cal adventure and spent all the rest of the time in disneyland!) i think the regular fees are double what we paid.
how cool that karuuna was posting from disneyland!!

Karuuna

Monday, March 24, 2003 - 08:40 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
We rented a car today and drove to Universal Studios, and had a great time. If you're going to be here for a while, it's a must do, but the drive can be exhausting! It can take 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on traffic. You can also take a round trip bus deal from Anaheim, it's 11 hours, which was a bit too long a day for us.

It was our first trip ever to Universal and we truly enjoyed it! My son enjoyed the WaterWorld show so much we had to see it twice. Of course, my favorite show was Animal Planet. :)

Bob, I always knew you were a smart guy! We figured out the trick, but about the 7th or 8th question we'd miss, so we never got anywhere.

Egbok

Monday, March 24, 2003 - 08:59 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Wow Kar, I didn't know you were here! I am so impressed that you drove from Anaheim all the way out to Universal City and I hope the natives on the freeway were kind!

Hereiam

Monday, March 24, 2003 - 10:35 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
We are set to go to Disneyland in April (I know it will be very VERY busy). Here is a link to a bunch of different ticket options, it explains the passport plus (AAA) one as well. It is a good site to know about.

Mouse Savers Disneyland tickets

Abby7

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 - 12:10 am EditMoveDeleteIP
Karuuna! Where are you now? Are you staying at a hotel near Universal or near Anaheim?

Lizadee

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 - 08:10 am EditMoveDeleteIP
When I was in Calif. I can't remember what is the name of that real long bridge to get to that one hotel that is in the movie's ????
Me and my DH were reminiscing (sp) and can't remember the name of the hotel we had gone to