Recent trip to LA.
Stayed Magic Castle, love it there every time, great location, the staff were amazing. Was nice to get our clothes washed for free. A decent breakfast, free snacks, soda and ice cream. When the kids were in the pool they brought out icy poles.
La Brea Tar Pits
This was a fun time, very interesting. Nice walk around the gardens, the museum was small but had a lot to see for natural history geeks! It’s not a long time, but was very refreshing after a day of shopping.
Universal Hollywood
We got an express pass, even with that, everything takes so long in this park.
If you are getting an express pass, bring a lanyard to hold onto them for easy access.
We did Universal early access for Mario Land $20-30pp
Park opened 10
Mario opened 9
Tickets scanned from 8.30
Walking from 8.45
Before you enter the land on the left there is a QR code to get a reservation at toadstool cafe.
We went early and there was plenty of room. Ate fire flower spaghetti and meatballs (yum and mild spicy) share between 2, kids had a kids burger a big serve too. So three meals between 4 of us and there were leftovers.
Bowser queue didn’t go above walk on for the whole hour we went on 3x could have gone 4, but stalled and missed our chance.
Express
Bowser 20 mins wait.
Over 25 min for simpsons.
Walk on transformers.
Walk on forbidden journey, 10 min standby
Despite there being no one in the park, everything seemed to take so long. I’m not a big fan of universal, would come back for a haunted horror nights in the future, but no more days there.
Most of our time was catching up with friends, walking around, ending with a swim, it was still quite warm coming from melbourne winter! If you are shopping in Hollywood, check out the Funko store, it’s so much fun.
Disneyland and DCA
Including Oogie Boogie Bash
Disneyland is still my favourite park (the last paragraph might not give that impression) in the world. The cast members are lovely, there was pixie dust, literally and figuratively. Always get in as early as you can, it just gets busier as the day goes on! We rope dropped most days, it’s worth it!
Try and get on your faves early, nothing worse than Rise, Haunted Mansion, Runaway Railway, Incredicoaster going down right when you wanted to get on!
We got tickets through Attraction Tickets, they had a sale where they were less than we paid and they transferred the sale onto our account. Love them. 5 day park hopper and we also got Oogie Boogie tickets too through the Disney app. 6 park days, absolutely disassociating from the world outside of this little corner of the world, bliss.
We stayed at Parkvue Inn again, it’s so close, I doubt we will ever stay anywhere else again. It was our third stay there and our 5th time to this park.
Treats, I love the treats here. So cute and delicious! Lots of really nice and refreshing drinks too, sadly the cold brews weren’t as good (we still partook though).
Mobile order everything you can, makes life so much easier!!!
Love Tiana’s Place, love the live music, so cute that Tiana comes by and has a little boogie.
I wish they could fix the amount of drenched you get on Tiana’s Bayou! I love it so much, but it’s a last attraction of the day option.
Love the roaming characters in Disneyland, I finally met Maleficent, it’s just as magical meeting characters as it is watching tiny humans that you don’t know meet the characters that they are dressed up as. Good to see Rex still in DCA too!
Oogie Boogie Bash
We prioritised a photo with the Sanderson Sisters near world of colour viewing area, got in the line 30 mins before the party opened, that queue spiralled!!
We did all of the treat trails, came home with way too much candy!
The parade was tiny.
The Halloween party is one of the few things that I would say that they do better in WDW. Wish it was in Disneyland so that there were more attractions.
We have been so lucky to visit the Disneyland and DCA often in this past ten years. We always love our time here, but this part is for Disney regulars. This visit the serving sizes were smaller and the prices were higher, food seemed to be of lower quality, very carbs and meat, not much fresh food, which was something we always enjoyed about the parks.
There are fewer cast members, fewer parades (only one parade over the two parks unless you are paying for Oogie boogie bash), fewer cast members in little shows around the parks, everything seems smaller.
There is still a lot of magic to be had, still delicious treats, roaming characters, live music and good vibes, but it is hard to watch the company cut so many costs while continuing to charge more, and include less perks to park visits. I am a Disney adult, but I can also be critical of the company. This is the first time we have ever left this park without any date to return, I find that really sad, but with the state of the US, I’m not keen to get back there. Next year back to Shanghai Disney!
