fallonkendra
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2015
- Messages
- 1,472
Edited to add: I've decided to keep all of my Disneyland trip reports here for ease. If you want to skip straight to the table of contents for each trip, just click here 
Hi!
I'm Fallon, and I am heading back to Anaheim for the 3rd time in less than 2 years - but for the first time ever the reason is actually Disneyland! Here's a super recent picture of myself:
That terrifying looking thing is Hunter the Lynx, the new mascot for the Edmonton Oilers (that's NHL hockey for those who don't know). I mention this, because it is very important to the story, so remember that!
Also coming on this trip is my other half, my boyfriend of 3.5 years, Luke.
So now that you've seen our faces, let's get back to the story of this trip, shall we? To do that, I need to start at the beginning...I apologize now, this will be wordy but I promise it’ll be worth it!
I was born and raised in the Maritimes (sorry, forgot to mention we're both Canadian, in case you didn't figure it out by the Oilers jersey I was wearing in that picture up above). I grew up loving hockey, like most Canadians, and cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs (I know, I know, let the boos begin). When I moved to Edmonton, Alberta over 6 years ago, I fell even more in love with watching the game, since I was now living in a city with an NHL team (albeit, not a very good one haha
). If anyone asks me now, I state the Leafs are my Eastern Conference Team, and the Oilers are my Western Conference Team. Luke on the other hand, grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba before moving to Edmonton a little over a decade ago. For those who don't know, Winnipeg had an NHL team from 1979 until 1996, when the team was relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. Then, in 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers were relocated to Winnipeg to become the new-era Jets. So, for 15 years, Luke had no hometown team to even cheer for.
Fast-forward to April 2015 and the Jets make the playoffs - for the first time in 19 years! (Yes, the Phoenix Coyotes and Atlanta Thrashers both made the playoffs in those years, but that doesn't count). Needless to say, Luke was pretty excited about it! Now, when they announce game times for NHL playoffs, it's a pretty quick turnaround (as in, less than a week between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs) - so there isn't a ton of time to plan. We started looking at tickets for the games in Winnipeg, and they were insanely priced - like $500/ticket/person through secondary sites. Luke jokingly said it would be cheaper to just go see them play in Anaheim (the Jets were matched against the Ducks for the first round), so I immediately went and talked to a co-worker who also works as a travel agent on the side. That was on a Monday afternoon…Thursday morning we boarded a plane and flew to the Santa Ana airport in California for our first time ever! We went to game one of round one of the playoffs that same night, and game two on Saturday night. On Friday and Sunday, we went to Disneyland since it was close by – and fell in love with the parks!
On that trip, we only had a few days to plan anything, but I did manage to secure a World of Color dining package at Wine Country Trattoria… and that was it for our planning haha.
We ended up really enjoying ourselves so much though, that as soon as we got back to Alberta, we started planning a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida (where we spent 7 nights in January 2016, trip report here, dining report here - also linked in my signature).
Before we even left Florida we had come up with a plan – we would go back to visit Disneyland at some point in 2017, and then back to Orlando in 2018.
Fast forward a month to February 2016, and we are, surprise, surprise, at a hockey game (this time between the Edmonton Oilers and the Winnipeg Jets). They were hosting an in-game contest where you had to write photo captions…and Luke ended up winning by a landslide. The prize they gave him – a trip to California to watch the Oilers play the Ducks. Yep, we were headed back to Anaheim! So, less than 2 weeks later, we boarded a plane and flew to LAX on a Friday morning. That night we attended the hockey game (just in case you were curious, Ryan Kesler of the Ducks is probably my least favourite player in the NHL). The next day was a free day, so most people went shopping/went to the beach/nursed a headache after a few too many drinks the night before – but not us! We were actually responsible and only had a few drinks Friday night so we could be prepared for a marathon Disney day!
We hadn’t received our itinerary for the trip until about 3 days before we left, so again we didn’t have many days to plan. We had managed to snag a breakfast reservation for the Plaza Inn, which we ended up cancelling Friday night when they announced they had set up a meet-and-greet with a few Oilers players for the next morning. It ended up being the right decision, as I was able to meet Connor McDavid and Jordan Eberle (along with Taylor Hall, Matt Hendricks, coach Todd Mclellan and others).
We finally arrived at Disney around 9:45am, purchased single day park hopper tickets and had a crazy 14 hour day between the two parks. We had also managed to get a reservation at Blue Bayou, but that was our only sit-down meal of the day. We left at midnight when the park closed, and flew back to Canada the next morning.
After we got back, we decided to head back to Florida in 2017 now, so we booked a 9 night stay there in January (that pre-trip report can be found here!). Everything was falling into place for that trip, and then I received an email a few weeks back from WestJet (our preferred Canadian airline) about a seat sale. I always price a few things out just to see how good the sale is, and this one had some really fantastic prices. I decided to price out a flight to California, and then I shared it with Luke. After talking about it for a few days we went ahead and booked it! So, we are leaving Canada on Luke’s birthday and flying into LAX (direct flight for the win!) and staying for 5 nights! Not only is this our first Disney-centric trip to Anaheim, it’s also our longest stay yet
! And did I mention that Luke’s birthday is in January, so that means all 6 American Disney parks will be attended in the same calendar month!
All of the details will be in following posts
I think the name of this report is pretty self-explanatory if you’re familiar with the Might Ducks movie franchise haha. D3 – our third Disney trip, Canucks is a common term for a Canadian. Voila, D3 – The Mighty ‘Nucks (Luke is so clever!)
Hi!
I'm Fallon, and I am heading back to Anaheim for the 3rd time in less than 2 years - but for the first time ever the reason is actually Disneyland! Here's a super recent picture of myself:That terrifying looking thing is Hunter the Lynx, the new mascot for the Edmonton Oilers (that's NHL hockey for those who don't know). I mention this, because it is very important to the story, so remember that!
Also coming on this trip is my other half, my boyfriend of 3.5 years, Luke.
So now that you've seen our faces, let's get back to the story of this trip, shall we? To do that, I need to start at the beginning...I apologize now, this will be wordy but I promise it’ll be worth it!
I was born and raised in the Maritimes (sorry, forgot to mention we're both Canadian, in case you didn't figure it out by the Oilers jersey I was wearing in that picture up above). I grew up loving hockey, like most Canadians, and cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs (I know, I know, let the boos begin). When I moved to Edmonton, Alberta over 6 years ago, I fell even more in love with watching the game, since I was now living in a city with an NHL team (albeit, not a very good one haha
). If anyone asks me now, I state the Leafs are my Eastern Conference Team, and the Oilers are my Western Conference Team. Luke on the other hand, grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba before moving to Edmonton a little over a decade ago. For those who don't know, Winnipeg had an NHL team from 1979 until 1996, when the team was relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. Then, in 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers were relocated to Winnipeg to become the new-era Jets. So, for 15 years, Luke had no hometown team to even cheer for.Fast-forward to April 2015 and the Jets make the playoffs - for the first time in 19 years! (Yes, the Phoenix Coyotes and Atlanta Thrashers both made the playoffs in those years, but that doesn't count). Needless to say, Luke was pretty excited about it! Now, when they announce game times for NHL playoffs, it's a pretty quick turnaround (as in, less than a week between the end of the regular season and the beginning of the playoffs) - so there isn't a ton of time to plan. We started looking at tickets for the games in Winnipeg, and they were insanely priced - like $500/ticket/person through secondary sites. Luke jokingly said it would be cheaper to just go see them play in Anaheim (the Jets were matched against the Ducks for the first round), so I immediately went and talked to a co-worker who also works as a travel agent on the side. That was on a Monday afternoon…Thursday morning we boarded a plane and flew to the Santa Ana airport in California for our first time ever! We went to game one of round one of the playoffs that same night, and game two on Saturday night. On Friday and Sunday, we went to Disneyland since it was close by – and fell in love with the parks!
On that trip, we only had a few days to plan anything, but I did manage to secure a World of Color dining package at Wine Country Trattoria… and that was it for our planning haha.
We ended up really enjoying ourselves so much though, that as soon as we got back to Alberta, we started planning a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida (where we spent 7 nights in January 2016, trip report here, dining report here - also linked in my signature).
Before we even left Florida we had come up with a plan – we would go back to visit Disneyland at some point in 2017, and then back to Orlando in 2018.
Fast forward a month to February 2016, and we are, surprise, surprise, at a hockey game (this time between the Edmonton Oilers and the Winnipeg Jets). They were hosting an in-game contest where you had to write photo captions…and Luke ended up winning by a landslide. The prize they gave him – a trip to California to watch the Oilers play the Ducks. Yep, we were headed back to Anaheim! So, less than 2 weeks later, we boarded a plane and flew to LAX on a Friday morning. That night we attended the hockey game (just in case you were curious, Ryan Kesler of the Ducks is probably my least favourite player in the NHL). The next day was a free day, so most people went shopping/went to the beach/nursed a headache after a few too many drinks the night before – but not us! We were actually responsible and only had a few drinks Friday night so we could be prepared for a marathon Disney day!
We hadn’t received our itinerary for the trip until about 3 days before we left, so again we didn’t have many days to plan. We had managed to snag a breakfast reservation for the Plaza Inn, which we ended up cancelling Friday night when they announced they had set up a meet-and-greet with a few Oilers players for the next morning. It ended up being the right decision, as I was able to meet Connor McDavid and Jordan Eberle (along with Taylor Hall, Matt Hendricks, coach Todd Mclellan and others).
We finally arrived at Disney around 9:45am, purchased single day park hopper tickets and had a crazy 14 hour day between the two parks. We had also managed to get a reservation at Blue Bayou, but that was our only sit-down meal of the day. We left at midnight when the park closed, and flew back to Canada the next morning.
After we got back, we decided to head back to Florida in 2017 now, so we booked a 9 night stay there in January (that pre-trip report can be found here!). Everything was falling into place for that trip, and then I received an email a few weeks back from WestJet (our preferred Canadian airline) about a seat sale. I always price a few things out just to see how good the sale is, and this one had some really fantastic prices. I decided to price out a flight to California, and then I shared it with Luke. After talking about it for a few days we went ahead and booked it! So, we are leaving Canada on Luke’s birthday and flying into LAX (direct flight for the win!) and staying for 5 nights! Not only is this our first Disney-centric trip to Anaheim, it’s also our longest stay yet
! And did I mention that Luke’s birthday is in January, so that means all 6 American Disney parks will be attended in the same calendar month!All of the details will be in following posts
I think the name of this report is pretty self-explanatory if you’re familiar with the Might Ducks movie franchise haha. D3 – our third Disney trip, Canucks is a common term for a Canadian. Voila, D3 – The Mighty ‘Nucks (Luke is so clever!)
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crazy2: to barely-dressed girls doing crappy dance routines in the aisles during intermission). Also why they are doing better this year - Connor McDavid. 
