[post=51899760]Last Installment on the Trip Report[/post]
Day 1 –July 26th, 2014 – Part 1
Middle of the Nite Drive & a Friend Joining Us
This trip was with my DB (brother) and V (DB GF). It was exciting to go back to the Disneyland Resort after being there just less than one month ago with DAW. This was the third trip this year and it was going to be with DB and his GF while coming down to SoCal. Also there were other people that joined us during the trip which you will find out later during the updated posts. I was kind of surprised that DB and V wanted to go to the DLR in such a short time which was less than a couple of weeks until the trip. They were able to get time off while I just finished with summer basketball league with my high school team. So it was perfect timing to go back down south to SoCal.
I was so busy these last few weeks with the DLR trip. I went on a road trip with DAW all the way to San Antonio Texas just one day when DB, his GF and I left SoCal back to Sacramento. I was on the road from Sacramento to Las Vegas to El Paso and San Antonio in three days. That was the longest drive in my life and we totaled over 3,500 miles round trip. DAW is from Texas and she has a place down there and I was able to meet up with Silv and MP (which were with DAW and I during the December 2013 trip). There was a Comic Con in San Antonio during the trip and it was nice in San Antonio. I will write up a trip report later during our time in SA. And this past weekend, I worked another show which was in Stockton.
During the trip, it was nice to be at the parks with DB and V. We went together during the [post=45841399]August 2012 trip report[/post]. Which was less than two years ago and they were able to experienced Cars Land and BVS when it opened during the summer of 2012. We also were joined by other people during the trip which you will find out later.
Now let’s get to the trip report.
Mostly when I leave to SoCal, I leave around 7am and get to Anaheim around 3pm. But this time, V wanted to get to SoCal first thing when the DLR opens at 8am. So they wanted to leave around midnight on Thursday night and drive through the night all the way to Anaheim. I know that it sounds crazy to drive all the way to SoCal late at night. But she wanted to get as much out of Saturday.
But our father told us that we should go to our grandmother’s house in Livingston on Friday night so we can get a head start during the trip. So we agreed to stop at our grandmother’s house and stay there for a while and leave in the middle of the night instead of driving through it.
It was around 8pm when we left Sacramento while I picked up DB and V from their place in Elk Grove. We head straight on over to Livingston where our grandmother lives. This is where I mostly stop on the way when I go to SoCal. It was nice of her to let us stay for a part of the night so we can head on over to Anaheim in the morning time.
We got to her place around 9:30pm and we slept at her place until 2am in the morning which we left her place. Than it was a 5 and a half our drive all the way down to Anaheim. At least two of us were awake during the drive to make sure that we aren’t daydreaming when driving. I mostly droved the most down to SoCal and it was nice to have DB drive as well.
When we got to Anaheim, we head straight on over to our hotel that we will be staying which was Best Western Pavilion. This was the first time I have stayed at BW Pavilions and I never stay at this hotel since I stay at BW Park Place Inn, BW Anaheim Inn and BW Stovall’s. BW Pavilion was a block away from BW Stovall’s on Katella Ave. The reason we chose BW Pavilion was that the price was low over all the other hotels. My DB and I talked about the other hotels on Harbor that are across the street from the DLR and the price was just not right which the cheapest hotel across the street we found was at $159. That was way too much so we stayed at BW Pavilions for $109.
We got in at BW Pavilions at 7:50am. We tried to check-in at BW Pavilions & the room wasn’t ready. So we had to come back later during the day to check-in at our room. So we just left our bags in the car and we head straight on over to the DLR.
The walk from BW Pavilions to the DLR was quite a long walk which took about 15-20 minutes which was a couple of minutes longer where I have stayed at BW Stovall’s. I thought that it was a breeze but later during the trip it was just too long. I will get to that later on during the posts.
We head on over to the DLR and we were at the Esplanade around 8:20am. Just when we were about to enter the Esplanade, the security check-in area was quite busy that morning.
We didn’t go inside the parks just yet since we were waiting for someone. V has a friend that is from San Diego which she was her roommate when she went to Irvine and will be joining us during our first part of the day. It was nice that V friend was going to join us at the DLR.
Disneyland was quite busy to get in that morning while Disney California Adventure had some people going into the park.
V friend (Jen) finally showed up at 8:55am which was a little later than we have expected. But it was nice that she got here safely. The first thing we did was to head on over to DCA since they all want to ride RSR. So we head on over to DCA first thing and get FP’s for Radiator Springs Racers.
When we were in the park, we head straight on over to the RSR FP queue and we were able to secure nice times that day. It was around 9:02am when I got the FP’s and the return time was at 1:05pm to 2:05pm. It is now easy to get a FP for RSR later during the day which in the past they will be all gone by the morning time.
After we got the FP’s, they wanted to go and ride Toy Story Midway Mania. So I gathered all their Park Hopper tickets and I head on over to Grizzly River Run in order to get World of Color FP’s. I had no problem being the FP runner so they will be able to ride TSMM while I get the FP’s.
When I got to GRR, i remember seeing on the park hour calendar that WoC will only be playing once a night just like the June trip in which it was only playing once during the summertime which was kind of weird. Since it was late during the day to get FP’s, I thought that we would get the yellow section and there was only one show a night. But I was wrong and was able to secure the Blue section.
I head straight ton over to Paradise Pier to see if they are in the queue. It is nice to pass by PP and see Mickey’s Fun Wheel of Doom.
I head straight on over to TSMM and through the queue to see if they were half way or better through the queue. They were not even 1/3 through the queue and the wait time was like 45 minutes that morning.
They told me to get in the queue when it was close to the outside. I told them that it was okay and I’ll just wait for them but they insisted and told me to get in. So I did get in the queue and we waited about 20 minutes through the queue until we got on the ride.
V and Jen rode together while DB and I rode in the other.
For our scores, I had 171,500 while DB had 152,500. That was a low score for me at TSMM. But we were able to accomplish something I have never done on TSMM. The fifth mini-game scene on TSMM which is Woody’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Shootin’ Gallery, we were able to hit all the bulls-eye targets and unlock the extra points. This is one of the scenes that I have never accomplish and was able to unlock it with DB.
We didn’t have the high score on the ride in which it wasn’t a good ride for me.
After we rode TSMM, we head on over to Pacific Wharf to have breakfast. We were all hungry since we drove on Saturday night to Anaheim.
It was nice to have breakfast at Pacific Wharf. I haven’t eaten at the Pacific Wharf for breakfast in years and was nice to be able to have breakfast that morning.
I had the Breakfast Croissant Sandwich.
DB and V shared a Egg and Bacon Boule
Jen got the Sonoma Chicken & Apple Salad in a Boule
After we finished breakfast at Pacific Wharf, we head straight on out of the park until we had to use the restroom by the Wine Country Trattoria since we were able to ride TSMM and we had to come back later that day to ride RSR.
We head on out of DCA while it was not that bad that afternoon which it was a little quiet (except for riding TSMM).
The four of us exited DCA and now back at the Esplanade to head on over to Disneyland.
That will be it for this post and it will continue on the next post.
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Hope you've been well, Kim. Missed catching you around the boards.
