I'm in a fortunate position this year of travelling substantially. Somewhat of a hangover from covid. Living in Australia we don't have an abundance of great theme parks, and being a Disney/Universophile visiting the parks can be sporadic. This year I do plan to visit Tokyo DisneySea (and maybe Disneyland), Disney Paris and Hong Kong Disney.
In the last couple of days I was fortunate enough to visit the DLR. This was initially unplanned, but after visiting my brother in California I was left with a couple of days to spare so moved my flights to LA forward.
I was blessed with great weather, apparently cold in LA with the locals all rugged up, and crowds that were quite manageable. It is expensive. The 2 days tickets with Park Hopper and Genie + cost approximately US$400, in addition to the $65 I spent on lightning lane tickets for RotR and the new Mickey tide in toontown.
The initial 2 hours in the parks were blissful. I started both days in Disneyland, and within the 1st hour managed 4 top attractions with no queues. I tried for RotR at rope drop, but even being fairly quick on my own, the queue estended half way through Galaxy's Edge. I'm not sure if there's a tip to avoid this other than staying at a hotel, but I'd be interested in finding out.
The new Mickey ride is fantastic. Aimed at a younger generation for sure, it seamlessly blends the trackless system with digital projection to make a true highlight in Toontown.
Despite the cost, with smaller crowds DLR had an opportunity to shine. Cast members were able to connect and their training does show through. Asking the cast member in a Galaxy's Edge store where I could get a "shoulder Grogu", he gave an amazing in character response. Unfortunately they don't stock them currently tohugh.
Disneyland on my own is definitely not as enjoyable, but fortunately I'll have my family with me for later trips. I hope to keep you posted.
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Four Disney resorts in one year? That's a great year!
Thank you for the report. Yeah, getting a lot of benefit from rope-dropping is tough when hotel guests have early access. Even though Rise is not included with early access, hotel guests will have a head start in getting back to Galaxy's Edge. I prefer to try Rise later in the day and ride other attractions on the west side of the park (Thunder, Indy, Mansion, Pirates, etc.) first thing, since the hotel guests will not have a head start over there.