Okay, it took me 2 days, but I made it through the whole trip (or at least as much of it as you finished). I've got a bunch of comments:
1 - I'm entertained and horrified that the hotel provides yoga mats. Which is actually fairly similar to my original reaction to discovering the Yoga Room at the airport in San Francisco. I know that people like yoga, but it's really taking over in some places!
Haha! I didn't use them but thought is was very "California" to have them at all.
2 - The Einstein pictures at the Observatory are hysterical!
Too bad selfies weren't such a thing then. I can only imagine what kind of pictures would have ensued.
3 - The Disney impostors on the Santa Monica Pier remind me a lot of Times Square ... these characters look nothing like they do at Disney World! (Of course, in Times Square, how they look can be the least of your problems sometimes ... not sure if it's the same at the pier, but I'm guessing it probably is)
I was literally LOL at this comment. Yup, guessing it could be similar.
4 - I love all of the Berlin Wall pictures! I've seen a few different pieces here and there and I always love seeing them become artwork. I'll have to remember about that if I ever do another SoCal trip (our last west coast trip was Disney & San Fran, not sure if we'll be doing general SoCal again any time soon)
Yeah I really loved those. And maybe it was just because we totally stumbled on them. If you went looking for them the impact might not be the same.
5 - I love that you guys went to see Disney Studios! I wish they gave tours ... although they'd have a hard time getting me to leave the tour!
That building was so cute. I was glad we went even though we looked like crazy stalkers.
6 - The Madame Tussads pictures are great. Lucy is hysterical!
I have to admit that when you said you were reading this I went back through and kind of skimmed over it last night (which was fun to relive...thanks ) and those pictures of Lucy are so her. I was dying.
7 - I'm a little sad that you skipped the Getty, but I totally understand wanting to get to Disneyland sooner!
Yeah. Had it been on the way we totally would have went but going the opposite direction of DL just made it easier to skip. I think Aaron was over driving at that point and just wanted to get somewhere. That is actually one of the reasons he loves Disney is all that is just taken care of by Disney. I admit to being a terrible co-pilot so vacations that require minimal navigation are best and I think we were ready for that!
8 - Totally agree with you on RSR ... we loved it! We did it twice with 1.5-2 hour waits, and probably would have done it more had the lines been shorter (although it was one of the rides where Beth had issues because she couldn't do stairs on that trip and there are stairs when you get off the ride). Also, I love California Screamin'. And Toy Story, of course. Really, some of my favorite Disney attractions are at California Adventure.
Of course one of Lucy's absolute favorites now is Test Track so I think she will be good next time for multiple RSR rides. She better be. Yes. I actually think CA is kinda a combination of all the best attractions at the other 3 WDW parks. I don't know why it sometimes gets a bad rap.
9 - The character breakfast looks like a lot of fun! We've never done sit-down dining at DL (we had never done it at WDW before November 2014 ...), but seeing how much fun it seems to be I might think about it for my next trip!
Yes it really was. It's funny our first WDW trip was in 2006 and we had free dining so we did ALL the character meals and it was TOO much and completely turned us off to them. This was I think our first one after that (yes 7 years later!). I think I now have found a balance. But yeah this breakfast was kind of like characterpoolza. Totally random but awesome!
10 - The outdoor teacups at DL are great ... except when it rains. On our first DL trip we dealt with a lot of rain and the teacups were down for much of our first (of 2) days ... so we had to go back to DL on the second day (even though we had planned to spend the whole day at DCA) to do the teacups. Although it ended up working out fine because DCA took us less time than we thought it would ... this was pre-Cars Land.
Rain at DL would be a complete bummer.
11 - The long lines at Toy Story in WDW kill me. My first time on TSM was at DL, where we were able to do it multiple times, so I hate that we can't really do it more than once in Florida.
12 - The tour looks cool (especially going into Club 33 & Walt's Apartment), but the technical issue surprises me a bit.
Yes we were surprised that it was so difficult to hear. He kept telling us to get closer but there are personal space boundaries.
13 - I *love* World of Color, but I'm not wild about the whole standing thing - it doesn't seem fair to those of us on the shorter end of the height spectrum. Not that I stood when I saw it ... I sat on the ground next to Beth's broken foot in the wheelchair section (they wanted me to stand behind her, but I refused - I sat on the ground instead ... but that's a different complaint entirely). And we also went for Starbucks before the show
We ended up seeing WOC on the last night (that I think I didn't get to in the TR). It was a better experience for me that night.
14 - I love that you got pixie dust for your Fantasmic spot! I definitely have to see Fantasmic next time I'm at DL ... I know I saw it in 2009 (I have pictures), but I don't remember it at all.
Fantasmic at Disneyland > Fantasmic at Disney World. Be sure to see it next time.
15 - I love that the logo on the first California Screamin picture from the last day has the Mickey head on the ride ... I miss the Mickey head. Going through a loop in front of a sun just isn't as fun.
Overall, it looks like you guys had a great time! I really love all of the character pictures ... I think I actually like characters better in DL because we see a lot more "spontaneous" characters, as opposed to WDW where everything is scheduled and in a specific place.
Reading through the whole report makes me want to go back to Disneyland! After 3 trips to WDW in a row, I miss my West Coast parks. I want to go back!!! (I'm really hoping to go back for a belated 30th birthday trip, but that won't be for almost a year and a half)
We did! We are planning to go back next summer. I miss it too!
Thanks for dragging this up and reading....and spending the time to comment. Sorry for the weird typos. I feel like they are possibly from the Disboards switch or at least some of them are. You're becoming my Disboards BFF.