Spring break at Disneyland

[tylersmith]

Hi! I'd like to say i've never done a trip report before, and have no idea what i'm doing. We're going to there April 18-26 (late spring break, right?), and decided to stay at a good neighbor hotel, more specifically, The Sheraton. I'd like to say we're WDW vets (40+,), but never thought of going to Disneyland until last year. This was a rather impromptu trip, booking in January-February We're a family of five, with DG (Disney grandma, if thats a thing) (64), DM(40), Dad (since there can't be two 'DD's)(42), DD(3), and last but not least, me DS(14). This trip report is going to have a lot of pictures since its our first trip to DLR, and i just got a new DSLR.

 

[luulu1999]

Cant wait to hear about it!!! We don't get to go until July so I love reading and seeing pics about other people's trips!!

 

[tylersmith]

I feel like i need to add detail but I have no idea what else to add. If there are no delays, we will get there around 4. If all goes well still, we'll have our car and baggage by 5:30. We will probably go to the hotel, get settled in, go out to dinner, and then go grocery shopping.

We have four days of park passes, so we have two open days. We don't have any details worked out right now, but we do know we're doing two days at each park. We have lunch at Goofy's Kitchen and Ariel's Grotto reserved. I want to go to the Grove in LA on one of the free days, but no one else shares my opinion. If anyone has any suggestions on what to do around the area, please let me know.

 

[tylersmith]

Uh oh. Last minute problem we ran into - my iPad broke. Just freakin' shut down while I was browsing Dis. Ugh!

 

[tylersmith]

Ok, found out the Dis app is on Android now. We got on the plane to LAX without a problem. It was a 4 hour & 20 minute flight, and I'm surprised DD did so well.

There is no rental car place at LAX, but the shuttle to EZ was nice and so was the rental. The employee gave us 1/2 a tank and marked it full, though we got that fixed. 45 anticipation and argument filled minutes later - we got to our hotel.

The hotel was extremely nice and upon check-in they gave us free chocolate chip cookies! Sftee

 

[tylersmith]

Ok, found out the Dis app is on Android now. We got on the plane to LAX without a problem. It was a 4 hour & 20 minute flight, and I'm surprised DD did so well.

There is no rental car place at LAX, but the shuttle to EZ was nice and so was the rental. The employee gave us 1/2 a tank and marked it full, though we got that fixed. 45 anticipation and argument filled minutes later - we got to our hotel.

The hotel was extremely nice and upon check-in they gave us free chocolate chip cookies! After settling in to our hotel, we went to Denny's which was right across the street. After that we took a 5 minute drive to Target, where we got some groceries and a giant stuffed Olaf, which -surprisingly wasn't sold out.

And that concludes Day 1. (I hope to add pictures when I get home)

 

[tylersmith]

So day 2 was a good day, except we all woke at 5 IN THE MORNING. The time change had us all messed up and there was nothing to do for 3 hours.

We had breakfast in the room, then went to the Starbucks downstairs, got our park tickets from the Disney planning booth in the lobby.

After a 20 minute walk, (we were walking slowly, so it'd be about 15 minutes at a normal pace) we made it to the Disneyland complex. We decided to go to Disneyland and our first stop was the bakery on main street. DG and I got cheese and Broccoli quiche, Dad got a croissant sandwich, and DD got a cupcake that I ended up eating.

We were surprised how empty it was, compared to Disney World. We got on most of the rides with a wait of <45 minutes. We stopped for lunch near Pirates of the Caribbean where I got vegetarian gumbo, DM got steak gumbo and DD got popcorn.

Later in the day, we wandered through the park and rode most of the rides and ate somewhere in fantasyland. We were all amused how the attractions were similar to the ones in WDW, yet somehow different. At the end of the day, we watched the parade, got ice cream, and walked back.

 

[tylersmith]

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[Cinderpamela]

following along! Hope you guys are having fun!
Glad to hear it wasnt crowded.

 

[tylersmith]

Day 3
The emptiness did not las, disappointingly. We decided to spend the day at California Adventure, where we first ran to Soarin'. In line, we were disappointed by a CM who nagged something along the lines of "hurry up"at us while we were in line. It was DDs first flight and needles to say, she was clutching on to DM.

We had a character dinner booked, and while wandering around the park, we found the Grand Californian entrance. Dad and I went in there to see if we could change our reservation time because our stomachs have not yet adjusted. Unfortunately, they didn't have any but being in the hotel was great, and it reminded us of WDW Wilderness Lodge.

Next, we hit Paradise Pier where DM and I went to get Radiator Springs Racers to get fastpasses. Little did we know that by 1pm, they're distributed COMPLETELY for the day. So, we decided to get passes for Screamin'. We rode the swinging gondola farris wheel, Screamin', Toy Story Mania and called it a day.

We ended up leaving way to early and spent some time in Downtown Disney before going to Disneyland Hotel for Goofy's kitchen. At Goofy's Kitchen, we celebrated mine and DD's birthday and I was so red with embarrassment and so red with sunburn that at any second I might have popped.

That concludes day 3. I kind of got too caught up in vacation to keep up with live day-to-day reports. So from this one on out, I've written them on the plane ride home.

 

[tylersmith]

Day 3
The emptiness did not last, disappointingly. We decided to spend the day at California Adventure, where we first ran to Soarin'. In line, we were disappointed by a CM who nagged something along the lines of "hurry up"at us while we were in line. It was DDs first flight and needles to say, she was clutching on to DM.

We had a character dinner booked, and while wandering around the park, we found the Grand Californian entrance. Dad and I went in there to see if we could change our reservation time because our stomachs have not yet adjusted. Unfortunately, they didn't have any but being in the hotel was great, and it reminded us of WDW Wilderness Lodge.

Next, we hit Paradise Pier where DM and I went to get Radiator Springs Racers to get fastpasses. Little did we know that by 1pm, they're distributed COMPLETELY for the day. So, we decided to get passes for Screamin'. We rode the swinging gondola farris wheel, Screamin', Toy Story Mania and called it a day.

We ended up leaving way to early and spent some time in Downtown Disney before going to Disneyland Hotel for Goofy's kitchen. At Goofy's Kitchen, we celebrated mine and DD's birthday and I was so red with embarrassment and so red with sunburn that at any second I might have popped.

That concludes day 3. I kind of got too caught up in vacation to keep up with live day-to-day reports. So from this one on out, I've written them on the plane ride home.

 

[tylersmith]

On today, day 4, we decided to take the day off from the parks, since we had two days off.

We decided to go to some outlet mall close to our hotel. Honestly, I can't remember it's name for there wasn't much memorable about it. Basically, don't go there if you want to eat lunch and have a vegetarian because 85% of the food was meat & 10% was plain gross. I ended up with a jamba juice and a subway footlong, both of which were just eh.

Later in the day, we went to the almost-abandon Garden Walk. All of the restaurants there seemed good, except we were all still full. The highlight of that mall was stopping at Lush cosmetics.

That concludes the mildly boring day 4.