Bring Back HYPERSPACE Mountain! Sept 2016 TR - NEW 3/17 COMPLETED! THE END!

[chunkymonkey]

Bring back HYPERSPACE Mountain!
A September 2016 Disneyland/DCA Trip with
Chunkymonkey, Chubbyhubby, and Chunkysis

Hi Everyone! This is my first time posting on the Disneyland Trip Report forum. I am usually posting on the WDW TR forum, but I hope this won't be my only DLR TR!

Myself along with my DH and my sister just got back from a week in California where we spent 5 days at the Disneyland Resort! We stayed at the Grand Californian which was super convenient. Our trip was awesome but it was also pretty crazy - we caught the tail end of the Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration and the beginning of the Halloween festivities. We ate a lot and we got a lot of fastpasses! In fact, my DH was not satisfied unless he was holding a bunch of them at a time.

Who went on the trip?

Me! (I'm the one with the ears!) - Su-Lynn, aka Chunkymonkey, an avid Disney lover who just bought annual passes to WDW! I turned 40 earlier this year (click to see my epic Star Wars Day at Sea Disney Cruise and Walt Disney World vacation birthday Trip Reports). I work in IT for financial services and love to travel and eat. I also write a travel blog on the side, mostly to Hawaii but also some Disney and other exotic locales thrown in. I love all things Star Wars, and my favorite characters change all the time but Minnie is always on the list! My favorite Disneyland ride was Hyperspace Mountain (hence the TR title) - but since that is seasonal, I guess it's just Space Mountain then! I also really liked Indiana Jones. At DCA, my favorite ride was Radiator Springs Racers! We went on it a bunch of times, and it was just awesome!

My DH, Steve aka Chubbyhubby! He's also 40 and works in financial services. He's actually a So Cal boy having grown up in Riverside County so he knows California fairly well. We currently live and work in the NY/NJ Tri-state Area. He loves gardening, movies, and indulging my Disney obsession (well, he agrees to go on these trips but doesn't plan a thing!). He also loves Star Wars! His favorite rides are anything that is challenging and thrilling - Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, California Screamin' but he loves loves loves Toy Story Midway Mania! He doesn't really have a favorite character but he had a good time with Chip n Dale on this trip!

My younger sister, Su-Queen, aka Chunkysis (from now on, she'll be known as CS), the most character-picture obsessed person I know! She has special outfits for the days she knows she's going to see specific characters and will go out of her way to go meet them. She found it challenging at DL/DCA as the characters didn't stay out that late during most of the days we were there (we'll get to that later) so she really had to step up her game during the day! She loves all characters, and surprisingly her favorite ride out of everything was...Tomater's Junkyard Jamboree, which she kept riding solo! She's got the creative gene in the family. She works in custom printing (wedding invitations and stuff like that) and you can also visit her Etsy store: The Paper Crown for some handmade cards!

When?

Our dates were September 5-10! We caught the last day of the Disneyland 60th Anniversary Celebration on Sept 5th. Then the park kinda shut down (no Space Mountain, no Paint the Night, no Disneyland Forever Fireworks, no Haunted Mansion) and closed at 8pm every day! Then on our last park day (the 9th) the Halloween festivities began, and Ghost Galaxy was open as well as Haunted Mansion, and we got to see a small fireworks show, Disney's Fantasy in the Sky. So our trip was pretty much sandwiched between these two big events. That was going to be the other title of the Trip report, the Sandwich Trip...but that made it sound as if we ate at Earl of Sandwich all the time (we ate there once).

Where?

We stayed in the heart of it all, at the Grand Californian for 4 nights! Then on our last night we moved off property to the new Hyatt House (it was lovely) about half a mile away. We wanted to experience staying on site as well as off site, and for our last night of the trip the price for the GC skyrocketed so we moved to the Hyatt.

Why?

Why? Because we love all things Disney!! This trip was initially to visit DH's parents over labor day weekend. Then Season of the Force began and I heard all about Hyperspace Mountain. DH and I had not been to DLR for about 8 years so we thought it was about time to go back, especially since I really wanted to ride Hyperspace! My sister, CS, hadn't been back for about 15 years, so she wanted to go too! We tacked on 5 days at DLR beginning on labor day, we bought flights, park tickets, and booked the Grand Californian. We got a great deal because it was labor day and also through a CM discount from a college friend who's lovely wife let us use one of their discounted passes. Our trip was set!

Then the news came that Hyperspace was going to close to make way for...Ghost Galaxy. WHAT! NO!
Then Paint the Night was ending.
Disneyland Forever Fireworks were also ending.
The last day for everything was on September 5th, which was our first day at the parks. Yikes.

Our first day was supposed to be a leisurely half day sorta, as we were driving 2 hours from Riverside County, so I thought having breakfast with the family and getting a late start would allow us to spend more time with them. But no. Hyperspace calls! So we got up and made our way to Anaheim super early, because we had a lot of stuff to do that day. I was worried we wouldn't get to do anything! I was worried we wouldn't get fastpasses for Hyperspace...or get a good spot for the fireworks...and I needed a Churro.
#firstworldproblems

Oh, and my sister was scheduled to fly in that afternoon, but a certain hurricane changed all our plans. But for the better, in the end, you'll see.

Even though Space Mountain was closed for 3 days of our trip we did get to ride...Ghost Galaxy.



Which brings me to the title of my TR...Bring Back HYPERSPACE Mountain!

Hope you're in for our journey!
​

 

[chunkymonkey]

Table of Contents

• Introduction

Days 1-3 Riverside County, California

• Day 1: Arriving in California
• Day 2: Legoland and Chunkysis's Evacuation Plan
• Day 3: Soarin' Over Riverside County

Day 4

• Day 4 Part 1: We're off to Disneyland! First Stop - Tomorrowland
• Day 4 Part 2: Double-booking dilemma and lunch at Cafe Orleans
• Day 4 Part 3: Relaxation at the Grand, then Dinner at Blue Bayou
• Day 4 Part 4: Disneyland Forever, but only for tonight! Plus Paint The Night!

Day 5

• Day 5 Part 1: We don't use no maps!
• Day 5 Part 2: A Breakfast with Character!
• Day 5 Part 3: Hold on to your potatoes! Finally we ride IJA!
• Day 5 Part 4: World of Color Dessert Party!

Day 6

• Day 6 Part 1: The BEST ride ever, RSR!
• Day 6 Part 2: Lunch with the Princesses!
• Day 6 Part 3: It's like New York in California!

Day 7

• Day 7 Part 1: Breakfast with the Critters!
• Day 7 Part 2: A "break" from reality!
• Day 7 Part 3: A Race to Arendelle

Day 8

• Day 8 Part 1: A Productive Morning and the Ghost Galaxy Monstrosity
• Day 8 Part 2: Lunch at Carthay Circle and A Bugs Land
• Day 8 Part 3: Last Moments in Disneyland

Day 9

• Day 9: Goofy's Kitchen Breakfast and Goodbye California

 

[belle0517]

Great start!

 

[absolutmey]

subbing!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Great start!

Thanks!! I hope to post more tonight!

subbing!

Thank you!!

 

[disgeek009]

Following with great anticipation! Especially curious about Hyperspace Mountain. How good can it be?

 

[SonyaShay]

I'm back to read along with this trip. As always, I don't post much but I read every update!

 

[Saphire5742]

I'm here and eagerly following along!
(Plus happy to make the first page and following from the beginning )

 

[chunkymonkey]

Following with great anticipation! Especially curious about Hyperspace Mountain. How good can it be?

Yay! Thanks for reading! Hypespace was soooo goood. First of all, the Space Mountain in Disneyland is leaps and bounds better than the SM in WDW. I don't even like SM in WDW anymore but I love the DLR version! But to put a Star Wars overlay on top? OMG. BEST. RIDE. EVER. I'm so sad we only got to ride it on one day. I should have sucked it up and waited on the damn stand-by line but I just couldn't do a 75 minute line...

I'm back to read along with this trip. As always, I don't post much but I read every update!

Hi!! Thanks for reading!!

I'm here and eagerly following along!
(Plus happy to make the first page and following from the beginning )

Yay! great to see you here! Thanks for reading!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Great intro! Looking forward to more

 

[rndmr2]

Great start! Looking forward to reading all about your trip!

 

[disgeek009]

Yay! Thanks for reading! Hypespace was soooo goood. First of all, the Space Mountain in Disneyland is leaps and bounds better than the SM in WDW. I don't even like SM in WDW anymore but I love the DLR version! But to put a Star Wars overlay on top? OMG. BEST. RIDE. EVER. I'm so sad we only got to ride it on one day. I should have sucked it up and waited on the damn stand-by line but I just couldn't do a 75 minute line...

Now I'm kicking myself for not riding Space Mountain at Disneyland! Last time at I was there, I didn't think it was worth it to convince my coaster-adverse husband to ride with me since we rode SM (once!) at WDW five years ago.

 

[cajunfan]

Cant wait to read more!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 1: Heading to California!

I'm going to do a quick recap of some stuff we did on our first few days of the trip with DH's family. First, we had to get to California though! Our flight from Newark, NJ left at 4pm on Sept 2nd and I had the day off while DH had to work. So DH went to the airport from work while my dad picked me up and sent me. I had a little buddy see me off too...here's my niece Caylee, whom my dad watches sometimes during the day. She just turned 3 years old, she's so cute! I can't wait until she goes to Disney next year (planning for an Aug 2017 family trip to WDW):

As you can see, she loves to make faces in pictures!

At the airport I met up with DH, but I was juggling all our luggage! So I had 2 big checked luggage and one carryon plus my pocketbook, and a giftbox of ceramics that we were giving to DH's mom. So I was struggling a bit. I kinda just stood in one spot near the check in desk until DH came to rescue me.

It was a feat but I managed to move about 10 yards before parking myself in a corner to wait.

After DH came, which was thankfully at around the same time, we checked in and headed to our gate. I wanted something to eat since I hadn't eaten all day really, so I got myself what sounded like beef noodles from an Asian take out in the terminal. It was actually really gross and it was more like a noodle salad which I wasn't expecting. So DH ended up eating it on the plane. In the meantime we decided to sit down at a French cafe which had ipads on every station where you can order your food.

And I ended up with a Croque Madame:

It looked a little better than it tasted as I thought the fries were cold. So here's what annoyed me: When you order you have to enter your flight number into the ipad, and so I did, which reflected our departure time (about an hour away). It literally took them 30 minutes to get my food to me! When I got it, it was right before we had to board, so I only took a few bites of the sandwich, ate most of the fries, then had them pack it up before we headed to the boarding gate. At least we made it on the flight!

Cali here we come!

Our flight time was about 5 hours and 15 minutes. I watched movies throughout the flight. Saw Captain America Civil War again which I think is my favorite movie from this year, saw The Boss which wasn't very good, and then watched the best scenes from Batman vs Superman which is the part when Wonder Woman appears.

When we arrived in LAX, it was only 7pm but it obviously felt much later to us. We still had to get to our rental car. The United Terminal in LAX is under renovation so it's a bit of a mess. Everything is boarded up and we had to go out one door and into another to get to the baggage claim. Then we walked out to find our car rental bus (Dollar). Of course for the next 30 minutes every other car rental bus comes except for the Dollar/Thrifty bus. We saw plenty of Enterprise and Avis instead plus it was packed at the pick up area and there was barely enough room to stand.

In the meantime we saw a Disneyland bus and I'm thinking we should have just gone there first.

Finally a Dollar/Thrifty bus appears (they shared the same building space) and it was also packed, but we were finally on our way. The car rental is much further from the airport than I thought it would be. It seemed like a good 15 minute ride. I thought it would be more like 5 minutes. I didn't know renting a car was so stressful at LAX, then I realized that every time we've been to LAX in the past DH's parent's or brother had picked us up. I didn't want to bother them this time since it's such a long drive so we decided to rent a car, knowing we'd have to eventually drive to Anaheim. In retrospect we could have had his brother pick us up...but oh well.

So I had reserved a compact car so after we filled out the paperwork we went to the lot. Oh and guess what? No compact cars.

But check out the dude waiting with his pink luggage! I think it was his wife's who went to look for someone to help with the cars.

So DH goes back to the counter and tells them there is no more compact cars. So he comes back with the paperwork for...any car in the lot next to it which were all mid sized and full sized! We left the lot in a very fancy Toyota Camry! We made the 2 hour drive with no stops. We just wanted to get there as quickly as possible. Whew we made it out with a car!

It was a bit of a pain arriving in LAX and getting our car, but thankfully we were finally at DH's house! We were greeted with my MIL's home cooking plus DH's other brother had driven down from San Jose with his wife and daughter, Maddie. We haden't seen them since last year so it was so great to see them again! If you have read my Magic Cruise Trip Report from last year on the Magic, my niece Maddie was there too!

The next day, we head to Legoland to indulge Maddie! Stay tuned!
​

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 2: Legoland and Chunkysis's Evacuation Plan

It was great to see DH's family again. Maddie's family had driven almost 10 hours from San Jose in holiday weekend traffic to be there! I guess I shouldn't feel so bad since they literally traveled longer than we did from the East Coast! We didn't really have much of a plan that weekend except to hang out with all of them, so when they suggested Legoland for Maddie, we were on board! Hey, I already had all our "theme park" clothing!

Legoland is located in Carlsbad, CA, which is about an hour away from DH's house. We left at around 10am. On the way there, I had to stop for my all-time favorite burger...In-N-Out. I always get a double double animal style. Double patties, double cheese, special sauce, and mustard-grilled onions. If you have never had In-N-Out, you have to try it! It's super cheap too and the service is always friendly. It is a must-do for us when we're out here.

First In n Out of the trip!

The fries are really good too! They are very clean and fresh tasting, which is not something I usually say about fries, but you have to try them!

We made it to Legoland! It's a really cute place and definitely for younger kids, although the adults liked the Ninjago ride and the Star Wars Mini Land. We had a blast taking Maddie around and she loved hanging out with all of us. I think I am her favorite aunt now. I hope! Here are pictures from Legoland:

Here's DH with his older brother, Mike, his wife Sandy, their daughter Maddie, and DH's other brother, Jimmy:

Here's our niece, Maddie! Isn't she the cutest? She's 5 and a half now!

That's DH's younger brother, Jimmy in the back.

We took the pic above and sent it to a friend who was in Vegas at the time and we said we were in Vegas too and they totally believed us, LOL. These Lego mini-lands were really cool!

While on one of the boat rides I managed to get a selfie of all of us! #skillz

The Taj Mahal!

The Eiffel Tower

We had a really yummy snack at Legoland, their famous Granny's Apple Fries. They are Granny Smith applies, cut like fries, battered and deep fried, sprinked with cinnamon sugar and served with a vanilla whipped cream. OMG these were so yummy. The apple's tartness combined with the cinnamon sugar and cream really was delicious. I thought we all could share about 3 orders but I went and got an order for myself. YUM.

Most of the rides are kiddle rides like boats and train-like vehicles. There is one ride that I think older kids and adults would like and that is the Ninjago ride. It had a wait time of 25 minutes which was the longest line we saw there. Most of the lines in general were fairly short and nothing like Disney, although you can purchase a "skip the line" sort of device but I'm not sure how much it costs.

The Ninjago ride was kinda like Toy Story Midway Mania in that you shoot things from your vehicle, but instead of a gun you are using some sort of virtual reality and just moving your arm to "throw" fireballs at things. It was really quite fun.

Maddie didn't want to go on Ninjago, because she really wanted to get her face painted! I think she's gonna love Disney!

Right next to Legoland (technically a part of it but with a separate admission) was Sealife Park which is like a neat little aquarium. It was cute and Maddie really likes aquariums so she enjoyed it. It's not big but it's doable after a day at Legoland.

The Evacuation

So throughout the day, my sister had been texting me saying there was a hurricane (I think it was Hermine?) that was going to hit the NYC area on Sunday and Monday which is the day she was supposed to fly out. I asked her what she wanted to do and so she checked with the airline and they were allowing changes to flights. She thought about flying out that very day (Saturday)! Her only option that day since she was working was to run home, and grab the next available flight which was at 9pm which put her in LAX at 11pm. The only issue is...my sister doesn't drive. I mean she has a license but she hasn't been behind a wheel for about 15 years. Which means we'd have to go pick her up. I really didn't want to have to drive another 4 hours back and forth that day especially since we were still jet lagged and we were already tired from travelling the day before plus a day at Legoland. So I asked if she could switch airports to Ontario which was much closer. Nope they were going to charge her 900 dollars. So I asked if she could Uber it to DH's house. Well the Uber offers she was getting were in the 250 dollar range. Yeah DH kinda lives in the boonies. That was not happening either. The only other viable option was for her to take an uber to Ontario airport and we'd pick her up there. It's kinda in the middle and we wouldn't have to drive so long and deal with the LA traffic. So she ended up re-booking for that day, and we'd see her later! A whole 2 days early, LOL!

After we all got home from Legoland, we ate Mom's home cooking (the best), then Steve took a really long nap so he could be ready to drive again at 11pm (which is 2am our time). When my sister landed at LAX, she texted us and we began our drive to Ontario while she took an Uber. It took both of us about an hour. We told her to meet at the Doubletree next to the airport as it was easier to meet there than at one of the terminals. We got there right after she was dropped off, and finally we were all together! I asked if she was hungry, and she said sure, what's close by? Well, there happened to be an In-N-Out right next door to the Doubletree hotel!

Chunkysis is here!

Her first bite of In n out!

She liked it!

After more driving we returned at 1am PST to DH's house but this time with CS in tow! Jimmy kindly offered his room so that she can sleep near us and he slept on the couch. Thanks Jimmy! Whew what a long day and night. We thought we would still be on East coast time for a while which would allow us to get up early, but now we were bleary-eyed and exhausted and all we wanted to do was sleep. So that's what we did...until the next day.

Stay tuned for Day 3 right after this!


​

 

[chunkymonkey]

Great intro! Looking forward to more

Thank you!!

Great start! Looking forward to reading all about your trip!

Thank you!!

Now I'm kicking myself for not riding Space Mountain at Disneyland! Last time at I was there, I didn't think it was worth it to convince my coaster-adverse husband to ride with me since we rode SM (once!) at WDW five years ago.

It's a much smoother ride and the ride cars allow you to ride 2x2 instead of a toboggan style which I dislike. It's also a lot smoother, and has a great soundtrack. I've always liked DLR version better!

Cant wait to read more!

Thanks for coming over to read!

 

[Dugette]

I'm here and will actually read the updates soon (gotta get to bed now). Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[bcwife76]

Woohoo, I'm here!!!

LOVE In N Out! That was our first lunch of our most recent trip, too. We tried our burgers animal style (dh thought it was super yum, I wasn't as sold, give me a regular In N Out burger and I'm a happy girl lol). Oh and one of our basket of fries was 'well done' I love me some crissssspy fries

I didn't realize you had gone to Legoland on this trip, how cool! We were debating between that and Universal for our first full day of this past trip, ultimately deciding on Universal (but now looking at your photos I think we would've been just as happy with Legoland, plus it would've been cheaper ). Can't wait for your next installment!

 

[emilyhuff]

Can't wait to have in n out!!!! Loving this report so far!

 

[amalone1013]

It looked a little better than it tasted as I thought the fries were cold. So here's what annoyed me: When you order you have to enter your flight number into the ipad, and so I did, which reflected our departure time (about an hour away). It literally took them 30 minutes to get my food to me! When I got it, it was right before we had to board, so I only took a few bites of the sandwich, ate most of the fries, then had them pack it up before we headed to the boarding gate. At least we made it on the flight!

Here's an example of a great idea being poorly executed. At that point, why bother having you enter your info?

When we arrived in LAX, it was only 7pm but it obviously felt much later to us. We still had to get to our rental car. The United Terminal in LAX is under renovation so it's a bit of a mess. Everything is boarded up and we had to go out one door and into another to get to the baggage claim.

Getting a rental car is a pain in the bum there. And the renovations are a nightmare! They were doing the SW terminal last February when we went, and it STILL wasn't done in July.

First In n Out of the trip!

MMMMMMMM. I am now disappointed with myself that I only made it there once.

They are Granny Smith applies, cut like fries, battered and deep fried, sprinked with cinnamon sugar and served with a vanilla whipped cream. OMG these were so yummy. The apple's tartness combined with the cinnamon sugar and cream really was delicious. I thought we all could share about 3 orders but I went and got an order for myself. YUM.

I might actually eat apples this way!