His company pays the airfare and is fine with him delaying his flight home (and leaving from a different airport) to go to Disneyland. We had enough credit card points to get two free flights, which will get Izzy and I to and from CA with one free checked bag each, a $25 in-flight credit each (free snacks!), and free in-flight wifi. Not bad at all. Total air travel costs = $0.
Can't pass up a deal like that!
And everyone says you don’t need that much time to do everything in Disneyland – heck, we can’t even buy more than 5-day park-hoppers – so, Feb. 5-10th it is!
They're right. But I was also told that 3 days is longer than we could have possibly needed. And I easily could have filled a couple more days. Granted, we did almost everything there is to do and a few things multiple times. But several things were closed and we did miss out on a few things. I think 5 days is ideal because you will have time to do everything and you should be able to do so without feeling too rushed. It will be especially nice having that cushion with the parks being so crowded!
The logistics of getting us together were a bit tricky, but this is how it sits for now: Dug will get a ride to the Palm Springs airport on Friday morning and pick up a rental car (about $80 for the day, maybe less if we get a better deal).
That's not bad at all. When I looked into this last year, they were going to charge me $100 in addition to the regular rental fee just to drop off at DTD and then another $100 in addition to the rental fee to pick up there and drop off at John Wayne airport. I just kept our car all week and paid parking. Basically... I'm saying it sounds like you found a pretty good deal. Nicely done!
An additional bonus is free breakfast for those mornings that we don’t have one booked. No need to bring our egg cooker.
A free breakfast is always a nice perk.
The big plus is being just across the street from the parks, though. I can see that helping us make the most of the time we do have – arriving early/on time and having a quick walk back after.
That will be a huge benefit! It looks like the Best Western is just as close if not closer to the Esplanade entrances than GCH.
We will all have 5-day park-hopper tickets (ugh, even have to buy one for Izzy now!)
That sucks, doesn't it?
We are bummed that the Aladdin musical ends a few weeks before our trip, but we’ll manage.
I'm sorry you're going to miss this one! I really enjoyed that show!
Jungle Cruise is showing as down from 1/11-4/2. We’d like to ride it, but at least it’s not a lot different that WDW (I don’t think?)
Um... well, not a lot different. There are some subtle differences in it that I'm sure you'd appreciate, but this isn't a make or break type of thing.
But the ones we are really worried about are the Haunted Mansion (1/11-4/2) and Soarin’ (1/4-6/2)
What?? They were down for a significant refurb just last year!!! We missed both of them when we went last winter!
Also, hoping that Small World will be open for that same reason (removing holiday overlay). So, keep your fingers crossed on those ones.
I hope you can ride it. We were there in mid-January last year and rode Small World twice over our 3 days. The holiday overlay was still up, but in the process of coming down. It looked like they were just taking it down little by little at night as we could notice changes between our rides.
I will still need to figure out some attraction strategies, I’m sure, but 4.5 days of park time should help us get our must-dos accomplished with minimal stress. Again, I hope.
I’m thinking we’ll want to grab some Fast Passes for something – whatever would still be available.
And don't be afraid to park jump for them!
But we could change our minds. I actually have a “backup” Aladdin’s To-Go Paint the Night package dinner reserved this night…just in case.
I'll speak on behalf of the Aladdin meal. We got it for Fantasmic and I thought the food was very good and actually seemed to be a pretty good bargain for the money. I wasn't so happy with the spots they gave us for Fantasmic though. I'd recommend this meal, but make sure you do your research and know where the viewing spots will be.
I don’t think we need to be there right at rope drop, though, as we should be able to pick up FP for RSR for later or do single rider (or both).
Ok, I had to use that one given the release of the new movie this week. But really, yeah, it's a trap.
If waiting twice through single rider will work for you, then don't worry about running to RSR. But if you want FP, get there first thing or you will likely wait in a long line just to get FP, or there is a good chance they'll run out by the time you get there.
Will need to figure that out. Lunch is at 12:40pm at Ariel’s Grotto. I think Izzy will enjoy seeing the princesses and the food should be pretty good.
I think you'll enjoy this one! The princesses were awesome there and the food was good.... nothing I'd get overly excited about, but definitely not a bad meal.
I read that we can take the monorail from Tomorrowland over to the Disneyland Hotel for a break…at Trader Sam’s!
Sounds like a great idea to me!
So, maybe in a perfect world, she would be napping in the stroller while we relax with our drinks. Probably not, though.
Come on Izzy, just cooperate this one time!
Apparently, this is the Lunar New Year. I guess they do some extra things to celebrate at California Adventure:
Learn something new every day.
I penciled in Flo’s V8 Café for dinner – this isn’t a must-do, but seemed like an acceptable option.
If Izzy is as into Cars as you say, I'm sure she'll enjoy checking the place out. And the food there is actually very good and a little bit of a different selection for Quick Service. We loved it and I highly recommend it.
Costs/Savings: Thanks to a DIS thread, I managed to get in on the $69.95 Photopass+ pre-order before they got rid of it (now it’s in-park only and $30 more). So, that’s squared away. I got a new credit card from our credit union that gets me 3% cash back for the first few months, so I will use that for the hotel (and pay it right off), getting us under $850 for our 5 nights of lodging. Rental car will go on that card too. Our other expenses will be 5-day park-hoppers and our dining. Since those are through Disney, I’ll be using Disney Gift Cards purchased at a discount through Target and other deals – should be around a 15% savings there. And, again, flights are free. Overall, this will be about a $2700 trip, with any luck (well, actually less, as some of the Disney Gift Cards were free through Shopkick, Disney Movie Rewards, etc).
Awesome! You did a great job planning this trip out. That's not bad at all.
So, those who have been to Disneyland and are more familiar – toss your tips this way!
Ok, you mentioned getting into the park and grabbing FP first thing... I'd think twice about that. Maybe grab that FP second or third thing. Granted, when we went, the crowd levels were in the 3 -5 range, but FP didn't seem to go as fast as they do in WDW with the exception of RSR. I'd maybe get in a ride or 2 on those attractions that don't have FP and then grab FP somewhere close by to use later.
To give you an idea of how it worked for us, we could go to BTMRR just about any time and get FP for about an hour away. Now, other attractions did go faster than that and you couldn't do this with Space, but just something to think about.
And to thank you for reading all the way through, enjoy a picture of Izzy's picture with Santa
:
Merry Christmas, Izzy!
Definitely try to get accomplished key things early in the day and hit up different areas. Best example from our trip is that during the bulk of the day both Pirates and Haunted Mansion carried ~60 minute waits. But one morning we went over there first thing (not during Magical Mornings, just right after the park's regular opening time) and rode HM twice in a row with basically no wait and then Pirates with only a ~5 min wait
Yeah... what he said. We did this one morning and we rode the Nemo Sub first thing. Not necessarily the type of ride you'd think to hit right away, but we didn't wait in the 40 - 60 minute line we saw there at other times.
We did stop to enjoy bits of the fireworks along the way, when we had decent views. But we still beat the crowds and were on the Boardwalk at 9:18pm
:
Well done!
He was on his way to Mexico, with a certain destination in mind…
I can only imagine. I can't say that I wouldn't do the same.
Around 10pm, as Izzy and I were settling into the room and getting ready for bed, we heard fireworks.
We went out on the balcony to see where it was coming from and it turns out that we had a fireworks view room – for the Star Wars Weekends fireworks!
Cool!
Looks like a nice evening all around!
), in line to get an FP. We then waited ~2 hours in the FP line to ride. It was fun and worth it. Way better than Test Track, I think. I have heard it has died down a lot from then. However, you might want to investigate on the DLR forum just in case. That was one ride that I wish they had FP+ for, but WDW didn't fully have it then either.
) but YAY exciting!!! I hope to get out there at some point. It would be fun.
Not like WDW at all).
Dug was staying in Epcot solo that night for Extra Magic Hours (I have my solo time later in the trip). So, I think he took this picture sometime soon:
I think he really enjoyed this time, just relaxing and enjoying World Showcase with a nice drink. 
I held Izzy and we just stood out there and enjoyed the show:
"Gimme more!"
Suitable for framing!
