I'm mikey's fantastic fun filled fall family trip report.

[I'm mikey]

Hi folks. My name is Mike. Me, my wife Shellie, and oldest daughter Brie were at the Disneyland Resort from september 30 to october 4, 2012. We had the privilege of dining at Club 33 on Oct 1st for our very first time and we also attened Mickeys Halloween party on Oct 2nd.

We left home (Redding, Ca) saturday night oct,29 at 11:15pm and arrived in anaheim sunday morning at 9:30am. It was a 10 hour drive with several pit stops and 1 stop to fill up with gas.

We arrived at our hotel, Castle Inn and Suites, at 9:30am sunday morning.



We went in to the hotel office to see if it was to early to check-in,





Surprisingly our room was ready and waiting for us.







Now i've read reports of how bad this hotel is, but we found it to be a decent, inexpensive hotel to stay at. We have stayed at nicer hotels and we have stayed at hotels that were much worse. The room was very clean, a bit dated, old tube type tv and the carpet was a bit worn. The beds were a little firm, but not so bad that we were unable to sleep. Sunday morning when we first went into the room, we found only 2 bath towels, 2 hand towels and 2 wash clothes, but upon return to the room that night we had 6 bath towels, 3 hand towels and 3 wash clothes. The room also had a small refrigerator that kept drinks nicely chilled, a coffee pot and a hair dryer. there was also a table and chairs next to the window and a small desk next to the tv.



The pool area was decent with 2 hot tubs and a small pool,but we didnt use it because the hot tubs were full of kids both times i went over there. there is also a small gift shop onsite with computers for hotel guest to use.

This hotel offers free WiFi, but it really sucked. When we were able to connect to the net it was slower than dial up internet, it would take at least 5 minutes for any page to load, internet speed was the only issue we had with this hotel.

The Castle Inn and Suites is renovating the rooms, the two rooms next us were almost complete on our last day, they looked really nice, granite counters, really nice looking dark green carpet with a dark red curly cue design running through it, one of the workmen said there would be new furniture and beds too.

The hotels staff was friendly and courteous each time we would interact with them.
We will most likely stay here again, the hotel felt safe and comfortable and the walk to Disneyland took us about ten minutes.

Here are additional hotel pictures.













coming up next....Day 1. Our first look at Buena Vista Street and Cars Land.

[kylie71]

Thanks Mikey, subscribing!

The Castle Inn looks nice, I took a couple pics of it from the Candy Cane side of the street, forgot to send them to you...

Cannot wait for more of your pics, and to hear all about the trip!!

[KCmike]

Let's get this party started!

Those beds don't look very good in my opinion. There seemed to be a huge slope on one of them. Makes my back hurt.


Really excited you decided to do a trip report Mike.

[dhorner233]

Hi Mike I'm so glad to see you are doing a trip report!! I have really enjoyed the pictures of your hotel. I'm staying at the BWP Anaheim Inn.

I can't wait to see more of your pictures and I'm glad you are back. I hope you have lots of pictures for our Where in the Land thread!!

[PrincessInOz]

I'm going to hang out here too. Need to get me clues for WitL.

[Minnie Sue Oz]

Hi Mike!

I'm also along for the ride and looking forward to hearing all about your trip and seeing all the wonderful pics!

[tksbaskets]

I'm 'in'! So glad you linked to your TR in the Halloween thread. I too think the beds look a bit hammock like.

I love TR with lots of room pics and descriptions. Thanks for taking us along with you!

TK

[Goofy_Mom]

My Mom and her BFF are doing a similar drive, they're coming from Weaverville. They are staying at my Aunts house in Sacramento so they don't have to do the entire drive in one go.

We are leaving on Friday morning for our trip, I'm hoping for more pictures before we leave

[I'm mikey]

Originally Posted by kylie71

Thanks Mikey, subscribing!

The Castle Inn looks nice, I took a couple pics of it from the Candy Cane side of the street, forgot to send them to you...

Cannot wait for more of your pics, and to hear all about the trip!!

Hi Lori, welcome. The castle inn was really decent for as little as we paid, I think I had mentioned before my concern that this hotel would be real dump.

Originally Posted by KCmike

Let's get this party started!

Those beds don't look very good in my opinion. There seemed to be a huge slope on one of them. Makes my back hurt.


Really excited you decided to do a trip report Mike.

Mike, One of the beds did have a bit of a dip in it, our daughter slept in that one. The bed Shellie and I had was much better. Thanks for joining in.

Originally Posted by dhorner233

Hi Mike I'm so glad to see you are doing a trip report!! I have really enjoyed the pictures of your hotel. I'm staying at the BWP Anaheim Inn.

I can't wait to see more of your pictures and I'm glad you are back. I hope you have lots of pictures for our Where in the Land thread!!

Hi Denice, Good to see you here. I took about 3100 pics on this trip.

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

I'm going to hang out here too. Need to get me clues for WitL.

Hi PIO, Welcome. You know, i sat here thinking, what the heck is "Witl" stand for, then it hit me.....Where in the land.

Originally Posted by Minnie Sue Oz

Hi Mike!

I'm also along for the ride and looking forward to hearing all about your trip and seeing all the wonderful pics!

Hi Minnie Sue Oz, Welcome aboard. It may be a bit of a bumpy ride. This will be my first attempt at a trip report.

Originally Posted by tksbaskets

I'm 'in'! So glad you linked to your TR in the Halloween thread. I too think the beds look a bit hammock like.

I love TR with lots of room pics and descriptions. Thanks for taking us along with you!

TK

Hi tksbaskets, Welcome. Like I told Mike, one bed had a dip in it, but the other was fine, and this hotel turn out to be much better than i was expecting.

Originally Posted by Goofy_Mom

My Mom and her BFF are doing a similar drive, they're coming from Weaverville. They are staying at my Aunts house in Sacramento so they don't have to do the entire drive in one go.

We are leaving on Friday morning for our trip, I'm hoping for more pictures before we leave

Hi Goofy_Mom, Glad your joining in. Weaverville is a gorgous area, i have not been up there in years. I really should go up there and take some pics. There is some really beautiful scenery in the area. Hopefully I'll have more pics posted before you leave.

[tksbaskets]

The room does look very nice. Is the hotel far from DL? I stayed once and the Park Vue Inn - for the total amount of time spent in the room during a Disneyland vacation is was just fine.

Looking forward to more

[mvf-m11c]

Hey Mike

Nice to see that you started a trip report and I can't wait to see all your great photos.

[I'm mikey]

Originally Posted by tksbaskets

The room does look very nice. Is the hotel far from DL? I stayed once and the Park Vue Inn - for the total amount of time spent in the room during a Disneyland vacation is was just fine.

Looking forward to more

For an inexpensive, no frills, budget hotel, the castle inn & suite was a good choice for us, all we really did there was sleep and shower. This hotel is on s. Harbor blvd, between Disney way and Katella Ave, next door to the anaheim plaza hotel and across the street from the candy cane inn. the walk to disneyland is about ten minutes from the hotel entrance to the security tents.

Originally Posted by mvf-m11c

Hey Mike

Nice to see that you started a trip report and I can't wait to see all your great photos.

Hi Brett, nice to see you join in.


I hope to have more trip report up on thursday, so please hang in there.

Many of you may have already seen these pics in the Disneyland POTD thread.

This was a 20 second exposure. the light streaks running through are from the cars passing by on RSR.

[PrincessInOz]

Fantastic shots Mike. Looking forward to more.

[DisneytheKid]

Great pictures! I'm really looking forward to seeing more!

[I'm mikey]

September 30, time to head to the parks.

So we had just checked into our hotel, got the car unpacked and luggage into our room, it is now time to head to the parks. We quickly changed into cooler clothing, put on sunscreen and i gathered the camera gear i would be taking with me. We walked up Harbor Blvd towards The Disneyland Resort. Walking to the parks took us about ten minutes from our room to the security check, where we found long lines. It took about five minutes to get thru security, finally there it was, DCA without construction walls.

We made our way to one of the center turnstiles because they seemed to have the shortest lines, as we approached the entrance another gate opened right in front of us so we entered DCA without any wait. Now this was our first time seeing Buena Vista Street, as soon as i was thru the turnstile i had to stop for a moment to to take a look.

Looking to the right


A look to the left, Oswalds Filling Station


Looking strait ahead, Los Feliz Five & Dime

We made our way up Buena Vista Street taking in all the sights and sounds as we quickly walked thru on our way to Cars Land. We didn't stop at any of the stores at this time knowing we would have plenty of time later in the day.

Mortimers market and Hyperion Bridge

I absolutely love Buena Vista Street, Disney did a great job with the architecture and all the details on the buildings, i really felt i was walking thru Los Angeles of the 1920's. It is a great improvement over the old Sunshine plaza entrance.

We made it to the end of Buena Vista Street where we had a picture taken with Walt and Mickey at the storytellers statue.




I noticed Mickey near by with a huge line of people waiting to get a picture with him. We didn't want to wait at this meet and greet so i just grabbed a quik mickey picture.




In one of the nearby planters i noticed these beautiful yellow and red flowers.





Coming up next...CARS LAND!