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First Time Trip To DL & DCA

Aug 7, 2018
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Hey all!

My girlfriend and I are going on our first trip out to Disneyland this Halloween for 3 days. We already are doing the party on 10/31 but the rest of our days haven't been planned yet while there. I am a big Trader Sam's fan so I do plan on hitting the OG version out there.

For someone with my amount of time, what should be the bigger priorities and places while I'm out there? GotG, Carsland and anything else exclusive to DL are on my list but any suggestions are appreciated (especially dining or drinks related!)

PS-I'm definitely getting MaxPass.
 
I'll be there during the same time! It was so hard for me to shell out $135 for the Halloween Party ticket but... whatever. lol I've never been there for Halloween so I've never seen their parade, fireworks show, etc. I'm also excited to do Ghost Galaxy for the first time and Haunted Mansion Holiday for the first time in a few years!

A trip to Blue Bayou is a must for me. It's just not a trip to Disneyland without dining waterside in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It's pricey and the food is pretty good (their famed Monte Cristo is available for lunch only) but it's just so cool in there.

Not only do they have so many good things to eat and drink around the park, but Disneyland just divulged all the details on the all the unique food and drinks they're offering for Halloweentime. I text my friends like... we're gonna need 7-day park hoppers just to eat all of this. :lol:

Foodie Guide to Halloween Time 2018 at Disneyland Resort | Disney Parks Blog
 
We just came back from our 2nd trip there last week. Its very different from WDW and in my opinion much easier to get around.

As far as dining is concerned:
I highly recommend doing Trader Sams. We had an awesome lunch there on our last day.
Need to get corn dogs on Main Street right next to The Plaza Inn.
Beignets and mint juleps at the French Market are great, and we found the food there to be some of the best QS in Disneyland.
Pizza Planet in TL was OK, and Red Rose Taverne was not too bad.
As far as TS goes, we did not have a great experience at either River Belle Terrance or Blue Bayou.
In DCA, we really liked Carthay Circle, but did not care for the Wine Country Trattoria.
A great treat in DCA is Clarabelle's on BVS. The Oswald was awesome.

Since you're doing the party, you may be pressed for time, but given the other two days are weekdays, you should be able to cover both parks easily, especially given that you have MP, which we used both visits.
I would recommend going at rope drop to DL and getting most of the unique fantasyland and tomorrowland rides knocked out early since they do not have FP. Then I would head over to NO and get Pirates, HM and Pooh done. In the meantime, you can easily book the FP for the mountains (SM, BTMR, SM) and IJ.
For DCA, try to get the FP for RSR early and ride GOTG at rope drop and then do MI to finish up that corner. With FP you can hit most of the unique stuff at your leisure.

Enjoy! We really appreciated the ability to move between the parks, so don't forget you can quickly jump between them if you can get FP for rides or dining reservations which don't line up with your original park plans.
 
Must do's at each, attraction-wise, keeping in mind exclusivity:

DCA
Guardians of the Galaxy
Incredicoaster
Little Mermaid (superior on-ride experience to Florida edition)
Carsland
Monsters Inc.

SKIP: Midway Mania, Grizzly River Rapids (not a lot going on with it), Soarin, Frozen Show if you're pressed for time

Disneyland
Pirates
Mansion
Space Mountain
All Fantasyland rides
Roger Rabbit
Train (for Primeval World/Grand Canyon)
Indiana Jones
Matterhorn (if it's back from refurbishment)

SKIP: Star Tours, Nemo (same story as Epcot, novelty of subs is iffy at this point), maybe Buzz, Splash Mountain if you're pressed for time (it's in dire straits in DLR, looks embarrassing)
 
Splash Mountain if you're pressed for time (it's in dire straits in DLR, looks embarrassing)
Actually I though it looked pretty good last week with the majority of animatronics working. One thing I will add, however, is that we got absolutely SOAKED on the first short drop, so take that into consideration when choosing to ride. Since we did it at the end of the night it was not a big deal, but I would hate to be that wet all day.
 
Actually I though it looked pretty good last week with the majority of animatronics working. One thing I will add, however, is that we got absolutely SOAKED on the first short drop, so take that into consideration when choosing to ride. Since we did it at the end of the night it was not a big deal, but I would hate to be that wet all day.

I was on it about three weeks ago and I thought it looked nightmarish - no adequate lighting, with only the occasional haunting spotlight half-illuminating a Chuck E Cheese quality animatronic. Maybe it's gotten better, but I've never seen the thing in good condition out here.
 
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