14 Glorious Hours at Disneyland:A WDW Vet Gets 1 Day at Walt's Park UPDATE x5 (12/15)

[heathsf]

Oh no! I'm so sorry. That must be so hard for all involved. I know my DH would be devastated if one of his students passed away. Take your time and hopefully you'll be back soon. I'll be praying and thinking of you

I am so sorry to hear this! I lost a dear friend from my graduating class to a similar situation, very unexpectedly, and it shook all of us badly!
And I am also sorry that I didn't see your questions before. I think we were all dealing with stomach flu or something at the time, and I missed the update! I look forward to hearing how your trip went, when you need a distraction or feel up to getting back to it! (I will try to watch more carefully this time!)

I'm so sorry for the loss of your student. Hugs!

Thanks everyone for all your kind words I'm back now and ready to get this TR going! I will be posting an update in just a few minutes!

 

[heathsf]

Chapter 1 – Our Adventure Begins

We arrived at Newark Airport, checked our bag, and went through security with just enough time to grab some sandwiches to bring onto the plane for dinner. I was looking forward to chowing down, quickly grading some papers, and (hopefully) taking a nice long nap as we flew west. The timing could not have been more perfect. Except that our flight was delayed. Twice.

I wasn’t too surprised since my BFF (whose wedding was the reason for this trip) told me that she has been delayed every single time she’s flown to LA. The reason for the delay was that our plane arrived late from Mexico and needed to go through customs before being towed to our terminal.

Since we had some time to kill, we decided to eat our sandwiches in the waiting area. Let me tell you, this was probably the best airport food I’ve ever had (besides going to an actual restaurant like Chili’s or California Pizza Kitchen). I wish I wrote down exactly where I got it from and exactly what it is, but who knew it would be so good?! I didn’t think I’d have to start taking notes on food until we actually arrived in Disney. It was basically a chipotle chicken wrap and it was unexpectedly delicious. Bobby got something else that he also enjoyed, but it wasn’t as good as mine. Here’s Bobby, about to eat his sandwich and saying, “Are you seriously taking a picture of this right now?” Why yes Bobby, I am.

Once we were finally on the plane, I was very happy to see that we had our own individual TVs. They were already on and tuned into random channels. I was giddy with excitement because this was on mine:

It was a preview for Peter Pan which was on one of the movie channels. Of course, I had to pay for the programming now so I could watch the movie. Bobby laughed at me, and then pointed out that it was pretty fitting that a Disney Movie was on my TV and ESPN was on his:

It really was like our TVs knew us and were ready and waiting for us to come take our seats. I happily pointed out that ESPN is owned by Disney but Bobby said that doesn’t count.

We ended up taking off 1.5 hours late which shouldn’t have been a big deal since we were landing at night and would just be going to bed, but unfortunately it was a big deal because the last Disneyland Express bus is at 10:30 pm and we were now scheduled to land at exactly that time, so there was no way we could make it.

While on the plane we discussed our options. We could go back to our original plan and rent a car from the airport. Then we'd need to decide if we would keep it through the entire trip or return it in Universal City. If we wanted to return it there, we’d have to make sure we were able to return it to one of the local car rental places by the hotel which have very inconvenient hours (they close Friday at 5:30 and Saturday at noon). Our other option was to try to get a ride with Super Shuttle at the last minute without a reservation. So many decisions! I was leaning toward the shuttle but Bobby really wanted to have a car. His friend who lives in LA apparently thought we were crazy for considering not getting one. I asked Bobby why he waited until we were on the plane to share this information! So we ultimately decided we would rent a car from Hertz once we landed.

After that the flight was smooth and uneventful and I did manage to nap for a little while after watching Peter Pan. I wondered if anyone noticed that there was a 27 year old woman watching Peter Pan instead of something more age appropriate. Well, too bad! I'll never grow up!

We landed at 10:25 and headed toward baggage claim. A word of warning for newbies to this airport: it’s BIG! We went to the wrong baggage claim area and had to ask for help on where we were supposed to go. A very nice employee told us that we needed to go to Terminal 7 and we were currently in Terminal 6. We had to exit the airport and walk to the next terminal and reenter. It was a decent walk and it took us a few minutes. So make sure you find out where you need to pick up your bags so you don’t waste time like we did. It wasn’t exactly warm outside, but it was definitely warmer than home so that was nice. We also saw where the shuttle and taxi pickups were so it wasn’t a total loss. By the time we found the right terminal, took the outdoor escalator up to the entrance, walked into the airport, took the indoor escalator back down to baggage claim, and found the carousel… our lonely bag was riding the conveyor belt around and around pretty much by itself. I didn’t realize how much time we lost until I saw that everyone else from our full flight had already picked up their bags and left. Oh well! Onward!

Since all of the car rentals are from off-site locations, we needed to find the Hertz shuttle. Luckily, we now knew where that was since we had passed it during our walk between terminals. We quickly found a Hertz bus but the sign on it said “Reservations Only.” The bus was completely empty so I asked the driver if we could get on without a reservation. He said no, because there were no more cars available! What!?!?!? I’ve seen these car rental lots…they are huge and packed with cars! I could not believe that there was not one single car available. We were standing on the sidewalk in shock and wondering what to do, when all of a sudden a Disneyland Express bus pulls up right in front of us. I think the same Disney gods that put Peter Pan on my TV sent that bus to us. We were even more shocked about this than we were about Hertz running out of cars. We asked if we could get on without a reservation and the very friendly driver told us of course, and that it would all be taken care of at the Disneyland Hotel. I was ecstatic and we hopped right on and sat in the front row. Six people got on with us and there were eight of us in total on the whole bus. It was 11:30 at this point and I told the driver that we thought we had missed the last bus an hour ago, and he said the last bus should have been at 10:30 but the schedules were backed up because of traffic. And speaking of the famous LA traffic, here it is, at 11:30 pm on a Wednesday night:

For fun, I pulled out my phone to look at a map and I just could not get over the fact that our pinpoint was all the way in California, so close to Disneyland! Ahhhhh!!!!

The traffic was bumper to bumper until we got to the freeway. Once we were on the freeway I thought it looked just like home on the highway, except with the occasional palm tree! Our driver told dispatch that he was carrying eight passengers to the Disneyland Hotel and I was practically bouncing up and down in my seat. I was SO happy that we had to take that detour for our luggage because everything really did work out perfectly in the end! After about 45 minutes we were arriving at the Disneyland Hotel. I have to apologize now because most of the pictures I took from the bus came out horrible and these are the best of the worst.

As we were pulling in to the hotel I caught a very quick glimpse of Mickey’s Fun Wheel all lit up in all its rainbow glory and I was completely overtaken by excitement. I couldn’t believe I was really in Disneyland and I was overjoyed! I may actually be 5 years old.

A man boarded the bus with a portable credit card machine so we could pay. Since we didn’t have a reservation it was $22 one way or $32 round trip. We decided to do one-way since Bobby wanted to rent a car for the second part of our trip. By the way, if you prepay or reserve ahead, it’s only $20 one way or $30 round trip.

After that the driver made drop-offs at each hotel. None of us eight were lucky enough to be staying on property, but the other passengers were staying much further away from the parks than we were. As a result, we were the last to be dropped off. I took a terribly dark picture of the Paradise Pier Hotel as we drove past it.

Our driver dropped us off right in front of our hotel but told us this wasn’t the usual drop off/pick up spot. Since it was so late he didn’t want to make us walk, but the actual stop is a little bit past the hotel in front of the restaurant next door.

We tipped the driver after he unloaded our bags and we went to check in. Since it was so late the office was locked and we had to go to a side window.

A very friendly gentleman made small talk with us while checking us in. While waiting for him to get our key cards, I spotted this fellow. He (or she) was huge!

Bobby questioned why I felt the need to take a picture of a moth, and I told him because it was the biggest moth I’d ever seen, and then I snapped a picture in his face and told him I’d be posting it on the Disboards to teach him a lesson! Muahahaha!

Before long we were on our way to our room, a deluxe king that we got for the price of a standard king by booking online during a promotion. Score! By the way, I am still receiving lots of promotional emails from the hotel with discounts and deals so if you are interested in this hotel, I would sign up to be on their email list.

Here are some pictures of our walk to our room. We were on the far side of the hotel since that’s where the deluxe rooms are located. It wasn’t too far of a walk and we really didn’t mind.

Waiting for the elevator to the 4th floor. We took the stairs for the rest of our stay when we didn’t have luggage with us.

I gushed over this poster in the elevator, even though we wouldn’t be visiting Cars Land on this trip.

When we got out of the elevator we were on the top floor and this was the view:

I could not believe I was looking at California Adventure and I was dancing around excitedly while Bobby tried to drag me toward our room. I said hello and goodnight to DCA and then we entered our room. It was clean and had all the basics so we were happy. They even attempted a towel animal. I mean, it’s not official Disney towel art but they get an A for effort.

We got into bed at 1 a.m. which was 4 a.m. EST so we were pretty tired and fell asleep right away. We had a super exciting day ahead of us and I couldn’t wait to hear my alarm going off at 7 the next morning!
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I just want to say here that I would highly recommend the Ramada Maingate if you are okay with a no-frills hotel. I thought the price was reasonable especially for the location (more on that in the next update). The room rate was $140/night. We paid $325.26 in total for the two nights including tax.

 

[Leshaface]

Yay for an update!

I"m so glad that a Disneyland shuttle showed up! Pure pixie dust! I don't think i've seen traffic like that late at night before. At least it didn't last for hours.

I've been debating about staying at the Ramada Maingate. I've stayed at like 3 or 4 other hotels on Harbor but never there. I may have to sign up for their emails since we may be making a quick trip in May. The room looks really nice! Do you know if these are newly remodeled?

I cannot wait to hear your next update!

P.S. You looked SOOO thrilled to be on the shuttle going towards DLR in that picture

 

[Jaina]

Sounds like you lucked out a few times after getting a slow start to your trip! I can only imagine how tired you must have been though... Looking forward to what "tomorrow" brings!

 

[heathsf]

Yay for an update!

I"m so glad that a Disneyland shuttle showed up! Pure pixie dust! I don't think i've seen traffic like that late at night before. At least it didn't last for hours.

I've been debating about staying at the Ramada Maingate. I've stayed at like 3 or 4 other hotels on Harbor but never there. I may have to sign up for their emails since we may be making a quick trip in May. The room looks really nice! Do you know if these are newly remodeled?

I cannot wait to hear your next update!

P.S. You looked SOOO thrilled to be on the shuttle going towards DLR in that picture

I'm not sure if they were newly remodeled. It looked like they were building an addition though because they were doing construction on something new.

Sounds like you lucked out a few times after getting a slow start to your trip! I can only imagine how tired you must have been though... Looking forward to what "tomorrow" brings!

I know, it really felt like everything worked out for the best in the end!

 

[heathsf]

Chapter 2 - Were Going to Disneyland Today!

My alarm was set for 7 a.m. but in true Im-a-child-who-is-super-excited-to-go-to-Disney fashion I was awake at 6. I got out of bed shortly after once I realized I couldnt fall back asleep and took a shower. I woke Bobby around 7 and we left the room at 8 to get breakfast. We were a little behind schedule because I wanted to be leaving for the park at 8, but we didnt feel like we needed to rush. I promised Bobby I would not be a crazy commando for this one day trip. I had already accepted that we would not be able to see and do everything so I just wanted to enjoy the day and take it all in.

This was our view as we left the room. We didnt use the pool but it looked nice, albeit small. I imagine it may get very crowded when the weather was warmer but it was totally empty throughout our stay. The hotel offers free breakfast which is served in that small building to the left of the pool.

Before going downstairs, I walked past the elevators so I could check out this view:

I still couldnt believe I was looking at these beautiful structures in person! Every morning should start with a view of Tower of Terror before breakfast.

It looked like they were building an addition on to the hotel. This new section was being built next to where our room was, on the far side from where registration is. I dont remember it being noisy at all and we definitely didnt hear anything in our room. Im not sure exactly what theyre building or when it will be done.

Palm trees in California are so tall!

We made our way to where breakfast was served. It is a small space where the food is laid out and the only seating is outdoors by the pool. Im so sorry I didnt take a picture of the breakfast offerings. Bad DISer. They had donuts, hard boiled eggs, bagels, toast, cereal, coffee, juice, and water. This was the only time we had the breakfast so I cant say whether these offerings change daily. There may be something Im forgetting. Perhaps there were muffins? Im really not sure. Sorry!!

I had two hard boiled eggs and a piece of wheat toast. It wasnt anything exciting but I wanted to eat something light since I planned to eat a lot throughout the rest of the day. One of the things I was most excited about for this trip was Disney Food! Ill show you Bobbys breakfast since it was a little more exciting than mine: donut, egg, and bagel which you can barely see in the corner of the picture going into his mouth.

Bobby does not condone my obsessive picture-taking habits (well& not when its just a boring hotel breakfast), so when I asked him to stop eating the bagel for a second so I could take a picture, he stuffed all that was left (a decent sized piece!) into his mouth. Well, the jokes on him because I got this picture and now its on the internet! Ha!

We had some company for breakfast. You can see a sliver of the pool at the top of the picture. The breakfast area wasnt empty by any means but it wasnt packed either. We were pretty much able to walk right up and grab our food and we found a table right away. Perhaps it would be busier later. It was also very quiet which was nice.

As soon as we finished eating we began our walk to Disneyland! I spent a lot of time playing with Google Maps Street-View to practice walking to Disneyland from the hotel. Not that it requires any practice, but I just found it fun! Its just a short walk down Harbor Blvd to the entrance. It seemed really short online which was the major reason why I picked this hotel. Well, as short as it seemed online, it was even shorter in person! I was shocked at how close we really were! Perhaps I should have realized it while looking at the view of DCA from the top floor, but I still thought it would be a little bit longer of a walk. OMG, it was just so close, I loved it!

You can see Space Mountain on the left side of the background of this picture.

We had hardly walked at all before we saw this:

This may have been my favorite thing about Disneyland. We could leave our room and be inside the park in 10 minutes (not including lines). In Disney World, I would say that would take a minimum of twenty five minutes if a bus were already waiting and pulled away as soon as we got on, but most likely longer. I just loved the convenience of it! Major points for Disneyland!
And here is a perfect example of why this is so great: It was at this point that Bobby realized he forgot something in the room. In Disney World, I would have said TOO BAD! and that would be that. Just kidding& kind of. But since we had only been walking for a minute or two, he just turned around and walked back to the room while I waited for him and admired the Tower of Terror some more. He was actually very impressed that I didnt freak out on him and yell at him for making us late. Truth be told, I might have if it was closer to 9 but we were still early and had time before opening. I didnt think those few minutes would make much of a difference and it certainly wasnt worth making him feel bad. And I was happy to have some time to look at the front side of ToT and daydream about riding it in DCA someday.

He was back quickly and we continued on and in no time at all we were looking at this (again):

There was a large group of people waiting to cross the street, including CMs! This was such a shock to me, being so used to WDW where this could never happen! You can see two CMs in the picture below, and there were two ToT bellhops walking behind us but I didnt want to turn around and blatantly take a picture of them since they werent actually at work yet. This excited me but disappointed me at the same time. I felt like it took away from some of the magic&

Anyway, we crossed the street and I was skipping with excitement. I could tell Bobby was excited too, and he was definitely enjoying how excited I was. I still couldnt believe we were really here!

The bag check line moved quickly enough and I enjoyed the cute signs they had posted while we waited. I was sad that BTMRR was closed but Ive ridden it countless times at WDW so its okay!

I was about to get my first look at the two park entrances... and then the lines

 

[Leshaface]

You know what, I've never even thought about seeing CM's walking to 'work' before at Disneyland. I've seen it countless of times but never really thought losing a bit of magic. You're right, I've never seen it at WDW before. Interesting observation

Even when we stay at a hotel on Harbor and DH has to go back, I still freak out! Good job for keeping your cool.

I can't wait to see what you think about being able to see two park entrances at once. Usually the lines to get in are super long, but can go through them pretty quickly. Hope this happens with you!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We stayed at the Ramada Maingate too!!

And I believe that is an elephant, we got 2. I just read your first update and am super excited to get started on the second

I am intrigued to see how much you can fit into one day.

 

[heathsf]

We stayed at the Ramada Maingate too!!

And I believe that is an elephant, we got 2. I just read your first update and am super excited to get started on the second

I am intrigued to see how much you can fit into one day.

Thanks! My DFi agreed with you that it was an elephant...

I see you have a link to your TR in your signature, I'm going to check it out!

You know what, I've never even thought about seeing CM's walking to 'work' before at Disneyland. I've seen it countless of times but never really thought losing a bit of magic. You're right, I've never seen it at WDW before. Interesting observation

Even when we stay at a hotel on Harbor and DH has to go back, I still freak out! Good job for keeping your cool.

I can't wait to see what you think about being able to see two park entrances at once. Usually the lines to get in are super long, but can go through them pretty quickly. Hope this happens with you!

I guess you're just used to seeing the CMs walking to work since this is your home park. It struck me as so bizarre because I've never seen a CM outside of their designated area before! It was kind of cool to see bellhops walking down Harbor Blvd though

Yes, the lines were *beyond* super crazy. I was totally unprepared for it. But I have a great story coming up about that!

 

[Jaina]

Anyone else can't see any of the last pictures?

 

[Leshaface]

Anyone else can't see any of the last pictures?

Yeah I can't either.

 

[LizzieinDisney]

Joining in the fun on this one! Your comment about LA traffic made me smile, because I have been stuck in traffic at 11pm a few different times. However, I can't see the pictures either Looking forward to the rest of it!

 

[::danielle::]

I'm do excited to hear about your trip! We lived in LA for 4 years but I grew up in Orlando. I love to hear about what WDW vets think of DL. There are things that make each park special and unique. I cant wait to hear what you thought of the park!

 

[heathsf]

Uh Oh!! The pictures!! I know they were there when I first posted I will have to look into that hopefully tonight or tomorrow. I'm so sorry for disappearing, I have been so busy! I'm running late for work now, but I'll be back soon!

 

[Leshaface]

Uh Oh!! The pictures!! I know they were there when I first posted I will have to look into that hopefully tonight or tomorrow. I'm so sorry for disappearing, I have been so busy! I'm running late for work now, but I'll be back soon!

Hurry! I"m anxious to hear about the rest of your trip!

 

[heathsf]

Anyone else can't see any of the last pictures?

So sorry!! I have no idea what happened! I know they were there when I first posted, and when I went back to edit this morning, all the codes were weird! But it's fixed now

 

[heathsf]

Joining in the fun on this one! Your comment about LA traffic made me smile, because I have been stuck in traffic at 11pm a few different times. However, I can't see the pictures either Looking forward to the rest of it!

Welcome! Thanks for joining! I hope you didn't change your mind since I haven't updated in forever!

I'm do excited to hear about your trip! We lived in LA for 4 years but I grew up in Orlando. I love to hear about what WDW vets think of DL. There are things that make each park special and unique. I cant wait to hear what you thought of the park!

Thanks for joining! There are definitely things that make each park special. I feel like I only got a teeny taste of what Disneyland has to offer but it was a really awesome and delicious taste

Hurry! I"m anxious to hear about the rest of your trip!

I know I'm so sorry! I've been awful with keeping up with the TR. I will definitely post at least one update today and try to get another in during the next week. I usually try to get a big chunk of time to sit and do a whole update, but since that's not working out I may have to try doing just a little bit each day over the course of a few days. I'm definitely not finding enough time for the DIS

 

[LizzieinDisney]

Welcome! Thanks for joining! I hope you didn't change your mind since I haven't updated in forever!

Of course I didn't change my mind. Good Disneyland TR's are always worth waiting for.

 

[heathsf]

Chapter 3 - Five Hundred Hours on the DisBoards Pays Off!

I'm not sure why I was so unprepared for what was coming. I had seen huge crowds waiting to enter the parks in Disney World before opening, yet what I saw at Disneyland still shocked me. Here's a picture to give you an idea:

That's mostly DCA crowds but Disneyland wasn't any better. It seems I didn't actually take a picture of the line for Disneyland. And note, I said "line", like singular. There was ONE line and it was LOOOOOOONG! It snaked and curved around through the esplanade. For some reason, I seemed to think there would be a very small crowd waiting for the park to open. Again, I realize now the silliness of this and have no idea why I would have thought that.

As we waded through the crowds to try to find the end of the line, I snapped a few pictures. Although I was shocked by the line (I really couldn't get over the fact that it was just ONE line!), I was still doing the happy dance because we were at Disneyland!

So this is where we ended up on line:

Don't be fooled. I know it looks like we're close to the entrance but we were on the end of a very long and very curvy line. DCA seemed to have separate lines though.

Now, here is where it gets interesting...

I decided to ask a CM if this was the right place for us to be waiting. I just couldn't imagine only one line going through with all these turnstiles. Through my devout Disney studies, I had learned from easywdw.com and DisBoards that in WDW turnstiles that are used for EMH, breakfast reservations, or tours before park opening will usually change over right at opening for general admission and will have super short lines. Since many of the turnstiles here were being used for Early Entry, I figured I should ask a CM, just in case there was a way we wouldn't have to wait on that super long snaky line.

Bobby waited in line while I found a super friendly CM nearby. He was so nice, and told me that the gate nearest us which was currently marked "Exit Only" would become an entrance in a few minutes and we could wait over there.

Here's what he was talking about:

And here's a closer look:

People were going in now for Early Entry so we walked over to wait in that area. I, of course, couldn't stop talking about what a genius I am and saying things like "See Bob! Spending all that time on the Disboards does pay off!"

We were standing around in that area for a minute or so when a different CM asked if we were EE and we said no, we were waiting for the park to open. As friendly as that first CM was... this one was super NOT friendly. He very rudely told us and another couple standing nearby that we couldn't wait there and had to get on the back of the super long snaky line. I pointed out that another CM told us we could wait there and he asked us who. I pointed out the original CM, and this guy said, "Well I don't know who that is and this is MY area and you can't stand here." And I was like

I don't like getting in trouble or doing the wrong thing ever, much less in Disney. And he was mean! And my happy Disney bubble was bursted a little bit. Not to mention, the long snaky line was now even longer and we had lost our spot. So, we got back on the end of the line. I was really upset about the whole thing, as was the couple standing right behind us. Apparently, the girl had heard the same thing from that first CM that I did. We started talking to them and decided that us girls would go wait near the "forbidden area" while the guys waited in the long line and we'd see what happens and call them if they opened up the exit only.

We walked back over near that area, and we certainly weren't the only ones with this idea. We were standing there for maybe a minute when it was announced that the exit gate was now an entrance for everyone, and a huge mob of people was headed our way. We didn't even have to call the boys because they saw everyone walking over. We were maybe the fifth group on line and it couldn't have worked out more perfectly!

So I was back to informing Bobby about what a genius I am, and how valuable that time spent on the Disboards proved to be! I took a few pictures as we entered the park but I was really trying to soak up the Disney atmosphere and appreciate where I was. I was in Walt's Park!! The original!! Mickey's home!! Aaahhh!!!

I was on cloud nine, skipping down the street and about to get my first look at Sleeping Beauty Castle...

 

[heathsf]

Of course I didn't change my mind. Good Disneyland TR's are always worth waiting for.

I'm so glad! I just followed you on twitter. You must be thrilled about starting your CP! Have you seen this thread? http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3050629