Best Year Ever!! An International Disney Park PTR

[dolewhipdreams]

I felt so bad when I saw you were sick on insta! But I'm glad it passed as quickly as it came on and hopefully didn't get anyone else sick! My whole family got SUPER sick one trip when we did a split stay at some rinky dink hotel in Kissimmee and POFQ. My Mom blamed us all getting sick on the hotel in Kissimmee and the pool and we've never stayed off property since!

Your Copper Creek villa looked amazing though, can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

And your plans for future trips, obvs

I'm honestly shocked that my DH didn't get sick. I don't know if it was food poisoning for stomach flu but either way we were sharing food throughout our whole travel day so I was certain he was going to get it, too.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Hey friends! I got a TR started for our January trip, so if you feel so inclined check it out here!

I also have some updates on our other trips this year so those should be coming shortly. Until then, Happy Friday!

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[dolewhipdreams]

Okay so I’ve made some major headway on our July Backstage Magic ABD! A lot of our pre and post weekend plans have been solidified, which is awesome (even though we’re still 6 months away).

We booked our flights and the best flight for us was one that departs our home airport at 10:10pm and arrived in LAX at 11:30pm

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Which means we will be heading straight to our hotel for the night and promptly passing out. I used credit card points to book the Hampton Inn @ El Segundo. I’ve never stayed there but it has good reviews, an airport shuttle, and free breakfast. We’ll be too tired to care about anything else!

The next morning we’ll drive up and drop our bags off at our hotel for the next few nights- the Leow’s Hollywood. They were having a really stellar Black Friday deal so I went ahead and booked a pre-night stay on our own. We saved about $100 over booking through ABD.

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I know we could have found cheaper accommodations for that night but it will be so convenient not to have to move again (probably just change rooms).

I’m thinking for this day we’ll do some kind of food tour instead of lunch (food tours are the best. We did our first in Montreal last spring and it changed my life. Now I want to do them everywhere), explore some of Hollywood, then head to Griffith Observatory for Hollywood sign viewing. My plan for dinner is Pink’s Hot Dogs because I freaking love hot dogs (and pink).

The next day is technically the first day of our ABD, but we won’t check in until like 5pm so we have most of the daytime free! I really want to take Jon on the Warner Brothers Studio tour, so we might try for that in the early AM, then head to the Farmer’s Market for lunch and exploring before check in.

The next 4 days are all ABD days and there really isn’t much planning involved. I think we have maybe an evening on our own in Hollywood? In which case we’ll probably just eat and walk around. Has anyone done the SoCal ABD who has a recommendation for this night?

On our last ABD day we plan to take full advantage of our DL tickets and spend that whole day in the parks, throwing elbows at all the SWGE crowds (hopefully they’ll all be at SWGE and we can just ride Guardians of the Galaxy over and over). I'm also going to try to get a lunch reservation at Blue Bayou so we can finally try that infamous Monte Cristo.

Okay here’s the part that was a super unexpected but TOTALLY AWESOME addition to our plans!

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Upon first planning, we thought we’d spend the weekend after ABD at the beach somewhere, soaking in some sun and just generally relaxing.

BUT then our good friend @OhioStateBuckeye told us about a little place in Hollywood called the Magic Castle, and how you can visit it if you know how.

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The Magic Castle is a private magic club/restaurant where members and their guests can go to enjoy some magic shows and a nice dinner. Professional magicians from around the world can perform here and you can see up to three shows in one night. (Apparently Jon already knew about this and has dreamt of visiting one day). It has a strict dress code (like the code even tells men when they can and cannot remove their sport coats) and an even stricter no photography policy. This is because CELEBRITIES FREQUENT THE CASTLE.

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NBD but I’ve never met a celebrity and when our friend went who was there??? RYAN FREAKING REYNOLDS (and the lovely Blake Lively). I would sell a kidney to be in the same room as Ryan Reynolds for an evening.

It’s advertised as members-only but guests at the nearby Magic Castle Hotel are also welcome to visit, as long as they make a reservation and pay the cover charge. Since we are not members (yet) and don’t know any, this was our only option.

Surprisingly, the hotel has decent rates, especially for being smack in the middle of Hollywood. And our friends said good things about the hotel so we know it’s not super seedy or anything. Since I love my husband (and Ryan Reynolds), I thought visiting the Magic Castle would be a great way to spend our anniversary, so I was able to book us a room there and make reservations for dinner and the magic shows on our 6th anniversary.

Planning note- if you are planning to visit the Magic Castle on a Saturday (as we are), then there is a 2-night minimum for booking. Any other day of the week does not have a minimum.

That still leaves most of Saturday and Sunday free (since our flight doesn’t leave until 8:35pm on Sunday night. Man we’ll be tired Monday) to visit a beach, so I’ll need to do some research on the best beaches close to LA. I know Malibu is supposed to be pretty and I feel like we should visit Venice Beach, since we were both punk kids growing up.

Anybody else have any favorite things to do in Hollywood/LA that aren’t already on our plans or in the ABD?

All the important stuff is booked for this trip so now it’s just the fun details of figuring out what to do and where to eat each day! As always, suggestions are welcome.

 

[Cloe Colton]

That sounds super awesome!!!

I'm also trying to figure out my LA/Disneyland game plan so its super fun reading your plans!

I mean I've never been to the West Coast before but we are planning on doing dinner at SUR one night because I also want to run into a celebrity and it just seems like a fun romantic place to eat!

The only thing I maybe would suggest is the Santa Monica Pier (which I think is relatively close to Venice beach)? But yeah I agree its hard to decide on which beach to visit!

 

[missjackiemcg]

Wowie wow wow!! Your anniversary plan sounds incredible!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

That sounds super awesome!!!

I'm also trying to figure out my LA/Disneyland game plan so its super fun reading your plans!

I mean I've never been to the West Coast before but we are planning on doing dinner at SUR one night because I also want to run into a celebrity and it just seems like a fun romantic place to eat!

The only thing I maybe would suggest is the Santa Monica Pier (which I think is relatively close to Venice beach)? But yeah I agree its hard to decide on which beach to visit!

Oh I've heard of SUR! I have a friend who went there and loved it. That might be a good place to look into.

I went to Santa Monica when I was in LA solo and it's alright but I'd rather find somewhere new! It will also probably be craazzyy busy!

Wowie wow wow!! Your anniversary plan sounds incredible!

We are almost too excited for words (especially Jon)!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Hey, I'm That friend!

I didn't know you had a trip report, I'll be joining in. And giving my opinion on things later, since Grand Tour is on right now and I just had an 11 hour work day

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

When you have dinner at Pink's Hot Dogs, you can stop at the Le Brea Tar Pits on the way. They have a museum that has a fee, or you can just walk around the outside for about a half hour and look at the actual tar pits and the free exhibits they have outside. This is what we did, and I think we enjoyed our short, free time there. It was interesting.

Honestly, for your free evening I'd relax in the room. Our free night in Hollywood the guides took us to the Farmer's Market and we wished we would have just stayed back at the room. You won't have this problem, but our ABD was at Christmastime and it was freezing so we all just hid inside the Barnes and Noble.

But you are going to have an action packed time and will be having very early mornings for ABD. I know it's hard to go, I am very go go go on vacation too, but just relaxing at the hotel might not be the worst use of your time that night.

For the Blue Bayou lunch reservation, I'd try to get one right when it opens. So probably 11 or 11:15. Then when you check in say you'd please like a water table and you're willing to wait for it. It really just makes the whole experience. If you aren't by the water it won't be as good, trust me.

For Hollywood I like Mel's Diner. Its a few blocks from Loew's hotel. The food is very reasonably priced and its just good diner food.

If you have extra days in the area I always like to check to see if anything is going on at the Hollywood Bowl, that's where they do those awesome Disney musicals like the Little Mermaid that had all the celebrity casting.

You could also see a movie at El Capitan or Grauman's Chinese. Grauman's also offers a short behind the scenes tour and they will show you around the historic theater. A movie could be a good event for your down night on the ABD tour. I think ours even ended up offering us tickets for the Good Dino at El Cap. Which was worth seeing because they do epic pre-shows.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

or you can just walk around the outside for about a half hour and look at the actual tar pits and the free exhibits they have outside

Oh neat, I didn't realize there were parts you could see for free. The tar pits sound super interesting so that's going on my list!

so we all just hid inside the Barnes and Noble

That doesn't sound very magical at all.

Then when you check in say you'd please like a water table and you're willing to wait for it. It really just makes the whole experience

Noted

For Hollywood I like Mel's Diner.

Is this the one that the diner in Universal is modeled after?

the Hollywood Bowl, that's where they do those awesome Disney musicals like the Little Mermaid that had all the celebrity casting

Which was worth seeing because they do epic pre-shows

Good ideas to both! I totally forgot about the El Capitan- it would be neat to see a Disney movie there. And it's pretty close to the hotel, right?

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Woohoo we made major headway on our Paris trip in the last few weeks!

1st- we booked our flights! I had Google alerts out on some flights and American Airlines randomly dropped their prices for one day on a flight that works really well for us and we saved about $400 for the two of us. I checked the following day just for the heck of it and saw that they were back up in price so I'm glad I jumped on them.

2nd- we booked the DLP portion of our trip! We’ll be staying three nights at Sequoia Lodge in a Golden Forest Room to end our trip. The Golden Forest is a tiny bit of a splurge but I figured after a long week of tromping around Paris we would want to have a room closer to the parks and the included breakfast is always a perk for me. And the included FP per person per day means I’ll probably be less likely to buy their new paid-for FP option.

3rd- we decided that we’re going to stay in the Paris area for our whole trip to France so our ‘France’ trip has become pretty much a ‘Paris’ trip. We had to shorten our trip because my DH earned that awesome free trip to Palm Springs, which will take up some PTO that I wasn’t expecting to have to use. I realized we don’t really have enough time to get to another part of the country and really enjoy it so we’re just going to soak up as much of the Paris area as we can. The rough plan is three days for the city, three day-trips, and then three days in DLP.

Now it’s time for the fun part- planning out all the activities and how each day is going to work!

 

[Cloe Colton]

That is awesome!!! I'm sure you were so happy when you saw the flights went back up! DH and I got burned one time waiting for flights because I was waiting for him to make a decision! So that is awesome and what a great savings!

I feel like that's the hard part about going to Europe because there is just so much to see and not enough time to do it all! But I feel like your plan sounds great especially with all of your day trips!!

We did the nighttime boat ride down the Seine the night we landed in Paris and we really enjoyed it! It was the perfect kind welcome to Paris

 

[dolewhipdreams]

That is awesome!!! I'm sure you were so happy when you saw the flights went back up! DH and I got burned one time waiting for flights because I was waiting for him to make a decision! So that is awesome and what a great savings!

I feel like that's the hard part about going to Europe because there is just so much to see and not enough time to do it all! But I feel like your plan sounds great especially with all of your day trips!!

We did the nighttime boat ride down the Seine the night we landed in Paris and we really enjoyed it! It was the perfect kind welcome to Paris

I definitely want to do a Seine cruise with the city all lit up!

 

[suse66]

we decided that we’re going to stay in the Paris area for our whole trip to France so our ‘France’ trip has become pretty much a ‘Paris’ trip. We had to shorten our trip because my DH earned that awesome free trip to Palm Springs, which will take up some PTO that I wasn’t expecting to have to use. I realized we don’t really have enough time to get to another part of the country and really enjoy it so we’re just going to soak up as much of the Paris area as we can. The rough plan is three days for the city, three day-trips, and then three days in DLP.

Now it’s time for the fun part- planning out all the activities and how each day is going to work!

So exciting!!!! If you have a chance, a day trip to Giverney to see Monet's gardens would be lovely. It is beautiful there! I am really hoping to get to Ireland next summer and would love to add a quick DLP visit on to that trip!

 

[amazingact21]

Hooray for booking your flights and room! Sequoia Lodge is a great resort. It's close and provides a nice quiet walk at the end/beginning of your park day. Those free FPs are wonderful! Definitely worth the extra upgrade.

Can't wait to hear more about your plans for the Paris parks.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

So exciting!!!! If you have a chance, a day trip to Giverney to see Monet's gardens would be lovely. It is beautiful there! I am really hoping to get to Ireland next summer and would love to add a quick DLP visit on to that trip!

Giverny is definitely on the list of day trips I'm considering! It seems so beautiful.

Definitely worth the extra upgrade.

I hope it's worth it! I missed the end of a really good deal so it ended up being more of an upgrade than I was expecting but I knew the rooms booked quickly so I didn't want to wait and risk not getting Golden Forest at all!

 

[missangelalexis]

That is awesome!! Glad you've made a lot of progress with the trip!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

That is awesome!! Glad you've made a lot of progress with the trip!

Yes it all feels like it's coming together!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Okay I am getting so antsy over here. I love travel planning. I enjoy it almost as much as the actual travel. But two of our upcoming trips require little to no planning and it's driving me bonkers! The booking for our Palm Springs trip is done completely through my DH's company and it's very much of a ~figure out what to do when you get there~ kind of trip (my absolute least favorite way to travel). But it's a free trip and I'm still very grateful.

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Then our ABD is 90% planned by ABD so the only planning there are our pre/post days! So since I was in a planning rut I decided to completely reconfigure the two days before the ABD starts.

The ABD officially starts on a Sunday evening, and that Saturday I changed our plans to this:

-wake up and check out of airport hotel
-drive to Loew's to drop baggage off
-Pink's Hot Dogs for lunch (previously had this as a late dinner)
-explore Melrose and Hollywood area (lots of awesome shopping in Melrose that I may have to drag Eric to)

-THEN I found a super amazing self-led dessert crawl in Beverly Hills so we'll spend the late afternoon wandering around the Rodeo Drive area stuffing our faces with sugary treats

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-after that it's off to Griffith Observatory to watch the sunset
-then back to the hotel for a good night's rest!

I haven't changed much about the 1st day of the ABD (yet), except Eric mentioned he would like to see the La Brea Tar Pits so we'll stop by there after lunch at the Farmer's Market before checking in for our ABD.

As for the two days following the ABD, I think I'll leave them as fairly un-planned beach days. I know I said I don't like leaving things unplanned but I've heard from so many that the Backstage Magic trip can be absolutely exhausting, so I want to take pressure away from needing to be anywhere specific. So I figure we'll hit up Venice/Santa Monica on Saturday, then go a little further out to Malibu on Sunday.

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ALSO I'm sure most of you know this already, but they announced the opening dates for SWGE and we know now that it will be open when we're at Disneyland (at least the first phase)!! I'm hoping some of the folks here on the boards doing Backstage Magic between the opening and when we go can share some info about what the guides get to take them through. I'm seriously crossing my fingers for skipping the line at Smuggler's Run. If we can't, then the last day of the ABD (when the trip is officially over but you still have a full ticket at DL) we can just plan on staying in line for it all day.

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[Cloe Colton]

I feel you on loving planning! I always feel somewhat lost when I realize there isn't ALL that much to plan for a trip.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you on your Backstage Magic tour in Disneyland to get you to front of the line for Smugglers Run! I mean that is the kind of VIPness that they advertise so I wouldn't expect it to be totally out of the realm of possibility! Is it crazy that I was just looking up how much a VIP guide would be for me and DH in September...lol maybe I'll do that once both rides are open!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Is it crazy that I was just looking up how much a VIP guide would be for me and DH in September...lol maybe I'll do that once both rides are open!

That's not crazy at all! It sounds less crazy than waiting in line for hours upon hours hahaha