For the first time in like ever I'm going to Disneyland a Nov 14 TR... updated 8/17

[petals]

No, I have not got started yet. I was away from the DIS a little over a month and only came back on Saturday. I have only started yesterday to download the photos and put them on Flickr. One memory card has been downloaded and put on Flickr. I am hoping to get a second one done today and also get started on the Photopass photos. I am planning on posting the first instalment of the trip report on Thursday.

Will watch out for it.

Amazon has fare prices on the the two Kingdom Keepers books. That is where I will get mine from.
Corinna

I only used Amazon for the first time the other day but will look them up on it.

 

[dolphingirl47]

What a pain that your mum's credit card was compromised.

Those Christmas decorations made me smile. I agree that given the timing, the stop at the Farmers Market was odd. It is a real shame that you did not get to stop at the La Brea Tar Pits. That would have made a lot more sense.

I love the Disneyland Hotel all decorated for Christmas.

Corinna

 

[petals]

What a pain that your mum's credit card was compromised.

I know but at least it was her credit card and not the debit card. With the credit card she doesn't have to pay back what they took and the bank are going to cancel the card and send her a new one. If it was the debit card I doubt she would be able to get the money back

Those Christmas decorations made me smile. I agree that given the timing, the stop at the Farmers Market was odd. It is a real shame that you did not get to stop at the La Brea Tar Pits. That would have made a lot more sense.

It was a kind of pointless stop at that stage plus with the size of it 30 minutes wasn't nearly long enough to be stopping there but sure the rest of the tour was good so it made up for it.

I love the Disneyland Hotel all decorated for Christmas.

I love all the Christmas decorations as well. They're all so pretty

 

[petals]

Day 3, part 4:

So we were wandering around The Disneyland hotel headed for dinner and if you haven’t guessed by now we were headed here for dinner:

I had read about it online and thought it sounded like a fun place to eat. I probably should have given Momma a little pre-warning about what to expect but then she tend to give out when I talk about Disney to much! Anyways it was kind of dark inside but the walls and ceiling were full of pictures and Tiki faces and random other bits and bobs that apparently Trader Sam is supposed to have collected on his travels or something of the sort:




This dude was hanging out of the ceiling and kind of gave me the creeps but the rest was all good!

Shortly after we sat down someone order the specialty drinks and well queue sound effects with drumming and shouting. Mother nearly leapt out of her seat. I laughed a lot. Then this waiter who had most definitely not taken his daily dose of CM happiness juice came over to take our order and while he was there another load of sound effects went off and this time we got rained on. Mother was just like what kind of mad house is this and why am I getting wet! Again I loled!

The food came we both got the Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich:

I got a Schweitzer Falls to drink. It said it was supposed to have “tropical juices” but it just tasted of pineapple:

Despite the grumpy waiter we thought the food was good and it was a fun and interesting little place to eat in. Before we left Trader Sams we took a bathroom break and I was laughing to Momma about how I thought perhaps I was a ghost because despite the warm weather out my hands were stone cold and in the bathrooms none of the hand dryers or towel dispensers were reacting to me. She turned around and was like no offence but you do look like one of the walking dead right now so it could be possible. After that little giggle we headed out under the Sorcerers hat:

The first thing we saw in Downtown Disney when we crossed the road was Olaf:

Giant Christmas tree in the middle of the ice-rink:

We wandered back through Downtown Disney towards our hotel stopping along the way for a lookie at a few shops. BEAST lego


While we were in Downtown Disney the fireworks started in the park and we stopped to watch them for a few minutes:

Continuing our browsing I found this in the pin shop and thought it was funny. Went back a few days later to get it:

And we obviously couldn’t pass World of Disney without a quick look as well:

We didn’t really stay to long in Downtown Disney as we had another full day planned to browse the shops there so we headed back to the hotel stopping along the way to get some drinks for the room and while we were in the shop I had my first ever nose bleed… lovely I know but I went into a bit of a panick and commented to Momma how this country was clearly not agreeing with me at all. We got back to the hotel and I just collapsed into the bed completely exhausted but happy that I went on the tour despite being sick.

Next up: A surfin good morning!

 

[KatMark]

Emma, great finish with the tour. Too bad you couldn't make your purchase at the Market though.

I am so sorry to hear about your Mom's Visa. That happened to me, but the charges were never put on my card because they were immediately suspicious (they gave me a new card right away).

Dinner looks really yummy.

I do like those Beauty & The Beast legos (I think DTD at DW needs to get some new ones).

That Chip and Dale pin is awesome...I want one as it suits my family perfectly.

 

[petals]

Emma, great finish with the tour. Too bad you couldn't make your purchase at the Market though.

It was a pity. I work in a supermarket and in the store I work in if other customers see a person behind them with one item when they have a trolley load they let the person go ahead. I was kinda hoping the two in front of me would do the same but nope

I am so sorry to hear about your Mom's Visa. That happened to me, but the charges were never put on my card because they were immediately suspicious (they gave me a new card right away).

There was 4 transactions went on to her card but the bank said there was about 6 or 8 more attempts to use it. Whoever it is obviously has a large appitite as well because one of the attempted charges was for 75 dollars in McDonalds... who spends 75 dollars in McDonalds like!

Dinner looks really yummy.

It was and I was surprised Momma liked it as well because she normally refers to that sort of food as "junk food." I loved Trader Sams and it's random noises when certain drinks were ordered as well.

I do like those Beauty & The Beast legos (I think DTD at DW needs to get some new ones).

Beast is like one of my favourite characters so I loved that lego. I have pictures from another day of more of DL's Lego figures. Will get to them eventually!

That Chip and Dale pin is awesome...I want one as it suits my family perfectly.

They had a t-shirt of that as well. I love the pin though

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am glad that you got your dinner at Trader Sam's. I love this place, but have never been inside. I only ever have sat on the patio. That pin is precious and I love your fireworks photos.

Corinna

 

[petals]

I am glad that you got your dinner at Trader Sam's. I love this place, but have never been inside. I only ever have sat on the patio. That pin is precious and I love your fireworks photos.

Corinna

Trader Sam's was one of the places recommended on the pre trip report so I'm glad we got to try it. It was funny inside with all the sound effects going off, Momma's reaction was nearly funnier than the sound effects though

 

[tksbaskets]

I'm glad you went on the tour too. What fun. My son is prone to spontaneous nose bleeds so I know how disturbing they can be.

Thanks for sharing your adventures!

 

[petals]

I'm glad you went on the tour too. What fun. My son is prone to spontaneous nose bleeds so I know how disturbing they can be.

I have anxiety issues anyway so just kind of panicked because it's never happened before and I didn't know what to do to stop it.

Thanks for sharing your adventures!

There's another 7 or so days to go yet... this report could take a while

 

[petals]

Stupid new Dis boards I can't title my post <sulks> I've been super over anxious lately and distracting myself making video bits from the Disney trip as I always do a few dozen dvd's of our trips lol! Thought I'd start the report for day 4 while I was at it.



Day 4, part 1:

Thursday, 20th of November

Today I was still sick although the voice was a bit better but had trouble getting up which resulted in us running a tiny bit behind time for where we needed to be. We decided we wouldn’t make it if we tried to walk so we ordered a taxi… yeah we’d have been quicker walking. We needed to be somewhere at the Paradise Pier hotel at 8 and the taxi showed up at… you guessed it 8!!! No worries we made it to the hotel and after stopping to take a quick picture of their Christmas decorations at the entrance:

We headed for here:

We checked in at 8.10! I got my picture taken with Mickey Mouse (Momma refused) and then we were seated!

Our server was Peter and he came over to take drink orders. I got Pineapple juice because he said the orange juice had pulp:

Momma got Cranberry juice and then we headed up to get food. When I was booking this breakfast I was a bit concerned about what they would have as the menu’s on any site I saw only seemed to have omelettes and stuff like that but no traditional breakfast foods but I need not have worried they had their omelette station as well as all the usual scrambled eggs, sausages, pastry’s, Mickey Waffles, Mickey pancakes. The food pictures are a bit blurry but Momma likes to take advantage of buffets so these three were her plates:

I have no idea what this is… Looks like some sort of porridge and doesn’t look to nice if you ask me but I don’t remember Momma complaining about it:

These were my plates:

And Muffins for breakfast again. I love you Disney:

While we were eating Goofy came to visit first.

Then Minnie:

I was admiring the ceiling and everything else lol. The ceiling reminded me a little of Toy Story with the little parachute guy:

Pretty pictures on the walls:

The characters at this meal seemed to rotate in twos. When Goofy and Minnie were out there was no sign of any other character and since my only reason for booking this breakfast was for Stitch I was not leaving until Stitch came to visit me. So we waited and eventually Pluto and Stitch came out. Pluto got a bit up close and personal with our camera lol:

Stitch was very close behind Pluto and at one point the two of them started fighting behind us. I believe it started when Pluto pulled Stitch’s tail and a CM had to come and tell them to behave! It was funny though. Eventually we saw Stitch as well:

While we were eating as well a CM came around to show us print outs of the pictures I got with Mickey Mouse. I had photopass plus anyway so all the photos would be on that but she popped the photos in a bag and handed them to us… I still don’t know if we were meant to pay extra for those but she never asked for money or mentioned that we should pay anyway. It took over an hour here to see all the characters because of the way they were rotating and by now we were stuffed and ready to leave so Momma asked for the bill. We got a little bit of a surprise to find that they include their tip in the price of your bill here, so the food came to 65.98 dollars for the two of us and they added on a 9.90 tip for themselves. We don’t mind tipping and did it in most places we ate in but were really not impressed that they included it in the price of the bill here.

They gave us a free button each with the meal as well, this made me happy because I love collecting the pins and buttons:

Before we left a little dance party started in one corner at the top of the room so I went to snap a quick few pictures of Stitch:

Poor Mickey was off dancing in a corner on his own. The rest of the characters were all over with Stitch:

While we were eating Momma decided she wanted a picture with Mickey as well since it was included with the photopass card anyway so while she was doing that I took another pic of the pastries:

Once we were done we headed in to check out some of the stuff in the hotel gift shop.

Nightmare before Christmas t-shirt:

I love all the ornaments and this one was fab but I could not justify spending 18 dollars on an ornament:

Then while Momma was on the phone to Ireland I took some pictures of the Paradise Pier Hotel’s Christmas tree:

Lots of fishy things and even the presents underneath were fishy themed:

Next up: It all started with a Rabbit!

 

[jenseib]

Your tour sounds fun, even if it wasn't exactly what you planned.
I never made it inside Trader Sams but took pictures all around. Are kids allowed in there? I would assume so, but I also know it's a bar, so that got me thinking.
Breakfast looks great and fun. I really want to go back and I wish my husband would decide when and where he wants to go so I can start some official planning.

 

[KatMark]

Stupid new Dis boards I can't title my post <sulks> I've been super over anxious lately and distracting myself making video bits from the Disney trip as I always do a few dozen dvd's of our trips lol! Thought I'd start the report for day 4 while I was at it.



Day 4, part 1:

Thursday, 20th of November

Today I was still sick although the voice was a bit better but had trouble getting up which resulted in us running a tiny bit behind time for where we needed to be. We decided we wouldn’t make it if we tried to walk so we ordered a taxi… yeah we’d have been quicker walking. We needed to be somewhere at the Paradise Pier hotel at 8 and the taxi showed up at… you guessed it 8!!! No worries we made it to the hotel and after stopping to take a quick picture of their Christmas decorations at the entrance:

This is very pretty.

We headed for here:

We checked in at 8.10! I got my picture taken with Mickey Mouse (Momma refused) and then we were seated!

I love Mickey's outfit.

Our server was Peter and he came over to take drink orders. I got Pineapple juice because he said the orange juice had pulp:

Momma got Cranberry juice and then we headed up to get food. When I was booking this breakfast I was a bit concerned about what they would have as the menu’s on any site I saw only seemed to have omelettes and stuff like that but no traditional breakfast foods but I need not have worried they had their omelette station as well as all the usual scrambled eggs, sausages, pastry’s, Mickey Waffles, Mickey pancakes. The food pictures are a bit blurry but Momma likes to take advantage of buffets so these three were her plates:

I have no idea what this is… Looks like some sort of porridge and doesn’t look to nice if you ask me but I don’t remember Momma complaining about it:

Guessing that is oatmeal.

These were my plates:

And Muffins for breakfast again. I love you Disney:

All the food looks yummy (well except the scrambled eggs...I don't eat scrambeled eggs).
While we were eating Goofy came to visit first.

Then Minnie:

I was admiring the ceiling and everything else lol. The ceiling reminded me a little of Toy Story with the little parachute guy:

Pretty pictures on the walls:

The characters at this meal seemed to rotate in twos. When Goofy and Minnie were out there was no sign of any other character and since my only reason for booking this breakfast was for Stitch I was not leaving until Stitch came to visit me. So we waited and eventually Pluto and Stitch came out. Pluto got a bit up close and personal with our camera lol:

Stitch was very close behind Pluto and at one point the two of them started fighting behind us. I believe it started when Pluto pulled Stitch’s tail and a CM had to come and tell them to behave! It was funny though. Eventually we saw Stitch as well:

Goofy & Minnie's outfits are adorable too; Stitch is a hoot (yep, the little guy has grown on me a bit).

While we were eating as well a CM came around to show us print outs of the pictures I got with Mickey Mouse. I had photopass plus anyway so all the photos would be on that but she popped the photos in a bag and handed them to us… I still don’t know if we were meant to pay extra for those but she never asked for money or mentioned that we should pay anyway. It took over an hour here to see all the characters because of the way they were rotating and by now we were stuffed and ready to leave so Momma asked for the bill. We got a little bit of a surprise to find that they include their tip in the price of your bill here, so the food came to 65.98 dollars for the two of us and they added on a 9.90 tip for themselves. We don’t mind tipping and did it in most places we ate in but were really not impressed that they included it in the price of the bill here.

That's weird about the pictures. Maybe it was included? Usually they don't add a tip unless it is a huge party.

They gave us a free button each with the meal as well, this made me happy because I love collecting the pins and buttons:

I just threw out a bunch of buttons.

Before we left a little dance party started in one corner at the top of the room so I went to snap a quick few pictures of Stitch:

Cute

Poor Mickey was off dancing in a corner on his own. The rest of the characters were all over with Stitch:

Poor Mickey

While we were eating Momma decided she wanted a picture with Mickey as well since it was included with the photopass card anyway so while she was doing that I took another pic of the pastries:

You are making me hungry

Once we were done we headed in to check out some of the stuff in the hotel gift shop.

I like the tree with the Disney ornaments

I have this...bought it on our Christmas trip in 2013.

Nightmare before Christmas t-shirt:

Still have never seen this movie.

I love all the ornaments and this one was fab but I could not justify spending 18 dollars on an ornament:

Then while Momma was on the phone to Ireland I took some pictures of the Paradise Pier Hotel’s Christmas tree:

Lots of fishy things and even the presents underneath were fishy themed:

Next up: It all started with a Rabbit!

Love all the decorations and ornaments...very pretty.

 

[petals]

Let's see if this works... The new Dis boards are hard work!

Your tour sounds fun, even if it wasn't exactly what you planned.

It was good. I didn't really mind that it didn't follow the plan except for the LaBrea Tar pits because I really wanted to see those after listening to the Dis Boards podcast about it. Oh well excuse to go back

I never made it inside Trader Sams but took pictures all around. Are kids allowed in there? I would assume so, but I also know it's a bar, so that got me thinking.

I dunno if kids are allowed inside. I didn't see any kids inside but there was loads of seating outside as well so surely they wouldn't refuse people with kids there if you're eating.

Breakfast looks great and fun. I really want to go back and I wish my husband would decide when and where he wants to go so I can start some official planning.

Breakfast was good. I love Stitch. We've no trip planned this year either. Momma wants to go to Spain for a week. I'm like but Mickey Mouse doesn't live in Spain

Guessing that is oatmeal.

I have no idea what it was. It doesn't look to pretty though lol!

All the food looks yummy (well except the scrambled eggs...I don't eat scrambeled eggs).

It was ok. The Mickey waffles, pancakes and muffins were the best. I don't really like eggs but scrambled eggs are the only way I will eat eggs.

Goofy & Minnie's outfits are adorable too; Stitch is a hoot (yep, the little guy has grown on me a bit).

I loved the surf theme and Stitch is one of my favourite characters. Most of the meet and greets we've been to with him are great. This Stitch was a little dull at the table but he made up for it around the area playing with Pluto and stuff like that.

That's weird about the pictures. Maybe it was included? Usually they don't add a tip unless it is a huge party.

I actually still don't know if they were meant to be included or if the CM was new or something and didn't know they were to be paid for. She was gone by the time we finished eating and there was a different one going around with photos and she wasn't handing everyone theres to keep like. There was only 2 of us so don't know why he included the tip either. We would have tipped anyway but maybe not that much because he wasn't around after he brought our drinks like.

I just threw out a bunch of buttons.

Next time you want to throw out buttons throw them in my direction I have a box full of pins on cards and buttons and another box full of scrappers (fake pins) and another box full of pins with no cards, then a few dozen lanyards full of pins... I may have to much Disney merchandise!

Poor Mickey

I know I kinda wanted to go dance with him. He was all alone in a corner with just a serious looking CM standing near him.

Still have never seen this movie.

I only watched it in October with my nephew before the trip because I wanted to see if it was to scary for me to handle the Holiday Haunted Mansion. I'm a big baby really.

Love all the decorations and ornaments...very pretty.

I love the resorts and parks done up for Christmas. Not sure I could visit any other time of year. Don't think the castles in particular would compare well lol

 

[petals]

Day 4, part 2:


So when I left you we were checking out a fishy looking Christmas tree at the Paradise Pier hotel:

Lookie the giant seashells someone left in Santa’s chair:

Once Momma got off the phone to Ireland we headed towards the parks. We passed the Grand Californian along the way:

And on through a very quiet Downtown Disney:

Then we got to the entrance gates. Today we were going to Disney’s California Adventure. They were already open so not too many people waiting to get in.

Once inside we grabbed a map and started planning the day... well I started planning the day and the first thing I wanted to do was meet a certain Rabbit who took Duffy’s place in the park! (I was not bitter about that at all!) I asked a CM where he would be and then waited in the general area. I think I ended up being like 3rd or 4th in line but I did get to see the one who started it all and was then stolen so got replaced by a mouse… Oswald, the lucky Rabbit.

He was cute and it was a fun meet so I forgave him for taking Duffy’s place in the park as well. After that we wandered up through the shops. I was on the search for a Duffy pillow pal and we hadn’t seen them anywhere yet but I had heard that one of the shops on Buena Vista street was pretty much the hope of pillow pals… they didn’t have Duffy either though.

We wandered in Elias and Co. and Santy was sitting there all on his lonesome so I went up to get some pics with him:

His elf gave me a Candy Cane as I left as well:

Back outside we stopped to get pictures of the Giant Christmas tree:

Walt’s barn underneath the tree:

Red car trolley:

We got photopass pictures taken here as well. I said to Momma as we were talking that morning that because the first day we only found 5 photopass photographers that today I wanted to stop at every single one we saw because the card was prepaid anyway. So far today we had managed to use it at breakfast, at Oswald, Santa and in front of the Christmas tree so things were certainly looking better in California Adventure photopass wise. We went around the other side of the tree and found another photopass photographer in front of these guys:

So of course we stopped for photos and we got one of my favourite photopass pictures of the trip here. I’m not allowed share it on the dis but it’s on my facebook for anyone that wants to see. Momma didn’t know who the guy with the hat was so the first picture the photopass guy got was me smiling at the camera and Momma looking at the guy with the hat with a big confused looking face on her. When we walked away from the photographer she actually went “who’s yer man with the hat.” I told her she needed to get out of the Disney park immediately lol!

We also found a photopass photographer in front of the fountain across from Carthay Circle so stopped there as well… It wasn’t even 11 o’clock and we’d already found more photographers than the entire day in the other park lol! Pictures all taken we headed off in the direction of the Grizzly river run not for the ride but for fast passes to World of Colour. There was no line for those so it was quick and simple and we had fast passes for the Blue section.

While we were in the area we wandered around taking some pics:

As we were wandering around here we noticed a few people had buttons from the Critter Breakfast we had done on our first Disney morning. We hadn’t been given any buttons there and I was kind of sad about that because I love collecting the buttons and pins and stuff. We wandered into this shop to have a look on our travels:

They had a boat full of plushies! I need a boat full of plushies:

Before we left I stopped to pin trade with a CM at the front of the shop. She saw my 1st visit button and the button from the Surf’s up Breakfast on the lanyard so was asking if we enjoyed breakfast and what not and then gave Momma and I a happily ever after button each because it was our first day in Disney California Adventure and she also gave me a map of all the pressed penny locations around the resort. After that little touch of pixie dust we continued on our way praising the CM as the best one we’d met yet. We passed Kenai and Koda:

Then this sign:

The CM nearby said that Dug wouldn’t be out for another hour and Momma was whinging about us not having “done anything” yet so we didn’t wait around for Dug. We continued on our way heading towards “something to do”:

And our first ride was:

Next up: We go under the sea!

 

[KatMark]

Emma, we were out of town for the weekend seeing the kids and I'm trying to catch up.

I loved the seashells on Santa's chair.

Beautiful Christmas Tree, and Olaf's Ice Skating spot is just perfect.

Beautiful pictures as you walked around the park looking for your characters. Too funny mom did NOT know who was in the statue.

 

[luulu1999]

all character meal print outs are included with the photopass + so if you did other character meals you should have got them also

 

[luulu1999]

The little mermaid is one of our family faves!! It doesn't ever have a line and its nice and cool when its hot outside!!

 

[RHMH]

Love the updates.

I am like your Mom. As soon as we enter the park, I am ready to start DOING!!!!!

Your trip report has Midori and I wanting to go during the Christmas Holidays.

Ready for Under The Sea !!!

 

[petals]

Oh new disboards confuses me so. I was watching alerts for response didn't see any so thought there was none

This week has been super busy and I wanted to get another update in during the week but ran out of time between work, show rehearsals and other stuff. Good news I got a burst of new piano students.
Those of you on fb will also know I had a video in a valentine comp in tribute to my dad. It won the public vote and then came second in the adults section after sponsor votes.

Emma, we were out of town for the weekend seeing the kids and I'm trying to catch up.

Hope you had a fun weekend.

I loved the seashells on Santa's chair.

I was wondering if Santa wore them when he came to sit in the chair

Beautiful Christmas Tree, and Olaf's Ice Skating spot is just perfect.

I love all the Christmas trees and Olaf he's so funny, you just can't help smiling looking at him.

Beautiful pictures as you walked around the park looking for your characters. Too funny mom did NOT know who was in the statue.

Omg did you see that picture on my facebook. It is the funniest. I had no idea that the photopass photographer caught that moment and when I saw it on the account afterwards I laughed so much. I still laugh at it. She said she knew she should recognise who he was but he looked so different from the statue in the other park she just couldn't figure it out. Poor Momma

all character meal print outs are included with the photopass + so if you did other character meals you should have got them also

I did not know this. I knew the pictures went on the card I didn't know we also got a print out. That alone nearly makes the photopass+ worth the cost

The little mermaid is one of our family faves!! It doesn't ever have a line and its nice and cool when its hot outside!!

The Little Mermaid is one of my favourite Disney movies. When I was little I wanted to be Ariel because she got to sing Part of your World

Love the updates.
I am like your Mom. As soon as we enter the park, I am ready to start DOING!!!!!

Thanks. She doesn't get wandering taking photos. She's like why am I not on a ride. She thinks if we're not doing a ride, watching a show or eating that there's nothing to do in the park

Your trip report has Midori and I wanting to go during the Christmas Holidays.

You should. It's so pretty there during the Christmas Season.

Ready for Under The Sea !!!

I hope to get that done soon. Maybe later tonight or tomorrow.