Blabbermouth & DH's Feeding Frenzy TRIP REPORT - Final Update 9/21

[blabbermouth]

TWO weeks from now we'll be waiting to enter the gates of Disneyland!!!!!

 

[blabbermouth]

I called this evening to make the reservations I had planned. At less than two weeks until our arrival, I got all of the times I wanted, and choices for many more. The woman who answered the phone was nice and seemed well informed.

So we will be eating breakfast at Carnation Cafe and Surf's Up with Mickey Buffet. Dinner will be had at Ariel's Grotto (for the late show WOC), Big Thunder Ranch BBQ and Napa Rose!

I'm really excited for all of this deliciousness!

We'll probably have our other two breakfasts at Riverbelle Terrace and Mimi's. Lunches will be spur of the moment counter service, but I'd really like to try Tangaroa Terrace, Hungry Bear and Cafe Orleans if we can get in!

We will probably go for drinks at Trader Sam's too, DH NEEDS a souvenir tiki glass.

I promise tons of food pics when I return. Ten more sleeps!

 

[cinderella-princess]

You are getting so close now!!! Yay for getting the reservations you wanted. Just FYI, we went to Trader Sam's and it was AWESOME!! If you get some specific drinks there are cool surprises. For example, if you order the Shipwreck the ship in the bottle behind the bar sinks (Jason ordered that one). And if you order the Krackatoa the volcano in the fake window erupts! (I ordered that one) The bartenders were great, the drinks were tasty and the special effects with the drinks were very cool. I highly recommend it!

 

[blabbermouth]

You are getting so close now!!! Yay for getting the reservations you wanted. Just FYI, we went to Trader Sam's and it was AWESOME!! If you get some specific drinks there are cool surprises. For example, if you order the Shipwreck the ship in the bottle behind the bar sinks (Jason ordered that one). And if you order the Krackatoa the volcano in the fake window erupts! (I ordered that one) The bartenders were great, the drinks were tasty and the special effects with the drinks were very cool. I highly recommend it!

Oh no, a trip report spoiler, haha. Great, I will definitely go, sounds unique and fun!

 

[blabbermouth]

I just wanted to share that I started packing today! Doing a TON of laundry to get everything ready for work this week and our trip. Jason went out and bought groceries to stock us up until Friday. Just have to get some travel medical insurance and U.S. cash! Is it Friday yet???

 

[blabbermouth]

We leave in 36ish hours!!!



We have tomorrow off work, to sleep in and get the last few things done. Then we're off Friday morning, arriving early afternoon at LAX. Hopefully it won't take forever to pick up our bags and rental car, but I expect it will, so at least I'm prepared!

It's predicted to be quite hot when we're down there, highs of over 30 degrees! We'll be happy that it cools down significantly at night. But apparently there's some strange weather all over North America.

Can't wait to be relaxing on vacation!

 

[reyasmommy]

So jealous, yet VERY excited for you. I can't wait to hear about what an amazing time you had! Safe travels and have fun, fun, fun!

 

[kim3339]

Hope your flight was good and you have great weather and small crowds this weekend!

 

[blabbermouth]

Thanks you two! The flights and rental car pickup went great. They're right when they say so cal traffic sucks! We got to pismo beach by about 7:30 though. Just relaxing in our hotel before the wedding! We've had clam chowder and fish tacos at the splash cafe and huge awesome cinnamon buns at old west cinnamon buns. Tomorrow we're off to anaheim with our first disney day on monday!

 

[blabbermouth]

Aww we're on our way home. Sitting at YVR waiting for our connection. Our trip to DL was fabulous! We're sad to leave but happy to be home (almost). We saw the fireworks, world of color and quite a few things we haven't experienced before. Stay tuned for my trip report including reviews and photos of: carnation cafe, surfs up character breakfast, coco's, mimi's, rancho del zocalo, tomorrowland terrace, white water snacks, coke corner, hearthstone lounge, Rainforest cafe, Ariel's grotto, big thunder ranch BBQ, tangaroa terrace and trader sam's!

 

[blabbermouth]

Oops, double posted on myself, fail!

 

[blabbermouth]

Hello anyone who is reading

We're home, unpacked and settled now. The only bad news is that I think I might be coming down with a cold Dang airplane travel, excessive air conditioning (we don't have that up here in Canada, eh) and lack of sleep! We'll see if it ferments into anything tomorrow or if I'm just generally worn out.

Photos are all uploaded to photobucket and I'll start with my first (sorta boring) update!

First of all, we flew Air Canada from Vancouver to LAX.

Here is a pic of us bright eyed and bushy tailed (umm, what does that mean anyway?) waiting for our flight at our lil home airport:

For all the complaints I've heard about LAX it actually went very smoothly. No huge long walks, our bags came quickly, and we just had to turn and go right out the doors and cross the "street" to the rental car shuttle spot. About three seconds after we stepped onto the platform the bus came, made two more stops and we headed to Budget.

There was about a five minute wait and then we were pulling away in the still-new-car-smelling ford focus. I can't believe we didn't get a picture of it, silly us. Anyway, it was alright. Looked good on the outside, it was bright white, clean on the inside, and was amazing on gas. LAX to Pismo Beach to Anaheim on one tank of gas! It was a little bit rough if you lightly accelerated from a stop, almost like a standard car when it's about to stall, but it could be that it just wasn't broken in yet. And also, Jason at 6'2" looked kind of like a gorilla riding a tricycle when he was driving. He has SHORT hair and it brushed the top!

It looked just like this borrowed internet photo:

I'll skip the Pismo Beach part of the trip because, let's be honest, you're all here for the Disneyland report, but I can post some pics at the end if anyone wants. It's a really nice beach, I'd recommend it for a weekend away if you live nearby. It's about 4-5 hours from Disneyland (depending on traffic, which there is tons of north of LA on the 101), so I don't think I'd go there if we didn't have a wedding to attend, but it was really pretty and had a great small town feel, even if it was pretty touristy. The best part was our hotel had some beach bikes we could borrow and cruise around on, so much fun It's the least they could offer for $189 a night though, right? Well, there was also an included breakfast that they delivered to your door in the morning, that was nice too.

On Sunday afternoon we left to drive down to Anaheim! We left at about noon, stopped for a lunch at Carl's Jr (our first time, it was pretty good, but we were starving!) and arrived just before 5 pm at the Best Western Stovall's Inn.

We liked this hotel for $79/night (plus $8/night parking). It was nice and modern looking inside with the dark headboards and walls, granite counter and nice tiled shower. Everything was spotlessly clean and towels were always replaced. It was very quiet, I don't know if there weren't any guests in the room around us but we never heard footsteps or toilets flush or anything. However, we did get quite a bit of noise from outside and our air conditioning unit wasn't as quiet as it could have been. We faced West St/Coco's restaurant so we heard some traffic and the delivery trucks unloading food at Coco's in the mornings. Yawn.

They have two pools which were never very busy and they were always very clean. I loved the cute topiary garden, but never got around to taking my camera down to the pool area to take photos.

Our only complaint is that there is only one wine bottle opener in the whole hotel, which to use, I had to bring our bottle down to the front desk, and open it there so the opener can be within their eyesight at ALL TIMES However, we did realize that their dresser handles made perfect beer bottle openers. We like an evening drink after our long days at the park And with wine and beer being half the price in California compared to here in BC we were in awe! We "splurged" on 7 Deadly Zins at $12.99 per bottle (normally $25 here) times two bottles (one to drink there and one to bring home) and "cheaped out" on Bogle Petit Syrah for a mere $9.50 (can't find in stores here). And I'm proud to say they both made it home safely in our luggage!

Anyway, don't mind my digression. Here are the two pics I took of the room:

I really like having a separate sink area from the tub/toilet, easier for me to get ready in the morning. Also, an FYI, they had a regular tv, not a fancy flat screen.

Our (zoomed in) view from the hall in front of our room:

Finally, the walk to the parks was OK, not close, but doable. We crossed Katella, walked down Disneyland Drive past Paradise Pier Hotel, crossed and walked through the Grand Californian either into Downtown Disney or directly into DCA. We never got asked about being a hotel guest when entering DCA even though the signs do say the entrance is for the three hotel's only. The only problem with this is we fell in LOVE with the Grand Californian. DH says he'll only go again if we can stay there. It was so beautiful, peaceful and relaxing, we never wanted to leave, as you'll see soon!

Pics from the walk:

Nice bird of paradise flowers

Coming up next I'll talk about our first night in DTD, dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and a very special insect appearance!

 

[Jonesie]

Great start to your trip report. Can't wait for the next post!!!

 

[MommyMissy]

Just found your trip report and am enjoying it. We will be there in a week so I am so anxious to hear about the rest of your trip especially since we will be visiting many of the same resturants/attractions.

 

[blabbermouth]

Thanks for reading Jonesie and MommyMissy! I will post my next installment tomorrow.

And the trip report will definitely be

 

[Ihaveamickeymousekid]

Im reading along too.

We head over in November so this is making me excited

Glad you had a great time

 

[blabbermouth]

Im reading along too.

We head over in November so this is making me excited

Glad you had a great time

Your trip will be here before you know it!

 

[DisneyPhreak]

Cant wait for more of your TR! Getting us excited for our trip in a month and a half (or less).

 

[blabbermouth]

Our last trip to DLR we had a great time and great food at Rainforest Cafe.

We walked over to Rainforest at about 6:30, and while there were a TON of people milling around we were sat right away upstairs on their patio. We were next to this cute fountain!

It was really nice and peaceful, much better than the downstairs waiting area

Our server was decent, although it took a little while for her to get to us at first. We ordered some drinks, Red Sangria for J and a Mango Mojito for me. They were both very good and what we needed after our long drive.

We decided to split a large plate, the Seafood Trio for $26.99! It had grilled tilapia with fruit salsa, coconut shrimp and baked scallops. It was served with rice and beans and sauteed vegetables. I'm a horrible person and didn't take a photo. I will see if I can poach one from the internet. Here you go, it looked exactly like this:

My favorite part was by far the coconut shrimp, they were hot, crispy and the mango dipping sauce was tasty. I'm admittedly not a huge scallop fan, one of the few things I don't really enjoy eating. The tilapia with salsa was good, but quite spicy! The sides were both cold But I think they would have been good if they were hot.

Here are two pics of us while we waited

I think you can tell we're both feeling a bit worn out by this time!

_________

Ok, now it's time to introduce my rating scale! I'll rate all restaurants out of five based on the Fab Five!

The best will be

Mickey of course! This is reserved for the very best meals fit for the King of Disney.

Four stars will get a Minnie

Right up there, very good food and service.

Three stars will get a Donald and Daisy

Good for a quite bite with your date, but won't rush back.

Two stars:

This meal was goofy, I wouldn't go back.

And the one star goes to Pluto

This was dog food; very bad.

_________

Ok, so this meal at Rainforest Cafe gets a........

It wasn't awful, but could have been better if all the food was hot. It was definitely enough for the two of us to share and I'd never spend $27 on a meal for just one of us at a chain restaurant! The drinks weren't as strong as they were on our last visit, but they were tasty. The service was fine, nothing special, but not bad either.

After dinner we wandered through downtown disney. We weren't going to buy anything tonight, we wanted to save our souvenir shopping until the last day of the trip to make sure we didn't go crazy buying anything that caught our eye.

Vinylmation was huge at the D Street store.

The had a lot of cute things here that were a bit less in your face Disney and more trendy. One of my souvenirs came from this store, so you'll have to stick around to see it at the end.

Then we had to check out the RC Car store for DH. It was pretty cool in there and I think it's a great alternative to Build a Bear for kids who have done that before.

Finally we ended up at La Brea for a decaf iced coffee ($3).

You'll see a recurring theme in my report, for some reason I took a ton of photos of light fixtures, here's the first.

By this time it was 8:30 so we headed back to the hotel. I decided to make a quick trip to the washroom before we left, and that's where I saw this:

A praying mantis! It was soooo cool, I've never seen one before, didn't know they existed in California. The highlight of my night.

We wanted an early night so we'd be ready for the next morning, but first we wanted to take a quick trip to Target. It was really spooky when we arrived, the power was out! The parking lot was pitch black and it was pretty dark inside. We just wanted wine and bottled water so we were in and out quickly and back to go to bed.

Next up, our first morning at Disneyland!

 

[sonjaandsue]

Love the praying mantis! Thanks for the trip report!