UPDATED- Diamond/Halloween Trip 2015- TR

[MyWndrlnd]

UPDATED- to be taken to the TR in the post below, scroll down or click HERE.

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Wow, I haven't been on the Disboards in a while and I returned to find it all new and different! It took me a second to figure out where everything was but I think I've got it now, so on with the show!

The Cast
Me: Brooke, 29 year old Disneyland addict.
A: 29 year old Disneyland addict

We went during the holiday season in the photo above and I LOVED the Christmas colors everywhere!

We've been going annually to Disneyland together since we were 16 and have known each other since we were 12. She is really the only person I know who shares my fanatical obsession with Disneyland.

The Backstory/Costs
I was planning a trip to see family down in SoCal this October and I (being the Disneyland addict that I am) couldn't help but notice that I would be only a 2 hour car ride away from the parks. Common sense told me not to go since BF and I are going to be buying a new car to accommodate our recently expanded fur-family (we adopted two giant pups after fostering the entire litter from the local shelter- see pics below) and the pups plus our current beagle are too much for my small car. On top of that, I am currently working to get a side business off the ground so that is lightening my wallet a fair amount for the next few months.

I was talking to BF about this and telling him I wasn't going to go, but he encouraged me to since I had been working so hard. So, being the dutiful GF I am, I of course listened to him! I'm doing it all for him .

So now, what was a Fri-Sun trip has turned into a Fri-Wed trip and I am meeting my best friend and fellow Disneyland addict "A" for a 3-day trip to the park after my visit with family! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Since A just moved into a new place and I have the financial considerations mentioned above, we are doing this on the cheap. I've included info/prices below for anyone who is looking for some cheap options/tips.

We are staying at the Clarion Hotel, the same place BF and I stayed last December (read that TR HERE). The hotel is nothing to write home about but it is close to the parks, cheap, and the staff are super nice. We got all 3 nights for $290 (taxes included) with parking and breakfast included. This is a great price for being less than a mile from the parks! I booked the hotel through Get Away Today, I've done a few packages with them and LOVE their service and their prices.

I get a discount on Disneyland tickets through my health insurance (of all things!) so we are doing 3-day 1 park/day tickets for $211 each. We normally do park hoppers but couldn't justify the additional $80 for us to upgrade our tickets. Especially since one of the days we are there Disneyland closes at 6pm for Mickey's Halloween Party (that is going to be a DCA day).

I also got my flight really cheap on JetBlue. The flight into LGB was only $148 and I had a $50 credit so I only paid $98 for the round trip ticket. I was really happy with that one.


The Plan
Friday-Sunday AM: Fly down and visit family
Sunday AM/PM: Pick up rental car and drive to LGB to pick up A
Sunday PM: Check into hotel, return rental car, spend rest of the day in Disneyland (yay for 12am closing time!)
Monday: DCA
Tuesday: Disneyland
Wednesday AM: Meet up with other family members for breakfast/lunch
Wednesday PM: Fly home

Photos From Previous Trips
We've gone many times over the years. Here are some photos from past trips!

The year of our annual passes. I miss those so much!

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Holiday Haunted Mansion. I can't wait to see it during our trip this year, especially now that the hat box ghost has returned!

I'll update this once our trip has happened.

Puppy Pictures! (Sorry these are huge, Photobucket is making them blurry when I re-size them to a smaller size...)

Happy Puppies!

My beagle boy

They were so small when we fostered them! Our large boy is nearly 6 months and 55+ lbs...he is the puppy 2nd from the left in this picture!

 

[MyWndrlnd]

I'm back! The trip was interesting for personal reasons, but Disneyland was as amazing as ever! I figure rather than giving a blow-by-blow of the trip, it would be better to list out some important/interesting info and then just upload photos. So here it goes...

Interesting Info

• There was an auto show going on at the convention center on Sunday when we arrived. Traffic was HORRIBLE! Katella was so congested that only 1 or 2 cars per green light made it through the intersection and Harbor had road work going on that shrunk the southbound lanes from 3 to 1. It was a nightmare. There were traffic cops directing cars but that ended up just making things worse because they were waving on cars turning right on a red while cars with a green left arrow were trying to make a u-turn, which nearly caused several accidents in succession. I was very happy when we returned the rental car after checking in and only needed to walk from there on out.
• The Diamond Anniversary decorations are BEAUTIFUL. I loved seeing the castle.
• The new fireworks show at Disneyland is amazing! We staked out a spot just to the left of the castle on the edge of the sidewalk that surrounds the hub. It was a great spot because we had a clear shot of both the castle and the Matterhorn (which is incorporated into the fireworks show). However, it seems the fireworks were shot off just left of the castle rather than dead center so some of them were hidden behind trees. The only thing I would do differently is try to find a spot dead center or just a bit right of the castle.
• There were A LOT of ride breakdowns. More than I have ever experienced in any other visit. It actually became a running joke that we must have angered the Disney Gods because every time we got in line for a ride (or even walked past it- no joke!) it broke down. Most of these were back up within 10-15 minutes but a few completely closed, including: Space Mountain, Pirates, and Matterhorn.
• They started trying out new FastPass technology at Space Mountain while we were there. It wasn't being used on Wednesday morning and then Wednesday afternoon it just appeared. There were 3 corporate people observing park guests (us included) using the machine as we returned for our FastPass time and they seemed pleased with it, so we might be seeing this new technology in more places around the park very soon. The machine wasn't anything fancy, it was just a little free standing box with a scanner that read your FastPass barcode.
• We spent time in Toontown and watched the Aladdin show since both of those are slated to be removed from the parks soon. I believe Aladdin is running through early January before being replaced with a Frozen themed show, so if you're going down before then I highly recommend you see it before it is gone. I'm not sure when Toontown will be closed but the new Star Wars themed land will be using that space, so I imagine it won't be around much longer. There isn't much to do in that land as far as rides go, but I always loved the look of it and I am sad to see it go.
• Ursula's Grotto in DCA's Animation Building is gone! I was so bummed to find this out. Now, when you go through the Sorcerer's Workshop and into the Beast's Library, there is a solid wall where you once moved into Ursula's Grotto. When I asked about it they said it was closed to make room for other things, so I'm guessing it is closed for good. Since the room within the Animation Building that had the spinning claymation/animation thing with the strobe light is now gone and replaced by a Frozen meet-and-greet, I am wondering if the meet and greet area was expanded into Ursula's Grotto and that is why it is shut down... Why can't they just let Frozen go? (Pun intended). It is EVERYWHERE and taking over EVERYTHING. I like the movie but darnit, I like other Disney stuff too and would like to see those things as well!
• The Paint The Night Parade was really impressive. Honestly, it is just an updated version of the Electrical Parade (which I loved!) but still very fun to watch. We saw it twice, once right up close and a second time further away. I recommend seeing it for a distance because there were a lot of things I missed sitting right next to the parade that I noticed the second time around.
• Photo Spots were set up in honor of the Diamond Anniversary. They were really cool and we did everyone we came across. The one negative I have about this is that the photographers stationed there were very hit or miss as far as integrity goes. One guy at the Haunted Mansion spot DELETED PHOTOS FROM MY PHONE!!! Yes, you read that right. He deleted some of the photos he took from my phone without my permission. Some of the photographers were great and were more than happy to take some awesome photos using our own camera but others were the exact opposite and took lazy photos that were very poorly framed. I am guessing that this was done to encourage us to buy the official photos from Disneyland but it left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I posted photos from these spots below for you to compare the quality between photographers.

The entrance. I love the diamond in Mickey's bow tie.

The castle during the day.

The castle at night. Sorry it is fuzzy, I forgot my camera so I had to take all my photos with my phone.

BTMRR Photo Spot. The photographer was awesome and so sweet!

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Matterhorn Photo Spot. This photographer was really nice but I was bummed to discover none of the photos were framed correctly.

The WORST Photo Spot photographer we experienced! He only left this one photo on my phone and deleted the rest without permission. And worst yet- the photo sucks!

Hidden Mickey! It is located at the entrance of the Sorcerer's Workshop in DCA! I wish I could claim we found it ourselves but a cast member told us about it which prompted our search.

A Photo Spot near the Little Mermaid ride in DCA. This photographer was super fun and nice. He took a ton of photos with my phone.

Paradise Pier in DCA.

LOVE this photo of the partner's statue and the castle at night!

 

[superkick555]

I love your captain america shirt and most of those photo spot pics turned out ok imo

 

[MyWndrlnd]

I love your captain america shirt and most of those photo spot pics turned out ok imo

Thank you! I got the shirt at Ross for $8! I actually got both that and the red Mickey shirt on the same trip to Ross and both were under $10 so I was pretty excited about that.

Yeah, I was pretty happy with most of the photos and photographers at the photo spots, and having them available just added a little more of that Disney magic to the trip. But when the cast member at the Haunted Mansion deleted photos from my phone I was very upset with this. I of course was mature about it and didn't make a huge fuss about it but I felt like that was a huge violation.