Minniesgal
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2013
We go on the 23rd March until the 8th April
We had a Disney December, Bahamian Xmas, NYC NYE and then some!! COMPLETED!
- Thread starter lffam
- Start date
Aussie Wendy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2008
As a detail girl myself, loving your trip report!
lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Just a quick word on our Park tickets. We bought them from a travel agent who has helped us in the past. We got a 10 day park hopper tickes which was $2 more than the 5 day pass. We were there for 6 days and we were quite happy to have a park free day, but for $2 it was a no brainer really! We were emailed a Qantas holiday e-voucher (PDF) which we just printed and handed over at the reception of Grand Californian. They then exchanged that for paper tickets. I was hoping we would get the plastic credit card style ones, but we just put these into a plastic protector on a lanyard we had.
This is what they looked like
When we got to the entrance we handed them over, they took our photos at the gate and then we were in. I can see how if this is the process they follow at opening also, how that would slow entry right down. We had read a lot where it said that entrance at park open was quite slow via the GC dedicated entrance and I could see that this would contribute to it.
This is what they looked like
When we got to the entrance we handed them over, they took our photos at the gate and then we were in. I can see how if this is the process they follow at opening also, how that would slow entry right down. We had read a lot where it said that entrance at park open was quite slow via the GC dedicated entrance and I could see that this would contribute to it.
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lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Disney California Adventure Park & Cars Land Part 1
When we got into DCA we headed towards Cars Land, walking down Buena Vista Street and past Carthay Circle, where we were going tomorrow for lunch.
They were building Cars Land during our first Disneyland trip in 2010 so obviously never got to see it then. We had read about the line up for Radiator Springs Racers (RSR) and how long the wait can end up. We passed some familiar attractions on the way. We saw the Fastpass machines for RSR however they were not issuing Fastpasses yet so we just headed straight to the ride.
We got there and were told it was a 20min wait. We baulked a little, but the CM said that this would be the shortest wait of the day, so we decided we should line up now. We were quite full of beans and looking forward to the ride. DW was a little apprehensive as fast rides are not her favourite things. but we assured her it was ok and wouldn’t be. To be honest we really didn’t know! We got to the front, found ourselves in the front seat and off.
You can see from the photo that DW didn’t find the whole ride ok, there was a bit of screaming! DS & loved it, we said we would be back. I think the guy in the back found it amusing !
(In case you’re wondering, I did get permission to post that photo of DW mid scream!)
I thought the speed was faster than what I recalled Test Track at Epcot in WDW did, but that was from a 2 year old recollection. In actual fact, according to wiki, I was very wrong. Test Track is about 40 kms faster. The ride was so much fun and so well themed, I really felt like I was on the Radiator Springs Racetrack.
When we got into DCA we headed towards Cars Land, walking down Buena Vista Street and past Carthay Circle, where we were going tomorrow for lunch.
They were building Cars Land during our first Disneyland trip in 2010 so obviously never got to see it then. We had read about the line up for Radiator Springs Racers (RSR) and how long the wait can end up. We passed some familiar attractions on the way. We saw the Fastpass machines for RSR however they were not issuing Fastpasses yet so we just headed straight to the ride.
We got there and were told it was a 20min wait. We baulked a little, but the CM said that this would be the shortest wait of the day, so we decided we should line up now. We were quite full of beans and looking forward to the ride. DW was a little apprehensive as fast rides are not her favourite things. but we assured her it was ok and wouldn’t be. To be honest we really didn’t know! We got to the front, found ourselves in the front seat and off.
You can see from the photo that DW didn’t find the whole ride ok, there was a bit of screaming! DS & loved it, we said we would be back. I think the guy in the back found it amusing !
(In case you’re wondering, I did get permission to post that photo of DW mid scream!)
I thought the speed was faster than what I recalled Test Track at Epcot in WDW did, but that was from a 2 year old recollection. In actual fact, according to wiki, I was very wrong. Test Track is about 40 kms faster. The ride was so much fun and so well themed, I really felt like I was on the Radiator Springs Racetrack.
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lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Cars Land Part 2 & Paradise Pier
We were ok for food as we had a very nice breakfast on the plane which wasn’t that long ago, but we then needed some coffee. We saw Flo’s V8 Café and thought we would try there well, big mistake! Now I’ve said this before, that there are a lot of great things in the USA, however Coffee is NOT one of them. I could only describe the coffee as muddy water. It was truly the worst cup of coffee we had even tasted. A couple of sips is all we could handle. And so began the coffee scale/ranking. We gave this one out of 10, a negative 5! The best we got to during the entire trip was a positive 5, though I think we may have softened as we got more used to the drip filter stuff.
We then wandered around Cars Land a bit. The theming is so well done. We stopped in one of the shops and got talking to the cast member. She was giving us a few tips about the fast passes and also she recommend we see Aladdin. She said it was finishing up soon and was definitely worth seeing, if we hadn’t already seen it. She said the Genie steals the show, and she was definitely right!
We then went down to Paradise Pier. I find this area really unlike any other at any Disney park we have been and in some respect almost a disconnect with anything else in the park. I am not sure what it is about it, the Boardwalk and carnival style of it. Not that is bad or anything just, for me a little inconsistent I suppose.
DW riding the Golden Zephyr in the back
We were ok for food as we had a very nice breakfast on the plane which wasn’t that long ago, but we then needed some coffee. We saw Flo’s V8 Café and thought we would try there well, big mistake! Now I’ve said this before, that there are a lot of great things in the USA, however Coffee is NOT one of them. I could only describe the coffee as muddy water. It was truly the worst cup of coffee we had even tasted. A couple of sips is all we could handle. And so began the coffee scale/ranking. We gave this one out of 10, a negative 5! The best we got to during the entire trip was a positive 5, though I think we may have softened as we got more used to the drip filter stuff.
We then wandered around Cars Land a bit. The theming is so well done. We stopped in one of the shops and got talking to the cast member. She was giving us a few tips about the fast passes and also she recommend we see Aladdin. She said it was finishing up soon and was definitely worth seeing, if we hadn’t already seen it. She said the Genie steals the show, and she was definitely right!
We then went down to Paradise Pier. I find this area really unlike any other at any Disney park we have been and in some respect almost a disconnect with anything else in the park. I am not sure what it is about it, the Boardwalk and carnival style of it. Not that is bad or anything just, for me a little inconsistent I suppose.
DW riding the Golden Zephyr in the back
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lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Animation Academy Works of Art
We also did Animation Academy. We really enjoyed this last time in 2010 and also at WDW in 2013. I think we did it at least 5 times during our first trip. This time it was a little different, in that they had the schedule posted outside of which characters they were drawing at each session. This was good, though sometimes it was fun to just go in and see who you might get too draw. Thankfully we don’t have to rely on our artistic ability to make a living, our artistic ability has not improved in the last 5 years!
DS was lucky enough to be given the animators work after the show.
By now it was approaching noon so we were starting to get hungry. We hadn't had a txt from the hotel yet so couldn't check in yet. We decided we would go to Downtown Disney to have some lunch and then hopefully the room wouldn't be to far off for us to go to once we got the txt. I can’t recall where we actually had lunch but we had some burgers, fish and chips . This was the start of the overeating!
We took a bit of a stroll around DTD, but we were all feeling the wall approaching quickly so we decided we would go back to the hotel lobby and ask if the room was ready, maybe they didn’t have our US mobile number right or something was our hope. We got back to the lobby and I asked they said the villas aren’t ready till after 4pm. We spent about 3 and half hours in the chairs in the lobby waiting till our room was ready. We all dozed a little, DS seemed to really fall asleep. I checked a few times but we were told we just had to wait. In the end we got a txt around 3:30. Longer wait than we would have liked, but was still before the official check-in time of 4pm.
We also did Animation Academy. We really enjoyed this last time in 2010 and also at WDW in 2013. I think we did it at least 5 times during our first trip. This time it was a little different, in that they had the schedule posted outside of which characters they were drawing at each session. This was good, though sometimes it was fun to just go in and see who you might get too draw. Thankfully we don’t have to rely on our artistic ability to make a living, our artistic ability has not improved in the last 5 years!
DS was lucky enough to be given the animators work after the show.
By now it was approaching noon so we were starting to get hungry. We hadn't had a txt from the hotel yet so couldn't check in yet. We decided we would go to Downtown Disney to have some lunch and then hopefully the room wouldn't be to far off for us to go to once we got the txt. I can’t recall where we actually had lunch but we had some burgers, fish and chips . This was the start of the overeating!
We took a bit of a stroll around DTD, but we were all feeling the wall approaching quickly so we decided we would go back to the hotel lobby and ask if the room was ready, maybe they didn’t have our US mobile number right or something was our hope. We got back to the lobby and I asked they said the villas aren’t ready till after 4pm. We spent about 3 and half hours in the chairs in the lobby waiting till our room was ready. We all dozed a little, DS seemed to really fall asleep. I checked a few times but we were told we just had to wait. In the end we got a txt around 3:30. Longer wait than we would have liked, but was still before the official check-in time of 4pm.
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Aussie Wendy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2008
We also haven't seen Carsland as 2011 was our last trip to DL. Looking forward to one day seeing it "in the flesh". I agree I find Paradise Pier a bit odd in a disconnected way and I felt the Little Mermaid Ride is also a bit of an "add-on" compared to the nice theming around it in WDW-admittedly they have more room there. Your experience is why I like to pay extra and book the night before-we all falter by lunchtime.
lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
We thought our comfortable trip over would get us through till check in time but alas we were wrong. It was a silly decision, in the scheme of the cost of the holiday, the cost for an extra nights accomodation here was really a non issue. Next time we will revert back to booking prior night also.
I'm glad I'm not the only one that gets that feeling from Paradise Pier.
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lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Grand Californian Studio Villa
We made our way from the lobby up on the fourth floor of the Villas.
I had read a fair bit about which rooms, floors, locations not far from elevators or down the very very long corridors) were people's favourites in Grand Californian Villas and that people made requests (no online checkin for Grand Cal) to get these. Well I never got around to any of that so figured we would be back of Burke. When we got out the lift, turned left our room was like a few down, then open the door and looked straight out to Mickey's wheel and Paradise Pier. WOW we did very well. We watched WOC from our balcony last night! Just goes to show, sometimes you just get lucky!!
We were in a Studio Villa, which really wasn't much different to a hotel room. There was a little kitchenette which I am not sure if the hotel rooms have, but aside from that it seemed the same. Our first trip to Grand Californian in 2010 we were in a 2 bedroom villa. This was amazing, and massive. We didn't think we needed the same amount of room, plus the number of points needed for these now were considerably more and hence so was the cost. The Studio Villa was fine for us, we had no need to do any laundry considering we had just started our holiday and the space was just fine.
I kept forgetting to take photos of our rooms before we trashed, or unpacked, so the ones below are the best I have sorry.
We made our way from the lobby up on the fourth floor of the Villas.
I had read a fair bit about which rooms, floors, locations not far from elevators or down the very very long corridors) were people's favourites in Grand Californian Villas and that people made requests (no online checkin for Grand Cal) to get these. Well I never got around to any of that so figured we would be back of Burke. When we got out the lift, turned left our room was like a few down, then open the door and looked straight out to Mickey's wheel and Paradise Pier. WOW we did very well. We watched WOC from our balcony last night! Just goes to show, sometimes you just get lucky!!
We were in a Studio Villa, which really wasn't much different to a hotel room. There was a little kitchenette which I am not sure if the hotel rooms have, but aside from that it seemed the same. Our first trip to Grand Californian in 2010 we were in a 2 bedroom villa. This was amazing, and massive. We didn't think we needed the same amount of room, plus the number of points needed for these now were considerably more and hence so was the cost. The Studio Villa was fine for us, we had no need to do any laundry considering we had just started our holiday and the space was just fine.
I kept forgetting to take photos of our rooms before we trashed, or unpacked, so the ones below are the best I have sorry.
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lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
World of Color - First time
That evening we had dinner at Storytellers Cafe which is onsite. We just walked in, no reservation. We chose to have a-la-carte instead of the buffet this evening. Dinner is not a character dining here, that is only for Breakfast. When we went to pay, or put the bill on our room, and gave them out KTTW, they asked if we were DVC members as this was printed on the cards. I said we weren't , we were just renting points and she said ok. It wasn't till a few days later that I realised why she asked.
After dinner we made it back to our room for World of Color. We didn’t realise at that stage there was two versions of WOC. This was the 60th Anniversary version "World of Color – Celebrate! The Wonderful World of Walt Disney", which was narrated by Neil Patrick Harris. We had seen World of Color in 2010 and we loved it. We also knew we were seeing it again tomorrow, but from one of the reserved viewing areas, so this viewing was really a bonus. I would never say to anyone that they should only see WOC from this view. It was most definitely obscured, but as we were seeing it again (and had seen it before) we found it to be a great nice additional viewing experience from the comfort of our balcony.
WOC from balcony
For those of you really keen, here is a video of it from our balcony.
I was actually was quite disappointed I didn’t take very many photos at all at Grand Californian. Here are the few that I did take.
Carollers each night in the lobby
The lobby just smelled of this Ginger Bread house
Ok and that was day 1, 39 to go!!
That evening we had dinner at Storytellers Cafe which is onsite. We just walked in, no reservation. We chose to have a-la-carte instead of the buffet this evening. Dinner is not a character dining here, that is only for Breakfast. When we went to pay, or put the bill on our room, and gave them out KTTW, they asked if we were DVC members as this was printed on the cards. I said we weren't , we were just renting points and she said ok. It wasn't till a few days later that I realised why she asked.
After dinner we made it back to our room for World of Color. We didn’t realise at that stage there was two versions of WOC. This was the 60th Anniversary version "World of Color – Celebrate! The Wonderful World of Walt Disney", which was narrated by Neil Patrick Harris. We had seen World of Color in 2010 and we loved it. We also knew we were seeing it again tomorrow, but from one of the reserved viewing areas, so this viewing was really a bonus. I would never say to anyone that they should only see WOC from this view. It was most definitely obscured, but as we were seeing it again (and had seen it before) we found it to be a great nice additional viewing experience from the comfort of our balcony.
WOC from balcony
For those of you really keen, here is a video of it from our balcony.
I was actually was quite disappointed I didn’t take very many photos at all at Grand Californian. Here are the few that I did take.
Carollers each night in the lobby
The lobby just smelled of this Ginger Bread house
Ok and that was day 1, 39 to go!!
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lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
I've started a contents/quick links page and also added an acronyms/abbreviations section at the suggestion of DS!
Quick links & Acronyms
Quick links & Acronyms
lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Day 1 Addendum
I neglected to mention one thing about day 1. The crowds at the park. We did get there quite early, about 8:30am and we left around 12pm, but the first day we found DCA not busy at all. Cars Land, where we spent most of our time was quite sparse of people we thought. Then when we went down to Paradise Pier we thought the same thing. We thought we may have really lucked out and picked a great time to come, so our hopes were that this is what the crowds would be like the whole week....
Day 2
We all got a good nights sleep, some more than others. My day started earlier than DW & DS who were fast asleep, so I decided to go for a walk. I wanted to go to CVS to buy a AT&T recharge card for DW iPhone. I had added credit to my SIM before we left AU, with the intention to do the other one when we got here. There was a CVS about a 15min (1.3km) walk away which I thought would be a nice walk. I had only been out of the Disney ‘bubble’ one time before in 2010 and that was to get picked up by a local T-Shirt shop to go shopping there, so I was interested to take a bit of a walk around.
Today was a really nice day and I walked out of GC onto Disneyland Dve and then left onto West Katella Ave. It gave me a bit more perspective of the size of the park as I was walking along past and behind Radiator Springs Racers and then left behind Paradise Pier and California Screamin'.
W Katella Ave
CVS was across the other side of the road, there was a 7-Eleven on the side of the road I was on, which I knew would have what I wanted, so I just ducked in there and picked up the recharge card and also a pack of bottled water. Lugging the water back was a little bit challenging, lucky the attended double bagged the water! Then I made my way back to Grand Californian to find my Disney family still sounds asleep! It was close to 11am now, we are after all on holidays
I neglected to mention one thing about day 1. The crowds at the park. We did get there quite early, about 8:30am and we left around 12pm, but the first day we found DCA not busy at all. Cars Land, where we spent most of our time was quite sparse of people we thought. Then when we went down to Paradise Pier we thought the same thing. We thought we may have really lucked out and picked a great time to come, so our hopes were that this is what the crowds would be like the whole week....
Day 2
We all got a good nights sleep, some more than others. My day started earlier than DW & DS who were fast asleep, so I decided to go for a walk. I wanted to go to CVS to buy a AT&T recharge card for DW iPhone. I had added credit to my SIM before we left AU, with the intention to do the other one when we got here. There was a CVS about a 15min (1.3km) walk away which I thought would be a nice walk. I had only been out of the Disney ‘bubble’ one time before in 2010 and that was to get picked up by a local T-Shirt shop to go shopping there, so I was interested to take a bit of a walk around.
Today was a really nice day and I walked out of GC onto Disneyland Dve and then left onto West Katella Ave. It gave me a bit more perspective of the size of the park as I was walking along past and behind Radiator Springs Racers and then left behind Paradise Pier and California Screamin'.
W Katella Ave
CVS was across the other side of the road, there was a 7-Eleven on the side of the road I was on, which I knew would have what I wanted, so I just ducked in there and picked up the recharge card and also a pack of bottled water. Lugging the water back was a little bit challenging, lucky the attended double bagged the water! Then I made my way back to Grand Californian to find my Disney family still sounds asleep! It was close to 11am now, we are after all on holidays
lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Carthay Circle Lunch
So after everyone got up and got ready, we headed back to DCA to go to our lunch at Carthay Circle which was part of the World of Color dinning package.
We arrived just after 12 and “checked-in” we were asked which WOC show we would like to attend. I guess my planning hadn’t extended to realising that there was actually two different versions of WOC. We chose Winter Dreams which was the earlier show. We were told our server would give us our tickets when we got our bill and that we should arrive about 20 mins before the show starts.
We then took a seat and waited a little while before our table was ready. I had a look around the downstairs and took a few photos.
It was time for us to head upstairs to our table now.
I only took a couple of photos of the food sorry! The food was very nice. It included a appetizer, entrée(main) and desert. They were very accommodating with the changes to the items to suit DS tastes.
Soup
Carthay Angus Burger
Somehow squeezed in some dessert also!
The outside area was not open, but we asked if they would let us go out there and take a photo and they were more than happy to.
The meal was great, albeit a very big lunch. We received our tickets to WOC show and were told to look for the Carthay Circle Dining Package Section and come about 20 mins before.
I really wished I got them to turn around !
It was now time to head over to Disneyland for the first time of this trip.
So after everyone got up and got ready, we headed back to DCA to go to our lunch at Carthay Circle which was part of the World of Color dinning package.
We arrived just after 12 and “checked-in” we were asked which WOC show we would like to attend. I guess my planning hadn’t extended to realising that there was actually two different versions of WOC. We chose Winter Dreams which was the earlier show. We were told our server would give us our tickets when we got our bill and that we should arrive about 20 mins before the show starts.
We then took a seat and waited a little while before our table was ready. I had a look around the downstairs and took a few photos.
It was time for us to head upstairs to our table now.
I only took a couple of photos of the food sorry! The food was very nice. It included a appetizer, entrée(main) and desert. They were very accommodating with the changes to the items to suit DS tastes.
Soup
Carthay Angus Burger
Somehow squeezed in some dessert also!
The outside area was not open, but we asked if they would let us go out there and take a photo and they were more than happy to.
The meal was great, albeit a very big lunch. We received our tickets to WOC show and were told to look for the Carthay Circle Dining Package Section and come about 20 mins before.
I really wished I got them to turn around !
It was now time to head over to Disneyland for the first time of this trip.
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lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Star Wars Launch Bay
It was now time to head over to Disneyland for the first time of this trip.
We headed straight for the newish Star Wars Launch Bay area. This is absolute feast for Star Wars fans, which I have been once since a small child and that’s now shared with DS. If you’re not one you might want to skip ahead as there are quite a few pictures!
It was now time to head over to Disneyland for the first time of this trip.
We headed straight for the newish Star Wars Launch Bay area. This is absolute feast for Star Wars fans, which I have been once since a small child and that’s now shared with DS. If you’re not one you might want to skip ahead as there are quite a few pictures!
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lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Meet Vader and Chewie!
Next we got to experience some meet and greets of a different Disney kind. Lord Vader and my favourite, Chewbacca!
Vader was pretty serious, almost intimidating.
And Chewie was a real hugger, he wouldn’t let you go until you “said” something to him in his language, so you had to give the ‘Rrrrrrr-ghghghghgh” a go!!!
Next we got to experience some meet and greets of a different Disney kind. Lord Vader and my favourite, Chewbacca!
Vader was pretty serious, almost intimidating.
And Chewie was a real hugger, he wouldn’t let you go until you “said” something to him in his language, so you had to give the ‘Rrrrrrr-ghghghghgh” a go!!!
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Aussie Wendy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2008
In order but first, love all the pics. Second I like the new entrance to DCA. Thirdly Cathy detail was good to see - that lunch would mean we wouldn't have needed dinner! Fourthly Star Wars detail - yaay! interesting info on Kylo Ren's Lightsaber and LOVE the character pics. Lucky you all.
lffam
Disney/Marvel Nutty Dad
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2010
Thanks Aussie Wendy I was beginning to wonder if anyone was reading!
I bought a new dSLR for this trip. I'm quite pleased with most of the pictures but I must say I'm not sure I would take it again for a trip like this. It's just hard to beat the compact nature of a smaller camera for mine, but I digress.
I miss the California sign in front of DCA. In 2010 we got photo of DS in the "O" and I really wanted to get another as a contrast for his height now. Not sure when they removed that.
We really enjoyed Carthay Circle, I can't remember what we did for dinner that night but I'm sure it was a light one. I have promised myself that next trip I will be taking a trusty notebook to record more about each day so I can share, and relive, more.
We were so keen to go to Star Wars Launch Bay and it really lived up to it for us. At this stage were we still unsure if they would be showing the new movie on the cruise later in the month as it premiered the day before we started our cruise, otherwise we would have to wait till we were in New York to see it... You will have to stay tuned to find out what happened! Lol
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LivingforDisney
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2014
I am reading, I love trip reports lol.
You should have done the cruise we did, star wars day, though it didn't live up to its name, lots & lots of unhappy Disney cruisers.
You should have done the cruise we did, star wars day, though it didn't live up to its name, lots & lots of unhappy Disney cruisers.
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