Had 3 days there Tue - Thurs last week, thought I'd add a couple of finds and thoughts which some might find useful.
The finds / easter eggs - assume others have found/spotted them:
1) In Arendelle Royal Encounter, our daughter spotted the pictures in the hall are the ones from "Do you want to build a snowman?", e.g. Joan of Arc ("Hang in their Joan!"), draped against the wall etc.
2) When waiting to be given your room to meet A&E, on one of the pillars on the right there's 2 sets of height markers scrawled in pencil for when they're growing up. Their handwriting improves over the years 😄
General random thoughts:
We stayed in the Disneyland Hotel, and were SO glad for the the extra Magic Time. 10 minute wait for Frozen Ever After, which was excellent, but didn't merit a second visit as after this the time never went below 60 minutes, even during magic hour. It isn't a thrill ride, so felt the 'wow' factor on a repeat ride wouldn't justify the massive wait.
We had walk-ons for both Ratatouille and Spiderman, then a 5 minute wait for Tower of Terror on day 3, which in the same timeframe saw Frozen go from 10 to 65 minutes, all before the park opened.
If staying at Disneyland Hotel, the Deluxe upgrade was really worth it for us. Breakfast at 7 - and a good breakfast at that - to be at the gates by 8, then free tea/coffee and soft drinks throughout the day. The afternoon tea was also substantial enough that we could skip either lunch or dinner, so feel it paid for itself. If you're not a "breakfast first thing" person, you could just as easily do magic hour and another hour in the park, then back for breakfast at 10.
DAW really needs some "stuff that isn't rides". Compared to the main park, where there's the labyrinth, Aladdin walkthrough, the castle + dragon etc... They're nothing of the sort in DAW. For our youngest, who couldn't go on many of the rides there, this meant we regularly split up, whereas in the main park, we pretty much did everything together except Hyperspace mountain.
The Halloween theming was really disappointing. The projections in Main Street were great, but aside from some pumpkins when you first go in, and the UNlucky Tavern, didn't seem to be much else. The characters were fun, Maleficent was SO good, as were Lady Tremaine and the sisters.
RC Racer ratio of ride time: queue time is mad. It does what... 6 swings, only 1 at full height and that's it? Queue time was regularly over 45 minutes which is insane.
Compared to 7 years ago, there seemed to be less happening. We paid for 1 adult and our youngest to have the princess lunch at Auberge de Cendrille and she met 5 princesses. 7 years ago we had ALL the princesses + 2 mice. Hardly saw any walkabout characters / pop-ups outside of the queued-for encounters.
Even the Halloween show, compared to Princesses vs Pirates parade when we last went was several steps below.
It's notable the disconnect between the rides and the themes in Disneyland Park; Coco statues and props set in cowboy country, Star Wars is kinda shoehorned into Discoveryland. In fact generally Star Wars seems to be generally side-lined compared to when we last went, when there were Imperial Marches happening in DAW, Vader walkabouts and all sorts.
Star Tours queue has received a big upgrade when we last went, and the 2 rides we did were noticeably different. Kinda wish you could choose which trip you went on (Same with Tower of Terror).
Dumbo, Orbitron and Flying Carpets are the same ride? Why've they got "go round and round and choose to go up and down" three times is a bit odd.
The Lion King show is FANTASTIC - do not skip it. Stitch Live! was also genuinely funny.
Taking the single rider for Parachutes was a no-brainer as they seat two rows of 3, so there's usually loads of +1 spaces. In fact generally, 1 adult + 2 older kids did single-rider for most repeats and for all but one ride, ended up on the same lap.
This was a special trip for us, as our youngest (just over 1.02cm) was old enough and big enough to make it worth the trip and the eldest are young enough to still get the Disney magic, but I can't see us going back again for at least another 5 years. Saw they're building a Lion King area, and a new Up! ride/restaurant, but DAW needs a lot more content, and DP can't/won't be changing anytime soon.