Sorry this took so long, but there is a lot to cover and it was daunting to put it all down in a report. Ok here goes....with a warning that my opinions are brutally honest, as I am. :whip:

Having been to WDW first I think Florida is bigger and better at everything we did including Disneyland, SeaWorld and Universal Studios.

Smartest thing my hubby did was get us City Pass Hoppers so we could do Disneyland, Cali Adventure, Universal, SeaWorld and The San Diego zoo all for one low price.

If you are just doing Disney parks then the Disney Park hoppers will work. We got the Deluxe ticket for one of the 3 days at Disney you get to arrive at 8 am instead of 9 am with HORDES of others and hopefully have shorter line ups. Slowest days of the week are obviously Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Be careful to use your early entry on valid days. It is only good on Monday, Tuesday and Friday I believe. We missed Monday because we were travelling there. Tuesday we got up too late (tired from travel), so used ours on Friday.

Friday night is the big Fantasmic fire and water show but you stand for an hour before and it can be loud. At the end the big flash was burned into our retinas for 20 mins. I was wondering when I should seek medical help! It eventually went away. I like the way WDW actually has a seating area for their show instead of all these people standing by the water in front of Tom Sawer's Island. I was AMAZED at how Splash Mountain looks at night. Couldn't get a good pic of it, but while waiting for Fantasmic to start if you look over at Splash Mountain it looks like an illuminated Bob Cat. I'll see if I can find a pic.

We were more into the rides this year instead of the characters. We did not stand in one line up to meet a character this year, as the kids were not interested. But many of them were around. Cruella was so funny....she signed a kid's autograph book then told him to take his garbage away with him.

My 5 year old was my crazy dynamo with wanting to try all the fast thrill rides. He liked Space Mountain but I was scared to death and so was my daughter. I HATED Space Mountain! It is all in the dark with stars spinning around as you go around in circles. I was screaming the whole time to my husband behind me to "HOLD ON TO HIM! HOLD HIM!", to hold on to our 5 year old because I was deathly afraid he was going to fall out of the coaster. My 9 year old was clinging to me in fear too and we were both swearing to NEVER get on this ride again!
I was in a complete state of panic the whole time. If you love this ride then great but I will never recommend it to anyone!

Splash Mountain was a big hit with all of us. It is an awesome fun drop that I would do over and over if I didn't have to go through all the Briar Bear/Rabbit/Fox blah blah blah over and over. It is based on the Song of the South and Zippity Do Dah music drives me crazy! The dips in the water along the ride with a big splash down at the end is exhilerating! I'm not a fan of HUGE thrill rides so you will do fine on Splash. You never know how wet you will get on Splash Mountain. First time I got a wave of water into my runners which wasn't fun, second time we went (different day) I sat in same spot and maybe got a drop on me. Definately dried fast in that weather. I had a light pair of fake crocs in our backpack for the kids to change into if the shoes were wet.

Matterhorn bobsleds has two paths with the Fantasyland line up being less intense. The Yeti pops out 3 times with red eyes but we looked up the ride on youtube.com ahead of time so it wasn't scary.

Fantasyland is packed with people all the time so we only did Roger Rabbits spin there with a fast pass....yes get them, they save your time. My daughter and I dislike the "dark rides" where you ride in cars with cardboard cut outs bopping around you....boring and dizzying, but my son liked them.

The Jedi Training Academy is a great show for Star Wars fans and also hilarious! If you sit in the front row 20 mins before show time and your kids jump up and down they always pick them to fight Darth Vadar or Darth Maul. We watched it twice and the second time my 9 year old got picked to fight Darth Maul. She was a little disappointed because she wanted to give Darth Vadar a taste of her light saber. Had to assure her that Maul is a much fiercer enemy with the double saber! At the end she had to give her ObiWan Kenobi robe and Lightsaber back but she got a certificate to prove she was in Jedi Training. The force is strong in her. :sneaky:

Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin is so much fun....it's a dark ride but you get to shoot targets. I even beat hubby's score of 841,000. I got 987,581!!!

Then there are the rides where you sit in a room with lots of others and the room moves while you watch a screen like Star Tours. They are okay....better if you don't have heads in front of you ruining the illusion.

Next is the 3d and 4d movies that shoot air at you, splash you a tiny bit and your seats move. They are fun! Honey I Shrunk the Audience is great.

I didn't get to go on the Indiana Jones Adventure because it is always busy and then after 2 attempts the ride broke down while I was in line so I said forget it. The Tiki Tiki Room nearby is a kind of boring show, but if you have nothing else to do the kids like it. I had to do it, just for the tunes. The kids loved the fake rain illusion.

Tom Sawyer Island where the pirates lair is, is a lot of fun running around the island and in caves. Jack Sparrow was suppose to arrive at 11:30 so we waited for him and instead we saw him leaving the island as we were arriving and quickly ducked away into cast hiding and never saw him again.....even though we were at the park several times the rest of the week. :( He was the ONLY character I would have waited in line to see. He was bobbing and weaving....dead on character!

My kids love pirates like their Momma so we had to do the Pirates of the Carribean ride twice! It is better here than WDW with two dips instead of one (mild dips) and a longer cave room. My favorite part after the dips is the drunkard going "Be a Niiiice Kitty Cat!" :clap: The Jack animatronics are amazingly real! Good Job Disney!

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is a fun little coaster that we all enjoyed. Big smiles on this one!

On our early day we raced over to the Nemo Submarine ride and still waited 30 mins to get on but it is a great fun ride for kids in a submarine. My son LOVES submarines now so we had to do it. Then we had to do the Jungle Cruise which is fun with the animals and wise cracking captains. Reminded me of our own GrmGrninGhost. :)

We didn't eat anywhere in the park because our hotel was so close with a quick bus ride up the street. We didn't go to Newport Beach, but we did got to Balboa, a little further away and traffic can be bad if you come back in rush hour. It was great fun though.

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Now for California Adventure. We did less at this park as it is smaller. The kids loved the Grizzly River Run Ride and Soarin'. Stay away from Bugland, it's sooooo boring for kids over 4 years old. Basically for babies. Just go there to see the "It's Tough to be a Bug" 3D movie. Our family likes the 3D stuff. The chairs have movement in them when the bugs escape at the end and feel like they skitter under your bum. Some of those rides rely on bursts of wind by your neck or feet to simulate bugs/mice moving too. Don't put your backpack directing in front of you on the floor or you'll miss out on that effect. If there is room beside you on a seat, put it there. The Bugs Movie was the best with spiders that dangle down from the ceiling and drops of rain. Best 3D show ever is the Terminator but it is not Disney....it's in Universal Studios with real actors. It's AWESOME!

Hubby was into the big California Screaming Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror but not us! He thinks they rock! The kids and I watched the Pixar Parade which was full of bubbles and characters squirting us with various little water toys...tons of fun. Again see some pics in my other post....highly recommend it.

The greatest tool we used was Ridemax.com. You punch in the rides you want to do the most that day and it makes you an itinerary of the best times to go and when to get fast passes and how to make the most of your day. It was a god-send! We hardly stood in line for long at all using that.


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All the hype about the San Diego Zoo and I was SEVERELY disappointed to say the least! I was chalking it up to seeing too many better zoos over the years I guess all over the continent. I went in with an idea that it was going to be amazing and I was not impressed. When I see birds in a a HUGE aviary and a Jaquar locked in a barred cage that is smaller than my bathroom I FREAK! None of the big cats had enclosures big enough if you ask me. Many other animals were showing the signs of zoo stress from small enclosures with the dazed look and pacing.....that just makes me sick!!! Oh and bring snacks because the food costs more here than at Disney Parks!!

The double decker bus tour takes you through 70% of the zoo and saves you lots of walking, up and down crazy hills. (There are even moving sidewalks it is so steep in places.) The bus tour is 35 mins long and afterwards we could have finished our day at the zoo. If you are still going though, the must see is the Polar Bears, who were romping it up for us......see my post on Pink's Family in DLR.

You missed Indiana Jones?!

Yeah. First time my hubby went, and with fast pass the line was still 45 mins long. Then we did parent swap but it took longer, it was late, kids needed bed. Second time I got fast pass waited 30 mins, got to almost the end and then the ride broke down and there was no quick fix in sight they said. So I was out of there.

You don't scare us Vadar!



Taking on Darth Maul.

Glad to hear you had fun! It's a major bummer you missed out on Indy though! I'll have to try out Ridemax.com...that sounds awesome!

what an awesome jedi you have there!!!


Train her well!! :thumbsup:

What a great report! So sorry I did not see this until now. I need to see more pictures though!!! I've never been to DLR and I love looking at pictures of it.

I know you guys hate the dark rides, but did you try Pinocchio at all? I'm sort of obsessed with it although I have never seen it/ridden it.

It sounds like you had a great time though. Did you ride Space Mountain at WDW ever?

We tried a few times to get on Pinocchio and I even told little Skate that we were doing it for Big Skate. But the line was ridiculously long. I regret we didn't even get a pic by it. Morgan suggested we even eat at that restaurant but when we headed that way my hubby thought it would be better to go to our hotel to eat. Kids were exhausted doing 7 days of fun and parks stuff in only 5 days so I agreed. Sorry Skate, but I was thinking of you there!

Never rode Space in WDW and you know what? You couldn't pay me enough to do it again! Nope not even one Bajillion dollars. :eek:

Pink, was RideMax worth it?

I believe it is free.....hubby used it daily....so I would say absolutely! It planned our days to the minute and was deadly acurate! I'm a pessimist so I thought there is no way it would work, but hubby is the optimist and he was so right. Two points for him.

It really saved lots of time on our trip and helped us plan what to do on what days. If we changed our plans around a little each day we would just enter new stuff we wanted to do in the morning and it would give us an itinerary for that day. It is based on the day of the week, the month, the time of year with kids holidays and popularity of the rides.

We will DEFINATELY use it again for all our Disney trips!

Hmm, I've never heard of that before. It sounds handy!