A WDW vet's Cali adventure: July 10 - 22, 2015

elaine amj

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 26, 2012
Just got home from a week in Disneyland - we love all things Disney and were so thrilled to visit the Walt's original park and help it celebrate its 60th birthday! Best of all, our family has lots of July birthdays so each day was "assigned" to each of us to celebrate our birthdays. We figured a week off still counted and my husband did have his actual birthday on July 21.

We flew out a week early to explore California and loved the vibe of the state. It felt awesome to be in California and the first hour or so, we kept exclaiming how we felt like we were in the middle of a movie. We hit San Luis Obispo and spent some time in the gorgeous Sequoia National Park and capped it off with whalewatching from Newport Beach. Wrapped it up with a WHOLE WEEK in Disneyland!

Would we like it? How would DLR compare to WDW?

Let's get this story started...

pretrip - ready with Minnie nails!
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July 10 - Landed in Burbank, renting a convertible ($356 for a week – sweet deal for expensive California!).
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After crazy bumper to bumper traffic through Santa Barbara, we had dinner in quaint Solvang, then crashed at the Hilton Garden Inn in San Luis Obispo.

July 11 - Early morning in the SLO Farmer's Market. We picked up a big tray of super sweet Cali strawberries and Kale juice (we are in Cali after all)
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Then a fun 11am boat tour on the Seaweed Express in Avila Beach.
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Lunch was at Custom House in Avila Beach (delish clam chowder!) and frozen cheesecake on a stick as a snack while we wandered the charming, laid back breezy beach town. Eventually, we hit the road again for a 3 hour drive to Sequoia National Park. We crashed for the night in a rather grungy (and super expensive) Comfort Inn in Three Rivers.

July 12 - FINALLY entered Sequoia National Park. How do I convey the wonder of walking through woods filled with majestic sequoia trees, the largest trees on earth? And on my birthday, no less. I stopped every few minutes for photo after photo. And many times, just to gaze in awe. WOW. I had a smile a mile wide the entire day.
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And saw a bear taking a Sunday stroll.

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We wrapped up the day with an all you can eat dinner at Wolverton BBQ. Yummy!
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Tonight, we slept in a tent cabin in Grant Grove. It got quite chilly at night and I regretted not packing a sleeping bag for my son (blankets don't stay on him well). We didn't sleep well - The rest of us were warm enough but my son woke us up all night long with his shivering.

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July 13 - Dropped DH and DS off at Hume Lake to go paintballing (DS LOVED it - perfect environment for kids) while DD and I tackled a 4 hour hike in the Sugar Bowl, the largest grove of Sequoia trees in the world. It was amazing but a couple of days later, my body was still aching.

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Then checked into Hume Lake Christian Campground. Our room in the Joshua Lodge was very nice (beds a little old) and the setting was absolutely gorgeous.
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The kids rented stand up paddleboards (just $10/hour!!).
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July 14 - Delicious free pancake breakfast at Inspiration Point (kids slept in and ate in the cafeteria, which was ok and plentiful).

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After breakfast, we drove out to Kings Canyon for a short hike in Zumwalt Meadow. It was beautiful but I don’t think we would do the (hour long each way) twisty drive again. Plus, I think it would be much prettier in the early morning/evening.

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We spent the afternoon relaxing at Hume Lake. Overall we enjoyed the place – the meal plans were good value ($15/day for buffet lunch and buffet dinner) and the food is solidly decent. It was nice to see hundreds of happy teens but eventually I needed some solitude away from so many people. In the late afternoon, we were back on the road – this time to Tulare (2 hr drive) to crash for the night in a cheap hotel.

July 15 – The highlight today will be seeing the Hollywood sign! We decided to go to the Griffith Observatory (just off highway 5). It was a very hot and dusty hike up the trail to the point where we could see the Hollywood sign.

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After snapping a couple of quick photos, we were ready to get back to our air-conditioned car and decided to skip the Observatory. This helped with traffic too and we rolled into Anaheim by lunchtime.

We were excited to finally set foot in the Disneyland Resort!
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It was a chilled out evening in Downtown Disney. Dinner was appetizers at Trader Sams. 3 appetizers were plenty to fill us up. Yummy and the craziness in the bar was a blast.
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Coming soon...whale watching in Newport Beach (would we see whales?) and we'll finally set foot in the parks!
 
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Can't wait to read more. I am taking my first trip to California to Disney land in August for our anniversary. We have been to WDW over 13 times. Can't wait to see what you think and seeing your pics are great
 


Can't wait to read more. I am taking my first trip to California to Disney land in August for our anniversary. We have been to WDW over 13 times. Can't wait to see what you think and seeing your pics are great

Does that mean you are headed there soon? Enjoy - California is gorgeous with a very unique vibe!
Loving your report.

Can't wait to hear more.

So glad to have you along!

Sorry it has been taking me so long for the next update - life has been really busy for the last week. I have a Japanese exchange student staying with me for 2 weeks and we are currently taking her for a weekend camping adventure here in Canada. Hope she loves the amazing outdoors the way we do :)
 
Can't wait to read more - maybe going whale watching because of you!!!

Welcome! So glad to have you along as I relive my memories :)

My Japanese exchange student went back to Japan on Saturday after 2 very very busy weeks. After I spent an entire day catching up on my sleep, I feel somewhat back to normal again. So it's time to get back to this trip report!
 


Back to the TR!

July 15 (continued)
After our yummy dinner at Trader Sams (it turned out to be so inexpensive for us to make a meal out of apps! Big Island Flatbread - $9.29, Pu Pu Platter - $16.99, Chicken lettuce wraps $10.99 - under $40 before tip), we continued shopping in Downtown Disney.

Naturally, we had to try the famous beignets at Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen (all reports said that while Mickey beignets IN the parks are yummy, Ralph Brennan's had the "real thing". We don't usually eat giant donuts, so we chose the dozen bite-sized beignets for $6.49. Since we don't like too much powdered sugar, we told him to sprinkle the sugar "really lightly". He still ended up sprinkling a LOT of sugar in there (but I guess only about a quarter of what he would normally do), so we just tapped the excess off. If you look at the pic, there's still a lot of sugar on that beignet - we would have preferred about half that LOL. I found it pretty pricey for donuts, but it sure tasted pretty good! We were really happy we chose the bite-sized option instead of the normal, large beignets we saw as we walked around (super messy!!)

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Since we had so many July birthdays to celebrate, we continued shopping. My mother had asked me what I wanted for my birthday and groaned when I told her I wanted a Mickey ears (she does NOT understand this grown adult's Disney obsession!). My DD had bought HER ear hat and a gorgeous 60th pin (can be seen in the pic above) from the Disneyland hotel gift shop. DH and I were on a quest for OUR hats. After some serious shopping, here's what we came up with:

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I sent my mom this pic to show her what she bought for us and while she was thankful for the more understated style I chose, she shook her head over my DH's Goofy hat! (Triple points because my DS has a matching hat from a previous trip!)

While I was bummed we couldn't get a 6 day ticket and go to the park this evening, it was nice to have some chilled out time when I could shop to my heart's content. The sparkly 60th merchandise everywhere was making me giddy! That said, our budget didn't allow for too much shopping so I did my best to restrain myself.

Thursday, July 16

Today was supposed to be our first Disney day (carefully planned so we had a break day in the middle of our time there). But the family had been disappointed when we didn't spot any whales or dolphins on the Seaweed Express boat tour in Avila Beach (apparently our guide had spotted a couple of whales on the 9am whale watching tour, but they were nowhere in sight for our 11am tour). I hadn't expected the family to be so bummed, but because they were, that very day, while we were having lunch at Avila Beach, I hopped online to see what our options were. I had really wanted to do Capt Dave's tour from Dana Point but at $65pp, I just couldn't do it. I searched some more and found that Davey's Locker in Newport Beach was offering a Groupon. On top of that, Groupon was offering an extra 20% off coupon the day I booked! So for just $10pp (+$2.50pp "fuel surcharge"), I had a 3hr whale watching tour booked!

We gave up our break day and decided to start the trip with whale watching (the price difference between a 5 day and 7 day rental is $0. I had originally planned to return the convertible on Day 6, July 15th, but instead, kept it until Day 7, July 16th, paying for a night's parking at our hotel). I had booked the 10am cruise thinking we would at least have a chance to re-do our cruise later in the day if we were unsuccessful in finding whales. This meant we would have to deal with rush hour traffic. I was nervous after all I read and we agreed to leave early. It ended up taking us over an hour or so to do the 20 min drive and while packed, didn't end up being quite as bad as I dreaded. Being in the HOV lanes helped a lot.

We got there around 8:30am, plenty of time before the 10am cruise. That was good because finding parking is a little challenging, although not bad that early in the morning. Thankfully, Davey's Locker provides a good map detailing all the local parking options (even marking what's free and what's paid) and that made it MUCH easier to figure out where to get free parking. It took a little while to get checked in for the cruise (lots of forms and it took a long time for them to process each group). We had plenty of time to kill afterwards so strolled around the town - we found VERY few options open for breakfast and ended up getting some food from the snack shop nearby. I decided a frozen banana was the PERFECT breakfast LOL!

At 9:30am, a line started forming. Shortly before 10am, we started the boarding process and we got seats on the upper deck in the shade (very sunny day as always). Only about a 30 min cruise out, we encountered 2 humpback whales! We ended up spending well over an hour with them as they kept circling the same area, feeding. While neither did a full breach, they came up to the surface multiple times and we saw their tail flukes frequently as they dived down. The captain made sure we saw them on both sides of the ship multiple times so everyone got an awesome view. Amazingly enough, a school of common dolphins also hung out with us and we also saw some seals join in the feeding fun! Since we had been so successful, we returned to harbor about 30 mins early.

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Here's a video of it:


I will say that while amazing, this wasn't as exciting as our dolphin watching cruise this past Christmas in Clearwater, Florida. We were on a little boat (Little Toot) and a half dozen dolphins played with our wake for quite a while...we were wow-ed. This time we saw 50-60 common dolphins swimming past us but while cool, it wasn't quite as exciting. I think it is because we were on a much bigger boat and a smaller boat provides a more intimate experience (and lets you get closer) - but the price difference just wasn't worth it to me for this trip. The $10pp was a super deal and the whole experience was well worth it.

Lunch was at the Harborside Restaurant. When we walked in, we ended up being seated on the restaurant side despite letting them know we wanted the Happy Hour menu (11am - 7pm daily). We discussed it with our server who graciously told us he wouldn't be at all offended if we moved over to the bar. At $4 a dish, it was too good a deal to pass up. We ordered 5 dishes to share (so a $20 bill) - the portions were huge and the food was very good! I had thought we were going to sacrifice quality for price, but we all ended up really enjoying our (very cheap) meal. We left our server a hefty tip in appreciation.

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Satisfied, we drove to a section of Newport Beach to watch the boogie boarders for a little while and DD and I walked along the surf. I had completely forgotten to pack our swim stuff and regretted it. It was a hot afternoon and it would have been perfect to play in the waves. We ended up deciding to leave by early afternoon to make sure we beat any rush hour traffic and it was a smooth drive back to Anaheim. By 3pm, we were at the car rental return across from Anaheim Gardenwalk.

At 3:30pm, we got a seat at the Cheesecake Factory in honor of my DD's birthday (it would be a couple of weeks later) for her favorite food in the world - cheesecake! We decided to sit in the bar and wait for Happy Hour (4-6pm) to save $$ on dinner so we could freely indulge in decadent cheesecake. This is someone else's photo and the menu is slightly outdated (updated menu here) - but you get the drift - $5 apps are a GREAT deal!

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My son had the roadside sliders, my DD the Happy Hour burger, my DH the warm crab & artichoke dip, and I ordered the sweet corn tamale cakes. The burgers were your basic, good burgers, the dip was a bit of a miss and was just ok, the sweet corn tamale cakes were AMAZING! Since we also ordered gigantic slices of cheesecakes, there was no way we could finish everything. We ended up boxing up half our meals and half our cheesecakes to take back to the room with us (and it was enough food to feed us for another dinner a few days later!).

We wrapped up the day with a bit more shopping in Downtown Disney and then crawled into bed, exhausted at 9pm. At 9:30pm, there was a ton of noise outside our fireworks view room at the Fairfield Inn and I poked my head out the door, thoroughly annoyed, to find that a noisy group of adults were watching the fireworks from outside our room. We were too tired to think about fireworks so we just pulled the blankets over our heads and tried to sleep through the noise (and it was LOUD). That was the only night we were in our room during fireworks so it didn't bother us the rest of the trip.

Next day - we FINALLY go to Disneyland!!!!!
 
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joining in - sounds like such a fun trip. Love the picture of the kids on the paddle boards at Hume lake - very pretty setting!

You are doing great with the cheap meals! Sometimes ordering a bunch of apps to share (especially when at a reduced price) can make for a great and fun meal.

How fun to each get a day to celebrate your birthdays too!

Definitely going to be trying to get some tips from your time at DLR as we have our first trip there coming up in October
 
joining in - sounds like such a fun trip. Love the picture of the kids on the paddle boards at Hume lake - very pretty setting!

You are doing great with the cheap meals! Sometimes ordering a bunch of apps to share (especially when at a reduced price) can make for a great and fun meal.

How fun to each get a day to celebrate your birthdays too!

Definitely going to be trying to get some tips from your time at DLR as we have our first trip there coming up in October

Thanks!! I was definitely focused on trying to eat on a budget and still enjoy ourselves. Our food budget was about $100/day for the 4 of us and I was trying to keep the ENTIRE vacation (not including flights and souvenirs) to about $3000. Our accommodations were free (hotel points)and 2 of our park tickets were free (redeemed airmiles) and I have to admit - even with all that, we had some trouble sticking to the $3k budget. In the end, we went over, but thankfully only by a few hundred dollars so the damage wasn't too bad.
 
Thanks!! I was definitely focused on trying to eat on a budget and still enjoy ourselves. Our food budget was about $100/day for the 4 of us and I was trying to keep the ENTIRE vacation (not including flights and souvenirs) to about $3000. Our accommodations were free (hotel points)and 2 of our park tickets were free (redeemed airmiles) and I have to admit - even with all that, we had some trouble sticking to the $3k budget. In the end, we went over, but thankfully only by a few hundred dollars so the damage wasn't too bad.

We are also trying to do ours on a bit of a budget too as we had to semi-emergency remodel our kitchen due to a major leak.

We are using hotel points for time in San Diego and opted to stay off site instead of onsite, etc. I think we did ok on flights too considering going full across the country. Definitely is tough balancing having a budget but wanting to enjoy yourself and "take it all in" - especially not sure if/when we will get out there again
 
FRIDAY, JULY 17

I was ready to burst with excitement. We had been in California a full week now and I was dying to set foot in a park. Plus, today would be the ACTUAL 60th anniversary!! I had been paying attention to the Dis and various social media feeds and was a little bit disappointed there weren't more exciting things planned. No matter, we would BE IN DISNEYLAND!

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We spent quite some time discussing just how early we were prepared to wait in line. Finally, DD and I agreed to get in line by 6am while DH and DS would join us closer to park open at 8am.

For anyone looking back on the day, many of us there on July 17 participated in this thread and there are some live reports. At this point I am going to quote my "live report" from that morning (with some comments I am sure).

It's almost 5am and I am awake earlier than planned. Debating if I should wake sleeping DD now or wait until 5:30am. Reports are that there were 400 ppl in line by 4am.

I held off on waking DD until 5:15am (instead I took my time dressing up in my 50s-inspired outfit - best I could do with such short notice lol). Munching on granola bars, DD and I got to the park entrance to wait semi-patiently in line shortly after 6am.

We got in line at 6am. Took us 45 mins to get out of the hotel room! This morning in particular, I am loving that we are staying so close at the Fairfield Inn! A fair number of ppl in line but the esplanade is not full.

We were about 30-40 people behind in line. We were given a souvenir newspaper while we waited. We were too excited to settle down to look at a newspaper though (and I still have not finished reading it).

A lot of shrieking happened at 6:20am and the crowds surged forward. But nothing has happened. Just heard a rumor that they will open the gates at 6:30am.

Shortly after 6:30pm, they opened the gates!! The excitement in the air was palpable as people started entering the park itself. As we walked in, we were given an "I was there" button and a special edition map (which included the original DL map from 60 years before).

We are lined up on Main Street now and about to be let in the rest of the park.

I was struggling with internet, but this is a live comment made by another DIS'er just before 7am.

We got special buttons (not pins) and the newspaper. Dh came at 7am and got them too. Not really worth lining up early. But was fun.
They let us into Main St at 6:30am. Then rides opened at 7am.
Fun day so far

A little later in the morning I added the above comments. Because they were just giving way buttons, the special edition map, and the newspaper, there were plenty to go around. I texted DH at 6:30am (after I got into Main Street) to find out that the boys were already up and moving and heading to McD's for breakfast. I updated him on the status and he said he would get over to the parks as quickly as possible since the rumors were flying around about an early open. He ended up walking right in at about 7am with no waits, got all the giveaways and strolled back to the Matterhorn to meet us.

DD and I had bee-lined straight for the Matterhorn (heard lines had been long after the refurb) and it was an easy walk-on. DH entered the park at about 7am and came straight to the Matterhorn to meet us so we could all ride together with about a 5 min wait. Since we had lost just about everything else on this trip (usually only for a few mins), my DH promptly lost his brand new Goofy hat on the Matterhorn. I have NO idea why he thought it was a good idea to wear a hat on a roller coaster (this is the guy who wears eyeglass straps for even mild rides). The rest of us had wisely removed all our hats before the ride took off.

We were told to check with lost and found the next morning - it was unlikely they would find it until later that night.

Long lines for the few seats in front of the Castle and some lines already for the cupcake stations. Not looking for merchandise so no idea of the crowds there.

I posted this ...probably around 7:30am.

Cupcakes are available now. It is 8am and they look like they opened the line a short while ago.

It was insane how long the lines for cupcakes had gotten!! We decided to continue avoiding the area.

We just got off the Nemo subs. Line was surprisingly short so we hopped in. It was very cute but super slow loader. Having a great time for our first day at DLR!
This was probably shortly after 8am. I was going to do a different ride, but couldn't resist jumping into queue when we saw how short the line was. It was a great decision as it would have been a much bigger hassle trying to do it any other day. Nemo was a very cute and fun dark ride. It was much better than I expected given the comments I have read on the Dis. That said, I agree - the queue is ridiculous for the ride, especially in the blazing sun. Even though it was a "walk on", we still waited a almost 10 mins (in the cool morning) to board.

The surprise 7am morning was fabulous! We did Matterhorn twice, Space, Buzz, Nemo, Alice and teacups with barely any lines. It definitely got busier after the speech at 10am. We are managing the afternoon well with FPs, etc. I am back on my Ridemax plans and things are going well.

This was an afternoon post, but in this I recapped my morning timeline. It was rather awesome walking on so many things so quickly! This morning would be the very shortest lines we would see in DL over the course of our 5 day tickets. I should note that while DD and I rode Space, the boys went on Autopia. Good call, because the ride was either broken down or had too long of a line anytime we were in the area for the rest of our trip.

by the way, I have to note that Space in DLR is way, way, way more awesome than WDW! The music is fabulous and having it blaring next to our ears was icing on the cake! I loved how fast and smooth it was. Best of all, no downhills so my DS and DH (ride chickens) were able to enjoy the ride too. I think this ended up being my fave ride in DLR after RSR.

So sorry, missed the dismeet. I had gone completely off schedule this morning and my kids were NOT happy just wandering around when the parks got really busy after the 10am speech. I finally worked out a schedule and we ahould be fine for the rest of the day hopefully.

I don't think I can manage to remember any kind of minute by minute schedule here - we wandered a little aimlessly for a while and criss-crossed the park a few times because I was trying to "wing it". Discovered that "winging it" doesn't work for my family - they like the uber planning Mom better.

I don't think I will try to do a ride by ride recap. I don't even remember everything we rode all day. It got progressively more crowded through the day and we stopped (quite thankfully) for 11:30am reservations at Big Thunder Ranch BBQ. Beautiful setting! However, we had unfortunate issues with our server. When he came, we explained that we only wanted to order dessert (I had heard about the fab dessert skillets and I knew there was no way our family could eat a meal AND have dessert). He let me start ordering and then strode off while I was practically mid-sentence! I wasn't even done ordering - we planned to get a skillet the rest of us and a sundae for my son. We waited about 10 minutes and he still didn't return while I progressively got more annoyed. I didn't even know if he had taken my order for dessert! Finally, we flagged down another CM and asked him to get our waiter. He came back and took our sundae order and strode off in a hurry yet again. Now I was getting REALLY upset. It is extremely rare for me to complain to a manager, but I was very close to doing so. I decided to give him one more chance and eventually managed to flag him down again. I then questioned him - asking if it was okay for me to just order dessert. He immediately started acting a little nicer and said that of course, I could do so. I then told him that he had walked off on me mid-sentence and then disappeared for way too long. He apologized (kinda) and for the rest of the meal, acted a little better and I was mollified. I am glad I discussed the issue with him. We had a Chef's Cookie Deep Dish ($9.99) and an Old-Fashioned Milkshake ($5.99). We usually tip really well when we order so little, but this time, we only tipped a little extra.

After our meal, we found the 60th anniversary "special photo spots" and my family indulged me since i wanted some pics (I had joined a Photopass share).

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We then headed to the Golden Horseshoe in the hopes of catching a short show. The place was packed!! By the time we found seating, the show was over. On top of that, DH and DS never found where they could order food and ended up just going outside to get popcorn. Refueled with popcorn, it was now time for our FP for Indy. To be honest, while we had fun at Indy, no one in my family asked to re-ride it. Different strokes for different folks? We tend to like happy themes so the slightly darker theming of Indy wasn't as appealing.

I think we also did BTMR around now. And...it was just OK. Again, no requests for re-rides. It's funny, because it's one of my DS' favorite rides in WDW. I personally found it a little jerky and somehow, just not as fun as WDW's version. We usually giggle and whoop our way through and DLR's version just felt a little flat to us (although some of the scenes they have that WDW doesn't is pretty awesome).

At 3pm, we headed to Carnation Cafe for our afternoon parade reservation. We REALLY wanted the little pavilion they had there, since it was super pretty and in a perfect viewing spot for the parade. We asked and they said they would give us the table next as long as we were willing to wait. My reservation was for 3:50pm but DH really wanted to pavilion so we went early. Another family was seated just when we got there at about 3pm or so. Chances were good that we would be able to watch the 4:30pm parade from our desired spot.

We were given a buzzer that would work anywhere on Main Street. So we headed to the air-conditioned bliss of Main Street Cinema where we laid about watching goofy old cartoons (my DS loved it). At about 3:20pm, I headed over to DCA to get FPs for something since we decided we would hop over after the parade. After checking at the gate to make sure there was no threat of closures, I strolled across the empty Esplanade to the even emptier DCA! After the madhouse of Disneyland, DCA felt like a breath of fresh air. I quickly picked up a FP for Soarin and headed back to meet my family. At 4pm, we strolled over to Caranation Cafe to wait at the entrance. The family in the pavilion were just about done their meals and we were congratulating ourselves.

Unfortunately, they DID NOT MOVE. They sat there throughout the 4:15pm pre-parade and kept sitting. *sigh*. (Of course, they wanted to enjoy the parade too). At 4:25pm, we gave up and took a shaded table on the patio (right by the fence so still front row viewing). Sure enough (since this is how these things go), at 4:35pm, the family finally got up and left. DH really wanted to move to *his* pavilion but we had gotten our food by then and I refused to move. DH and I shared fried pickles ($6.49) - delish! and a Penne Pasta with shrimp ($18.49), my DD had a Main St Cheeseburger and DS had something I don't remember lol. The kids liked my pasta and ate a fair bit of it.

The parade was a lot of fun and we had a great viewing position at Carnation Cafe :)

We gave up at 11:30pm after a final ride on Radiator Spring Racers. We switched to DCA at about 5ish and it was so much more relaxed there after the crush in DL all day. Had an awesome evening with lots of rest time as well. Watched the 10:15pm WOC. Very uncrowded. Got in line with our yellow FPs at 9:20pm and was about 20-30 ppl back. Ended up choosing to be in the centre area at the top of the stairs with plenty of space to sit and stretch out before the show. Was too late to be in the very wet zone.

Throughout the day, we got 3 of the special diamond photo spots and then plenty of regular PP locations.

Our very first day in the parks and our very first family visit to DLR...had an awesome time. Felt like we have done a LOT...even though we were very relaxed and easy (my body is still recovering from my long hike in the Sequoia a few days ago).

Like I said, we moved over to DCA at 5ish. The DL crowds were just getting a little too intense at DL. We rode Soarin (awesome as always - it has been a long time since we have done this at WDW) and then moved over to Carsland as I wanted to see it lit up at dusk. We found a PP photographer there :)

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It turned out to be really fun to see the place get lit up. Now, it was time to SEE Radiator Spring Racers! Kids were super excited and asked to go single rider since I said we would have to wait until later to ride (I had gotten FPs for late that night). Surprised me since my family doesn't like single rider at all. Normally, we're willing to wait in lines rather than do single rider. Anyway, they asked so DH and I parked ourselves on a bench and waited for them. Some 20-30 mins later they were out - excited because they had raced each other.

After a couple of other rides, it was time for a snack at 8:30pm. We got a Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl ($9.99) for DJ and I to share, and an apple ($1.99) for my DD from Pacific Wharf Bakery and Edamame ($3.39) for my son from Lucky fortune Cookery. The snacks hit the spot. I did end up feeling the clam chowder was pretty overpriced - so I probably wouldn't do it again. The sourdough bread bowl wasn't very good (I guess it would be better in the morning?)

We got in Line for World of Color at 9:20pm. LOVED it :) The only problem with watching the 2nd show is seeing so much of the 1st show while waiting in line. And it feels like FOREVER before they finish cleaning the area and allow the 2nd show lines in.

We went for a spin on Mater's Junkyard Jamboree - not once, but THREE times! My kiddies loved it! The music, the night atmosphere, the wild swinging - we laughed and laughed and laughed! (DH gets motion sick easily so he stood at the fence and attempted to take photos. I won't even try to post what he managed to get). I really like that lines were never brutally long for this ride and many times, it was a walk-on.

We also fit in a late night RSR ride. I quickly learned I needed to tie my hair back for future rides since it completely obscured my face for the photo! And no more raised arms for photo ops - my poor son's face was completely blocked by his sister's arm!

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LOVE our final photo of the night!!

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At 11:30pm we were done, done, DONE. We talked about moving to DL for the 12am PTN but we were all wiped and opted for bed instead. My DS in particular doesn't do late nights very well.

Next up....day 2 at DLR
 
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wow, that seems like an entire trip to Disneyland and you are only done with day 1. How awesome that you were there on the actual anniversary. That's cool that they had plenty of the giveaways

Where all of those photo spots (like the Big Thunder one, etc.) just for that day or do they have them other days as well? Obviously the ones with the "I was there" buttons were just for that day but wondering about the other ones.

Thanks,
Phil
 
wow, that seems like an entire trip to Disneyland and you are only done with day 1. How awesome that you were there on the actual anniversary. That's cool that they had plenty of the giveaways

Where all of those photo spots (like the Big Thunder one, etc.) just for that day or do they have them other days as well? Obviously the ones with the "I was there" buttons were just for that day but wondering about the other ones.

Thanks,
Phil

Pretty much all these photo spots were special to the 60th anniversary. We were told they would only be there for 1 day, but the ride cutouts stayed available for the week we were there. Not sure if they are staying around for the year? They did look great!
 
I'm really enjoying your trip report! I love your visits to the sequoias they are such majestic trees. We live about an hour away from a lovely park with sequoias and it's one of my favorite places to picnic. I can imagine that the park got crazy on July 17! How fun to finish your day in DCA. I hope they still have the ride cutouts when we go next month.
 
I'm really enjoying your trip report! I love your visits to the sequoias they are such majestic trees. We live about an hour away from a lovely park with sequoias and it's one of my favorite places to picnic. I can imagine that the park got crazy on July 17! How fun to finish your day in DCA. I hope they still have the ride cutouts when we go next month.

Welcome :) The sequoias was amazing. Now one of my favorite places in the world! How amazing that u get to live near some.

It will be another 1-2 weeks before I manage to update this TR. We're wrapping up the summer with a bunch of weekend getaways. On top of that, my iPhone 5 just died (forever) and I am on the hunt to figure out the best replacement. I would love another iPhone, but I don't know if I could stomach the asking prices. Just crazy!
 
Welcome :) The sequoias was amazing. Now one of my favorite places in the world! How amazing that u get to live near some.

It will be another 1-2 weeks before I manage to update this TR. We're wrapping up the summer with a bunch of weekend getaways. On top of that, my iPhone 5 just died (forever) and I am on the hunt to figure out the best replacement. I would love another iPhone, but I don't know if I could stomach the asking prices. Just crazy!

Oh that sounds fun! Enjoy the rest of summer! That stinks about your phone. I hope you can find one you like.
 

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