Four generations driving from BC to Disneyland! *UPDATED FEB 5th*

[heatherleigh]

I liked your report & photos. I figured the parks would be virtually empty for the time of year you went. It doesn't sound like you had to battle any crowds. One of these days, we will go in Jan./Feb. again.

Was it freezing cold? That's one of the only things I remember from Jan. I have photos of my boys riding the teacups at night, dressed in winter coats, hats, gloves, and scarves. It did not take away from our fun in the least though! The walk-on rides made up for it.

[CrystalS]

Originally Posted by heatherleigh

I liked your report & photos. I figured the parks would be virtually empty for the time of year you went. It doesn't sound like you had to battle any crowds. One of these days, we will go in Jan./Feb. again.

Was it freezing cold? That's one of the only things I remember from Jan. I have photos of my boys riding the teacups at night, dressed in winter coats, hats, gloves, and scarves. It did not take away from our fun in the least though! The walk-on rides made up for it.

The only day it wasn't "empty" was the Monday which was MLK day, but once evening came it was empty again because I'm assuming everyone had school/work the next day so left early.
It was so nice, everything was pretty much walk on, or no more than 5 min wait.


I'm not sure what your idea of cold is, lol. We are from BC Canada so it was warm for us, lol. We had snow at home! For the days we went it was nice during the day (no jacket needed, unless there was a breeze) and then at night we'd have a light jacket and were just fine. I also brought blankets in the stroller for the kids for if they fell asleep (which we used a couple of times). I saw what I'd assume were locals, and CMs wearing heavier jackets, which was funny for us because we were feeling warm compared to home. lol.

[CrystalS]

Originally Posted by KittyKat1978

Hello fellow BC'er!!

Looking forward to hearing about your trip. I go in 12 days

I have never considered driving down...Did it actually take you 24hrs?

I'd think the actual driving part was about 24hrs. We of course stopped a fair amount for bathroom/food breaks with the kids.

[WDWJonasGirl]

I loved the update!!

[CrystalS]

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this next part up, just been busy at home.



So on Tuesday I was to attend a travel agent tour (This was the reason we came on this trip, lol, because it was such a great deal)!

We had breakfast in the lounge again (concierge is very nice to have if you can budget for it).
After breakfast we wanted to go swimming, so off we went, walking over to the Disneyland hotel's pool (since our pool was being resurfaced).

It was a nice little walk and we found the pool without any trouble. It looked like fun with the new water slide structure up! It was weird that the two sides ended it different places, if your child decides to switch back and forth between the two you'll need to keep a close eye on which direction they are going! They had two smaller slides that I was able to put my 17month old on and hold onto her and slide her down, which she of course LOVED and wanted to do over and over again. It was nice that the area at the base of the slides is a shallow pool, so dd was able to splash around and play while her big brother went on the slides!
There was also a couple of nice swimming pools in the lower area, and a nice big hot tub. (there was a big hot tub in the upper area by the slides too).




After swimming/sliding for awhile we made our way back to the hotel where I got the kids settled with my mom and grandma. Then I headed over to downtown disney for my TA tour


So we met up at ESPN Zone where we were offered refreshments and some treats. (I didn't know they were offering these and so I had made sure to eat before showing up, lol, so I just had a drink. But the offerings did look tasty!)

After chit chatting at ESPN Zone for a bit we headed off to check out the newly renovated Disneyland Hotel!
They showed us the pool area which I had already visited earlier that day, and we checked out Trader Sams Tiki bar, which was quite neat. Supposedly when you order certain drinks, different "things" happen in the bar.....

We then ventured up into one of the towers to check out the new rooms! The room looked very nice, and I really LOVED the musical, light up head boards! It was probably a good idea we stayed at PPH and not here, or else I can imagine that I would have had two little children constantly turning it on the entire time we were in the room!




Next we walked over through PPH and then Grand California Hotel, and into California Adventures (stopping at each of those locations for some information). At CA we went into Blue sky cellar to look around, and we got a good view into Cars Land over the fence too.

a look over the fence into cars land, wish I had had my better camera with me for this


Our tour ended and we were dismissed inside the park, so this had basically gotten me free admission into the park. Too bad I had the kids waiting for me back at the hotel or I would have taken more advantage of this! I did manage to hop in the single ride line of California Screamin once though before feeling guilty about leaving the kids at the hotel, lol. Then I made my way back to PPH.





That night we had dinner at Goofy's Kitchen! Yay!
The characters were great here, especially Goofy and Minnie! They really took time to visit and interact with the kids.
dd was initially a bit hesitant about Minnie and goofy, but they took their time with her and she ended up high five-ing Goofy and even dancing with Minnie! The food was good too, they had the most tender, fall apart in your mouth, roast beef ever, it was delicious! So many offerings for dessert too!













Click for a video of dd dancing with Minnie!


And that pretty much concludes our "rest" day


Park day 2 is next!