"Does this ride have drops?" March 2015 TR *NEW* 1/17 COMPLETE - Final Thoughts

[khertz]

"Does this ride have drops?" A March 2015 Disneyland Adventure​

Hello, friends, and welcome to my newest TR! Although this is now my 10th TR on the DIS, it is only the third I have ever done for Disneyland. Our family is made up of three hardcore Disney fans who love visiting WDW any time we can, but we absolutely fell in love with Disneyland when we visited for the first time 3 years ago. But maybe I am getting ahead of myself. Some of you may not even know who we are!

DL 02-065 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

That’s us!

I’m your narrator and also wife and mom to the two awesome guys with me. When I’m not dreaming of or planning a Disney trip, I am working as a pediatric oncology nurse to earn enough to pay for said trips! Normally, I do my WDW favorites to kick of a TR, but here’s my DL favorites list:

Park: Disneyland Park
Ride: Radiator Springs Racers, Pirates of the Caribbean
Restaurant: The Plaza
Character: Rapunzel
Show: Mickey and the Magical Map & For the First Time in Forever Frozen Singalong
Nighttime Entertainment: World of Color​

Along for the ride with me was DH, who is responsible for 95% of the photography you will find in this TR. He is an engineer by trade, but like me, loves looking forward to our next Disney trip. He actually started the love affair we now all have with Disneyland. Several years ago, he was in California for work and had a day off, so he decided to go to Disneyland. I was jealous, of course, but he loved it so much he couldn’t wait to take us back so we could all experience it together, and that is what prompted our first trip in 2012 as a family.

Park: Disneyland Park
Ride: Radiator Springs Racers,
Restaurant: Golden Horseshoe
Character: Donald Duck
Show: Mickey and the Magical Map
Nighttime Entertainment: World of Color​

Last but certainly not least is DS. He is about 4.5 years old, and he has been raised to be a huge Disney lover like his parents! This is his second Disneyland trip, but he has been to WDW 4 times. He is a huge fan of Cars, so DH and I were very excited to show him Carsland for the first time! Normally, he is my countdown partner before every trip, but this time around, we decided to surprise him and not tell him where we were going! He is also the inspiration behind the title, as DH and I heard that question before almost every single ride! Being so familiar with the attractions at WDW, he definitely had a fear of what he considered the "unknown" at Disneyland, which made for, shall we say, an interesting trip.

Park: Both of them
Ride: Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, Disneyland Railroad, Roger Rabbit’s Toon Car Spin
Restaurant: None of them! Lol
Character: Lightning McQueen
Show: Disney Jr. Live on Stage
Nighttime Entertainment: Fantasmic​

Also along for the ride was our soon-to-come DD who will be meeting the world in August! I have done a long weekend at WDW while pregnant, but this was the first time tackling a week-long Disney vacation while pregnant. I was only about 17 weeks along, so not heavily pregnant, but enough that it made the trip quite different than I was used to!

Our trip dates were February 28th-March 7th. We stayed the entire week at our nearby timeshare resort, Wyndham Dolphin’s Cove. We had many discussions of what kind of ticket media we should buy, and tossed around the idea of both a Disneyland AP and a Premier AP, but ultimately we decided just to go with a 5 day park hopper. For our “6th day” activity, we drove to Legoland for the day.

Unfortunately, we ended up missing out on a lot of favorites due to a lot of attractions being down for refurb in anticipation of the 60th anniversary, most especially devastating being World of Color. But with the points we had left for the timeshare, it was really the only week we could make it happen. Just more reason to plan another trip again soon! But before we start worrying about the next one, let’s delve into this one.

 

[khertz]

Chapter Links

Saturday February 28th
Day 1: Getting on West Coast Time​

Sunday March 1st
Day 2 Part 1: Just Around the Corner is a Fantasyland
Day 2 Part 2: Please Stand Clear of the Doors
Day 2 Part 3: Life Is a Highway
Day 2 Part 4: Part Of Your World
Day 2 Part 5: Off to the Races
Day 2 Part 6: It's Tough to Be a Bug
Day 2 Part 7: It's A Small World After All
Day 2 Part 8: Double the Dark Rides
Day 2 Part 9: And Really Bad Eggs
Day 2 Part 10: Nighttime in Disneyland

Monday March 2nd
Day 3 Part 1: Taking over Tomorrowland
Day 3 Part 2: Mickey's Toontown
Day 3 Part 3: Please Keep Your Hands, Arms, Feet, and Tentacles Inside the Taxi
Day 3 Part 4: Outta Control Tractors
Day 3 Part 5: Countdown to Fun!
Day 3 Part 6: Life Could Be A Dream, Sweetheart​

Tuesday March 3rd
Day 4 Part 1: Goofy's Kitchen
Day 4 Part 2: Disneyland Hotel
Day 4 Part 3: Rootin' Tootin' Shootin'
Day 4 Part 4: For the First Time In Forever
Day 4 Part 5: A Pirate's Life For Me
Day 4 Part 6: Just The Two Of Us
Day 4 Part 7: The Dating Game

Wednesday March 4th
Day 5 Part 1: Everything Is Awesome!
Day 5 Part 2: Cruisin' In the Sky
Day 5 Part 3: A Three Hour Tour
Day 5 Part 4: Castle Hill
Day 5 Part 5: The Race Is On!
Day 5 Part 6: Dreams Do Come True in New Orleans
Day 5 Part 7: Viva Las Vegas
Day 5 Part 8: Sea Life Aquarium

Thursday March 5th
Day 6 Part 1: Magic Morning
Day 6 Part 2: It's Time to Set Sail For Adventure
Day 6 Part 3: Meeting the Big Cheese
Day 6 Part 4: Come Inside, It's Fun Inside
Day 6 Part 5: Naples
Day 6 Part 6: Make It Blue!
Day 6 Part 7: A Nightmare Fantasmic​

Friday March 6th
Day 7 Part 1: Fantasyland Fun
Day 7 Part 2: Are You Sure You're Not a Pirate?
Day 7 Part 3: Welcome Foolish Mortals
Day 7 Part 4: Toonin' Around Toowntown
Day 7 Part 5: Who's the Leader of the Club That's Made For You & Me?
Day 7 Part 6: Mickey & the Magical Map
Day 7 Part 7: It's Soundsational!
Day 7 Part 8: Fish!
Day 7 Part 9: See Ya Real Soon, Disneyland


Final Thoughts​

 

[darcie2000]

looking forward to reading

 

[saintstickets]

You knew I'd go along for the ride!! Can't wait!

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

Can't wait to follow along!

 

[skier_pete]

Looking forward to it. We are heading to DLR next February for our third time, but still don't feel like we know it like WDW, so always excited to read about others visits! Plus your son is such a cutie!

 

[Dugette]

Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[marDgreen88]

I'm definitely in! I'm so excited about this one! DISNEYLAAAAAND

 

[kaoden39]

Hi,

I'm along for the ride!

 

[Nermel9]

I'm here, looking forward to a Disneyland TR!!

 

[hokieinpa]

Following along! Excited to read about your trip and Legoland! We just got back from Legoland Florida so I'm excited to see how they compare!

 

[Imagineer5]

Yay! I am here and following along!!

 

[jhoannam]

Excited to read!

 

[wiscbugs]

Love your reports....didn't know you went to Disneyland back in Feb/Mar...that's awesome. We went to Disneyworld over Mar/Apr and are leaving for Disneyland in just over 30 days...probably our only time we will get to go to both in one year!

 

[khertz]

looking forward to reading

Welcome along!

You knew I'd go along for the ride!! Can't wait!

Woo hoo! Glad to see you here, Bill!

Can't wait to follow along!

I'm happy to have you!

Looking forward to it. We are heading to DLR next February for our third time, but still don't feel like we know it like WDW, so always excited to read about others visits! Plus your son is such a cutie!

This was our third time, and I feel the same way. I still get a little lost sometimes trying to get around Adventureland/New Orleans Square! Thank you, he is definitely a keeper

Can't wait to hear all about it!

So glad you're here!

I'm definitely in! I'm so excited about this one! DISNEYLAAAAAND

Yay! Happy to see you, Marissa!

Hi,

I'm along for the ride!

Welcome aboard!

I'm here, looking forward to a Disneyland TR!!

So glad to see you!

Following along! Excited to read about your trip and Legoland! We just got back from Legoland Florida so I'm excited to see how they compare!

I'd be interested to know too, so you'll have to let me know once I get to those updates!

Yay! I am here and following along!!

Yay! So glad to see you!

Excited to read!

Thanks & Welcome!

Love your reports....didn't know you went to Disneyland back in Feb/Mar...that's awesome. We went to Disneyworld over Mar/Apr and are leaving for Disneyland in just over 30 days...probably our only time we will get to go to both in one year!

Hey you never know. The first time we did it, we were never supposed to do them both in one year again, but the opportunity presented itself and it will be another 2 US parks in 1 year for us this year!!

 

[khertz]

Day 1: Saturday February 28th

Our adventure starts bright and early at 5 am on a cold Saturday morning in February. If you have read any of my previous TR’s, you might remember that we always find it worth it to make the 2 hour drive to New Orleans either the night before or the day of our flight to fly out for our trips. But this time, we decided to do things a little differently. Usually we choose to fly out of Louis Armstrong International because we can get better and/or cheaper flight options, including flying direct to most places we want to go. This trip, in researching flights we found out that flights out of our small local airport were the same prices as the direct flights to Los Angeles from New Orleans, and we would actually get in sooner, which appealed to us. Plus, it was kind of nice to think we would only have a 5 minute drive to the airport instead of 2 hours!

Once we made it there, it didn’t take us long to check in for our flight and get upstairs to the second level where we could go through security and board the flight. We only had just enough time for me to take DS for a pit stop before we were allowed to board with family boarding. The plane was tiny, with the seat configuration being one seat on one side and two seats across the aisle. DH sat alone while I sat beside DS for the very short flight to Houston. After landing in Houston, we only had enough time to gather up our stuff and trek across the airport to board our second flight, which was already boarding when we arrived. I was kind of nervous about not having time to stop for food but hoped we’d packed enough snacks to get us through.

This was our long leg of the flight, and luckily it was a lot more comfortable! Large seats, and free in-flight entertainment of movies and tv shows.

Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

DS had already started watching a movie and couldn’t even be bothered to make his eyes face the camera! Lol I didn’t blame him, there was a large list of Disney movies to choose from, so that’s what he watched for almost the entire flight. There was no in flight snack service, so I was pretty much miserable during the time I wasn’t sleeping. It had been a long time since breakfast! It made for a not-so-pleasant landing, especially because it was very bumpy. But we had made it to LAX! We collected our bags and made our way outside to catch a shuttle to Dollar to pick up our rental car. We kept an eye out for somewhere to stop for food along the way, but that was kind of a bust. We didn’t want to go to far out of our way and risk getting lost, so we stuck with our directions to get to our resort in Anaheim.

I was supposed to be the navigator, but I was doing a pretty poor job reading and understanding the directions once we had gotten off of the interstate, and DH was getting a little annoyed with me. But suddenly I recognized where we were from last trip and said, “Ooh, I think there’s a Jack-In-The-Box down this street!” That made him crack up as he said, “Seriously? You couldn’t give me the directions 10 seconds ago, but now you know where the Jack-In-The-Box is?”

We decided to stop there for lunch and went through the drive thru because DS had fallen asleep on the ride down. We got him some food and he woke up shortly after we parked to eat. After stuffing ourselves silly, we drove the few minutes to our resort, Wyndham Dolphin’s Cove. We checked in and luckily, our room was already available! We were on the first floor this time, which was good for me because there are no elevators there. We were actually in the same building we had been in on our previous stay there, so we knew our way around that part of the resort well.

After unpacking, I had a splitting headache, probably from getting up so early and going so long without eating, so I laid down on the couch for a bit while DH took DS to look around the resort. After a little doze, I felt better and we all got freshened up. We made a quick stop at Target for groceries, and once we had put them all away at the room, we went to Downtown Disney for the evening.

DL 01-001 by disneymom1024, on Flickr ​

When we entered DTD, the first thing that caught DS’s attention was outside of the Lego Store. Not only were there huge Lego statues out front, but there was also a table where a CM was directing Lego car races! Of course, he immediately wanted to build one to race.

DL 01-002 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


DL 01-003 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


DL 01-004 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


DL 01-005 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

He got a little assistance from Daddy to make an aerodynamic car to win the race.

DL 01-006 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


DL 01-007 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


DL 01-008 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


DL 01-010 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Of course, one race wasn’t enough, so we stood around while he did a few more. He was really having a blast!

DL 01-011 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


DL 01-012 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

But eventually we coaxed him to go inside and see the rest of the Lego masterpieces. Of course, then he found the Duplo play area and wanted to spend his life there, but we indulged him for a little while. He had been so great for such a long travel day, he deserved the break!

DL 01-013 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We walked in and out of a couple more shops before ending up at the World of Disney store. DS and I headed inside while DH went to one of the park ticket windows to exchange our vouchers for tickets so we wouldn’t have to worry about that in the morning.

by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

DS and I spent a nice long time in there, just wandering around and looking at things we might want to buy. Of course, he wanted pretty much everything, especially if it was a toy, but he did okay when I told him we weren’t buying anything right this minute. Eventually DH finished up and found us in the store and we decided to head out. We thought we might have dinner at Earl of Sandwich since it was the last thing we’d get to before the car, but it was starting to sprinkle as we walked and we didn’t want to get caught out in the rain, so we just went out to the car and back to the resort instead.

We looked through the book they provide of local restaurants and online for something to be delivered, but the search ended abruptly when DH found a Little Caesar’s around the block. He is a sucker for Hot ‘n Ready pizzas! He went out and picked up some pizza and Crazy Bread for dinner, and after we ate, we all got bathed and ready for bed. We were all so exhausted that all three of us went to bed for 8:30 that night! Overall, it had been one of our better and less stressful travel days, and we were so excited to have a week of Disneyland fun ahead of us!

UP NEXT: Welcome to Disneyland!

 

[kaoden39]

I love the Lego store! Legos capture everyone's imagination and that's fun. I look forward to more!

 

[marDgreen88]

Oh my gosh, this is already making me so happy. I just got back from my first trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago and I'm missing it like crazy! I passed that Lego store approximately 23,000 times throughout the week and ahhh. Never thought a few pics of Legos could make me so happy.

Anyways... so glad to hear it was such a successful travel day! Between the end of your ABD trip and the beginning of your DL trip, it seems like poor y'all always end up starving on planes!

 

[hokieinpa]

I'm glad your travel day was as stress free as possible! I'm sorry about the lack of food though - that is rough especially when you're pregnant!

It looks like DS had fun at the Lego store! All of the boys could spend hours in there!

 

[skier_pete]

Those Lego car racing stands pretty much suck in every kid that passes by. It's one of those things that makes you think "Why exactly do I spend $1000s of dollars for this vacation?" You can just go to the Lego store for hours!

How long is the flight from Houston to LAX? I picture about 3 hours. Sounds like you didn't pack enough snacks! We usually have to fly through Chicago, which is about 4.5 hours from Chicago. (The whole trip from BUF to LAX is about 8-10 hours depending on layover.) It's actually kind of neat that we are going to fly in Phoenix instead next year, because then we have a direct flight. It's 5 hours out (4 hours back), but that still beats 8-10. The direct flight also limits the affect of winter weather to one city.