An English Disney fans 1st trip to DL and 3 week American adventure UPDATED 9/14

Danauk

<font color=green>I would be sitting on the patio
Joined
Jun 27, 2003
Messages
14,597
The cast:
Me, Karen - 32 (going on 8 as I spend my day teaching 8 year olds!)
DH, Pete - 33 (he puts up with my Disney obsession but loves our Disney trips!)

The reason for the trip:
To celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We went to Disneyland Paris on our honeymoon, celebrated our 5th in WDW so figured DL for our 10th!

Monday 11th August 2008
The day had finally arrived, today we are off to Disneyland!! We got up at 4:45am and my parents drove us to London Heathrow airport. We got there by 8am and dropped the bags off quickly, we had done on line check in and printed our boarding passes the night before. We had a quick breakfast with my parents before we said our good bye and went through security. Our flight wasn't until 11:30 and we had a few hours to pass so we went into the airport lounge to relax. At 11:00 we were called to the gate and started boarding and took off on time. We had decided this trip to upgrade to the Premium cabin which we were glad we had done. We got extra leg room, a dedicated cabin so there was a seperate cabin crew for our section, meals served on propper plates and lots of drinks available (including a glass sparkling wine before we had taken off and Baileys after our main meal). We had a great flight, just some turbulance over Canada but soon we were flying over California.

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Because of good weather we landed early at 2:15pm California time (10:15pm UK time) so our flight was 10 1/2 hours instead of 11. We got through immigration and security quickly and our bags were 1st off the plane so by 2:50pm we were in our town car on the way to Disneyland!!

By 3:50pm we were here. The security guard greeted us with a 'Welcome home!'

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And soon we were passing through the front doors.

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We checked in and as we did so the front desk CM said she had something out back for us. She returned with 1st visit pins, anniversary pins, an anniversary card and some balloons for us! Soon we were on our way to our room. I had ordered some baskets to be in our room on arrival which were lovely.

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As we had been up for 19 hours at this point we decided to have a bit of a relax as we unpacked our stuff. So we decided to enjoy a glass of wine and the chocolate covered strawberries out on our balcony. Our balcony had a great view

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.

We could see Grizzly Peak:
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The drop on the Grizzly River Run:

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And the Tower of Terror:

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Plus we could see the monorail going past.

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At 5:30pm after we had relaxed and changed clothes we decided to head into the park. We went into California Adventure through the hotel entrance and went straight to Toy Story Midway Mania. Thanks to the tips from fellow dissers we knew this would be a good time to go, we only waited 20 minutes. Then we decided to take it easy and have a wonder around to take in the atmosphere and take some photos.

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We also did a little (OK, I did a lot) of pin shopping and then decided to go on Monsters Inc.

By now it was nearly 8pm so we went to check in for our seating for the electrical parade. We were given a box of goodies and a glass of wine to enjoy. For us the seating was a great way to start our trip. Soon the parade started:

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After the parade we decided to take a few more pictures:

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I loved the reflection of the sun wheel in the water!

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Then as we had been up for over 25 hours we decided to head back to the room to bed, taking a few pictures from the balcony before I went to sleep.

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We got up at 5am (my body was still on UK time and thought it was 1pm!!), had a cup of coffee in our room (the coffee we got in our basket was OK) and then wondered down to get in line for Magic Morning, snapping a few pictures of the hotel along the way as it was so quiet.

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When we got to the esplanade it was empty.

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Soon security turned up and we were 1st in line. The security people were lovely and we chtted to them until 6:30am when we were allowed through to line up at the gates.

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At 7am we were allowed in and I took my 1st walk under the tunnel.

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We headed straight for Fantasyland and rode all the Fantasyland rides, including both sides of the Matterhorn by 8pm (thanks to the tips from here as to the order to do the rides in!) Then we rode BTMRR and POTC plus collected FP's for Indy before 8:30am. At 9am we wondered out of the park and back to the lobby of our hotel to meet our VIP guide for the day. Thanks to fellow Dissers I had requested Karen C who was amazing. Nothing was any trouble for her and she arranged many unexpected things for us, for us with it being our 1st trip and a special occasion it was well worth the money.

Karen took our passes off us so she could collect FP's for us throughout the day. 1st we went into California Adventure before it opened and Karen got us some Grizzly River Run FP's for later. Then we went over to Soarin where we went on the 1st (and 2nd - we were allowed to stay on) flight of the day. Then we headed over into Disneyland Park where we took the Fire Engine down Main Street. We walked past Show Whites waterfall and wishing well and saw Peter Pan and Wendy.

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We were going to go on Space Mountain but it was down, but Karen's CM friend was working so we got 2 fast passes each for later, plus she got them to sing Happy Anniversary to us to the tune of happy birthday. She also managed to get 2 Indy FP's for us as well whilst we were there. Then we headed over to Nemo which had a 90 minute wait. As a VIP tour doesn't get you front of the line access Karen took our mobile number and gave us the FP's she had collected (we had BTMRR, Indy plus the SM) and told us to go and ride those rides whilst she waited in line for us. Then when she got to the front she would ring us. So off we went, we went on BTMRR and had just got a Bengal BBQ skewer when our phone rang, it was Karen telling us to come straight over. We were a little confused as we had only left her 15 minutes beforehand. She has seen her friend who was a lead on Nemo and as a special dream prize he let us onto the ride via the exit!! I thought Nemo was very cute and really enjoyed it.

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After Nemo I had asked if we could ride the Lilly Belle so we went to the Tomorrowland Station. Luckily the next train to pull in had the Lilly Belle on it so we got onboard.

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So we did a lap of the park on the Lilly Belle. By now we needed a break so Karen suggested that we go and ride Splash Mountain with a FP she had got for us earlier whilst she went and got us a table at the Billy Hill and the Hillbillies show.

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So off we went. We got soaked on Splash Mountain but it was so warm we had dried out by the time we had walked over to the Golden Horseshoe. We got some lunch and soon the show started. It was obvious as they show began that Karen had talked to the performers as they dedicated the show to us for our anniversary (including a war song about the British coming!)Throughout the show they interacted with us a lot and we really enjoyed it (especially as Pete is a fiddle player too and plays the fiddle in a folk music band!)

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After the show we headed back over to the California Adventure park via City Hall. At City Hall Karen had arranged for some signed photos for us from our favourite characters and she got Mickey and Minnie to wish us Happy Anniversary over the phone. Also earlier in the day we had been chatting about what we do and I had mentioned that I teach 8 year olds. So Karen said it would be nice if we could take something back for my class, so she managed to get 30 Happy Birthday badges (which my class are most excited about getting when it is their birthday to wear at school!) Once we got into CA we headed over to the annimation building and had a look around. By now it was time for Karen to go, but before she did she arranged VIP viewing for all the shows, parades etc for the times and days that we wanted. Also before she left she arranged for us to stay behind after the Turtle Talk with Crush show that we were about to see and have a private chat with him!! We were taken into the show 1st and then after the show we stayed behind and once everyone else had gone Crush came back to talk to us. We chatted a bit about where we were from and I asked what his favourite subject at school was (it was surfing!)

Then we went to take a few more pictures:

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before we got our seats for the Pixar Play Parade.

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After the parade we decided to go on Grizzly River Run using the FP's we had got that morning. We got soaked and were thankful that our room and dry clothes were so close by! So we headed back to the room to get changed and then headed to Storytellers where we had a PS for dinner. I had the buffet which I enjoyed. The we headed back into Disneyland Park for our VIP Fantasmic seating. We were in an area also used by people who had been given dream special viewing Fantasmic seating that day.

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I really enjoyed Fantasmic. Once Fantasmic had finished we stayed where we were to watch the fireworks and then headed over to Indy to use our FP's from that morning. We were happy we had them as the wait was 75 minutes! By now it was gone 10:30pm and we had been up since 5am so we headed back to the hotel to bed.
 
Wow good start to your trip report! It sounds like a marvelous deluxe holiday. Your gift baskets looked really beautiful, where did you order them from?

I'll be watching for more on you trippie.
 
We ordered the baskets from Disney Vacation Planning, they were really good.
 

WOW sounds great. We have a similar "celebration" history as you. We went to WDW for our Honeymoon and just last year celebrated our 10 year Anniversary at WDW with our 2 kids in tow.

Looking forward to more about your trippie!;)
 
Looking forward to more TR and pictures of your holiday!popcorn::
 
We got up early again and had our usual morning coffee on the balcony watching California Adventure getting ready to open later. Today we were doing our segway tour. So at 7:00 we were outside the California Adventure entrance waiting for our guides to arrive. At 7:15 we met our guides and were taken into the guest services building back room to have some muffins and juice for breakfast. As we ate we watched a safety video and learned about the segways (they were slightly different to the ones we had ridden previously at WDW.) Soon we were on our way through the park to the area outside Monsters Inc. Here we practiced various moves, corners, up and down slopes etc. We were allowed to take a few pictures.

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After everyone was confident we set off through the park. We rode through the park, stopping occasionally for a rest. The best part was going through the Grizzly Peak area as it was quite hilly! Towards the end of the tour we had a photo session.

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Then we rode back to the start. On the way we cut through a CM gate at the back of bugs land. When we came out of the gate we had to go around a tight corner. As DH rode through Minnie was walking along the path and he nearly ran her over!!

By now it was 10am and the tour was complete, we had had a great time! The CM's took our passes and scanned them for us so we decided to stay in the park and go and get a fast pass for Screamin for later. Then we carried on walking around paradise pier and walked over to Mulholland Madness. By now our feet were aching and we needed a sit down (the segways really give you feet ache!) So we decided to go back to our room for a break. At 12:00 we headed back into the park, getting a Grizzly River Run fast pass as we passed it. Then we went over to ride Screamin, getting another fast pass for it to use later as we joined the line. I loved this ride!

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Next we went on the Sun Wheel (non swinging side, I get very car sick!) and we could see how well the new DVC addition to the GCH was coming on.

Once we left the Sun Wheel we went over to the theatre to watch Aladdin. As we had our names on the VIP list from our tour the day before we went through the Hypernian door at the front and we were allowed to be seated 1st. DH and I do quite a bit of theatre work at home and we loved the show. The Genie was so funny!!

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After the show we decided to use our Grizzly Fast Passes (as it was so hot!) We got soaked on the ride so after that we decied to head back to our room to change and have a swim. I loved how close our room was to the exit of the ride!!

We headed down to the pool which wasn't too crowded. We only wanted to stay for a little while so we swam a few lengths and cooled off then decided to get dry and change so we could go back into the Disneyland park. Once in the park we decided just to wonder around and take in the atmosphere, do some shopping and take a few pictrues.

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We also called in at city hall to ask them if they could get us a couple of autographed character pictures for 2 of our friends which they did for us. By now it was nearly time for the parade so we checked in to the VIP seating area in front of the station where we had a great view (and it was nice to have a bench to sit on!)

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As soon as the parade finished we went straight back to DCA as we had a 7pm reservation at the Wine Country Trattoria. The restaurant was busy when we arrived so we were given a buzzer to let us know when our table would be ready. So we got a glass of wine each from the vinary, found a table and some chairs and sat and people watched for about 10 minutes until our buzzer went off. We had a lovely meal sitting out on the patio area. After our meal we decided to use our Screamin fast pass as I wanted to ride it in the dark (DH and I are big coaster fans so going on a coaster straight after a big dinner doesn't bother us!) As we came off we noticed that the line for Toy Story Midway Mania wasn't too long (20 minutes) so we decided to join it.

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After we had ridden the park was closing, so we decided as we had been up early again and we wanted to be up earlier in the morning to make use of Magical Morning we would head off to bed.
 
Wow, I'm so enjoying your TR! You had some wonderful, magical moments in just the first few days! :goodvibes

The tours are something we haven't done yet, since we have two young children, but I definitely would like to do one when they're old enough. Thanks for letting us share the experience! :)
 




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