Disneyland, Knotts, Universal - March 29-April 3

[rszdtrvl]

A bit of background :

Myself - 32 - was at Disneyland during their 35th anniversary. Just that one time.

DH - 33 - was at Disneyland when he was younger - possibly around the same time as me.

DS - 11 - never been to Disneyland.

This was to be our first family vacation EVER! High time, huh?

So, we decided to do a whole California trip : Disneyland, California Adventure, Knotts Berry Farm (at my son's request - he even said we could use his savings account to do so if we needed - awwwww - of course, we didn't do that!), and Universal Studios (at DH's request - I didn't argue - I am a HUGE Jurassic Park fan!).

We were going to go during the summer, but I begged DH to try to get Spring Break off work, and shockingly he managed to do so!

And I started planning!!

At first, we were going to do 4 nights at Paradise Pier. Then DS started begging about Knotts (he is a HUGE coaster fan!). So I did some tinkering (I was a travel agent way back when...) and figured out if I switched hotels, and added a day, and added Knotts with all the transfers, tickets, etc. we would actually SAVE $250.

So the trip ended up :

Portland to Santa Ana (switch planes in San Jose)
Santa Ana to Portland (switch planes in Oakland)
Southwest Airlines (next time we will go Alaska Airlines...)

5 Nights at Camelot Inn & Suites
5 Day Park Hopper DL & DCA
Gray Line Knotts Berry Farm Tickets & Transfers
Gray Line Universal Studios Transfers
Tickets to Universal via Southwest Airlines Vacations
Goofy's Kitchen tickets
ESPN Zone for a meal

Day 1 Saturday - March 29:
We left our city (we live on the WA Coast - Seattle Airport is actually 45 minutes closer, but Portland is so much easier to get in/out of) for the airport at 5am. Gasp! So early - especially since our plane was not due to leave until 11:45 - but I wanted to make sure we were there plenty early in case we got lost (it had been 10 years since DH and I have flown) plus have time to eat breakfast.

We had plenty of time to have breakfast, get through security, and get a case of nervousness (about the flying thing).

The plane rides were pretty uneventful. My coaster loving son loved the airplane ride and flew like a seasoned traveler.

Got to Santa Ana and found our luggage and went out the door for the Super Shuttle.

Hopped right onto a van and were transported to our hotel : Camelot Inn and Suites.

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Checked in and got into our 3rd floor room. Very nice! Yes, the beds are hard as rocks, the door is not insulated, you can hear the noise very well from the other rooms. However, you are so tired when you get to the hotel from the parks you still crash & burn, you don't really need insulation in the door (other than the noise) because the temperature is so mild, and you learn to ignore the noise form other rooms.

We were supposed to meet DH's ex-stepdad when we checked in. But he was still stuck in Hollywood traffic.

So we decided to hit the parks, get our tickets (at Will Call) get our son his GAC (he has Aspergers and we were a bit concerned about him waiting in the lines) and see how busy they were.

We headed to DCA. Got our tickets. Got our Goofy's Kitchen tickets.

Walked on to Grizzly River Run and next onto Maliboomer (I always call it MAIL boomer - ).

Headed back to the hotel to wait for the phone call.

The call finally came around 7pm (keep in mind we had been up since 4am and traveling...) so we all met up for dinner. Supposed to be at Mimi's, but there was an hour wait. Luckily, there is a McDonalds right next to our hotel, so that is where we met.
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We all stayed until 8pm - then I finally left to take DS back to the hotel (he had fallen asleep on my lap) and DH stayed until 9pm.

I set the alarm for 6am (our Magic Morning was to be the next day) and we all konked out.

 

[rszdtrvl]

Day 2 : Sunday, March 30 - Magic Morning) -

Woke up bright and early, got dressed (we set the clothes up the night before - made things so much easier!) and headed to Disneyland for our Magic Morning.

The parks opened at 8am - so we wanted to be there bright and early and left our hotel at 6:15am.

It was sprinkling, so we grabbed our ponchos and headed out the door.

The walk to the pedestrian entrance was very close. I was glad we had chosen this hotel (and still am glad we stayed there!).

We were the first people at Security Check. And had people ask where we got our ponchos (Dollar Tree - 2 for $1).

Got through security and lined up for entry.

Made it through entry and raced to Space Mountain.

I would say that about 70% of all the MM people raced to Nemo. It was packed when we hit that area, and the doors had not even opened to regular guests yet.

We walked onto:

Space Mountain
Snow White
Pirates of the Caribbean (had our own boat)
Pinocchio
Peter Pan
Splash Mountain

Got fastpass for Thunder Mountain Railroad after waiting in line only to have it not up yet. Used the fastpass later on in the day.

Got in line for Matterhorn to find it not working (after waiting for 10 minutes) - couldn't find a fastpass machine or else I would have gotten the FP. Eventually got on it later in the day though.

Went on :

Haunted Mansion
Monorail from Downtown Disney to Tomorrowland (from Goofy's Kitchen)
Indiana Jones
Star Tours (DH and DS)

at California Adventure we went on :

Screamin'
Soarin
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Sometime before lunch, I started feeling woozy. I was hungry, but DH wanted to keep going, so we kept going. Pretty soon, I was super nauseous and couldn't figure out what was wrong. After Tower or Terror (Freakin' SCARY ride - I had even watched the Disneyland show on Travel Channel about how you only drop about 3 inches and I was ready to lose my lunch!) we headed to lunch at IHOP and back to the hotel.

I took one look at my sandwich at lunch and headed to the bathroom. I was pale, clammy, and my stomach was topsy turvy (I did not vomit at all the entire trip though).

I told DH I was going back to the hotel.

When DH got to the hotel after lunch, I asked him to get me Dramamine (I had finally realized that I probably had motion sickness). $8 later from the hotel gift shop, I am presented with a tiny vial of 12 tablets from my beloved husband. I took 2, and rested for a couple hours. I was determined to rest, as I did not want to miss Goofy's Kitchen.

I finally felt better (a bit better) and we headed to the Disneyland hotel for Goofy's Kitchen.

Got there, had our picture taken with Pluto (they tried to sell us a $30 package of photos - pass...). Got our table and went to the buffet.

I was expecting it to be a bit bigger, but DH was thrilled with the roast beef. He said it was cooked to perfection. The salad was delicious. And dessert bar was huge!!

We got our son his plate and sat him down at the table and got our plates.

Came to the table to find Mulan sitting with our son talking to him. My son is not the most photogenic kid so don't laugh -

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We also saw Alice in Wonderland, Dale (from Chip & Dale - Chip has a chocolate chip for a nose - did you know that??), Goofy, Minnie, and of course, Pluto in the beginning.

Goofy invited everyone to do the Macarena to the Tiki Room song. It was pretty cute watching the little kids.

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We headed back to the parks afterward to go on a few rides, and DH wanted to ride Soarin again.

During the day we saw the Parade of Dreams (very cute!) and that evening we saw the Main Street Electrical Parade.

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Back to the hotel for the evening. And ready to prepare for our last possible day at Disneyland.

 

[rszdtrvl]

Day 3 - Monday March 31 :

We slept in a bit because Disneyland was not opening until 9am.

Got up and decided to take advantage of the free continental breakfast at the hotel. Coffee, orange juice, raspberry lemonade, milk. Danish (regular, apple, and raspberry), muffins (banana nut, chocolate, poppyseed), croissants.

Got decent coffee (besides the hotel, we had good coffee at Cafe' Orleans when we had our breakfast on Sunday, and at IHOP. I hate McDonalds coffee and found the Nescafe to be awful - and way too hot - I burnt my tongue!) and enough food to sustain us until we could have lunch.

We realized we were in "go, go, go" mode the day before, so we decided to take it easy.

Got to Disneyland and went on :

Tom Sawyer Island
Tarzan Treehouse
Pirates of the Caribbean
Jungle Cruise
Splash Mountain

Went to DCA and went on :

Screamin'
Grizzly River Run

We had lunch at Captain Kidds (I had the turkey club - it was sooo good - I finally got my appetite back from the motion sickness - of course, I kept the Dramamine close at hand - and DH and DS had the buffet.)

Went back to the hotel for a quick swim and rest. The pool is heated and the hot tub/jacuzzi is wonderful! The pool is only 3 1/2 feet deep, so DH and I could stay in the jacuzzi while our son was in the pool and not worry. At the pool were some Austrailian kids who were staying there for a month. The smallest one (ages 15, 13, and approx. 7) got in the hot tub with DH and attempted to twirl his armpit hair. At that time we decided to go back to the room and change to prepare for dinner.

Dinner was at ESPN Zone. Lucky us - it was opening day of Baseball Season!

The food there was excellent. The chicken was cooked to perfection.


We went back to Disneyland and realized we couldn't even walk through it. In that short time it had begun to get very crowded.

We had been very lucky because crowds were minimal on Saturday (in the evening) and Sunday. I am guessing all the Spring Breakers had finally made it to the parks.

We bought our souvenirs, took our son to the Starcade, and headed back to the hotel. It took forever to walk through Disneyland to get to the hotel.

Next day was our Knotts Berry Farm day!!

 

[rszdtrvl]

Day 4, April 1 - Knotts Berry Farm :

Got up and headed to McDonalds for protein before our Knotts trip. Ate, went back to the hotel, and got decent coffee, and headed to the bus stop at BWPPI to get on the Gray Line for our trip to Knotts.

It was standing room only on the bus to the station.

Got to the station, gave them our voucher, paid our $2/person gas surcharge, and headed to Knotts Berry Farm.

None of us had been there, but as I mentioned earlier, my son loves roller coasters. I was not sure how my body would react to all of them, so I made the decision to sit out on some of them if I needed to. And popped a couple Dramamine just to be safe.

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Got to Knotts, waited in line and headed directly for Silver Bullet.

We ended up that day going on :

Boomerang (DH and DS only)
Perilous Plunge (DH and DS only)
Bumper Cars
Xcelerator
Sierra Sidewinder (DH and DS only)
Dragon Swing (DS only)
Hat Dance
Montezooma's Revenge
Calico Mine Ride
Ghostrider (wicked wooden coaster - I think it threw our necks and backs out - I believe they said it was the 3rd best wooden coaster in the country - and now I know why!!)
Silver Bullet
Timber Mountain Log Ride
Jaguar

The park was confusing compared to Disneyland and not as clean. It needed some TLC and paint.

There were times when we couldn't figure out where to enter a ride. Like the entrance to the Sierra Sidewinder was in Camp Snoopy. That was completely confusing.

The park opened at 10am and by 3pm we were ready to leave (the bus was not picking us up until 6pm - we were tempted to take a taxi back to the hotel). Instead we left the park and went to the gift shops. Got some delicious Boysenberry jam (so good on sourdough bread) and ate a huge slice of Black Forest Cake.

We sat and people watched for a while, and at 5:15pm DH went to get us chicken dinner for the hotel and DS and I went to get him a souvenir t-shirt.

Got on the bus and went to the hotel to eat dinner. The chicken dinner was good - gravy was delicious - and we devoured it!

DH and DS went to go swimming and I stayed in the hotel and watched tv.

DS wanted to go back to Disneyland and got all weepy and grumpy (overly tired), but we all just decided to go to bed.

The next day was our Universal Studios trip!!

 

[rszdtrvl]

Last day of Vacation!! Wednesday, April 2 - Universal Studios :

Got up, went to the continental breakfast at the hotel, and went to the bus stop for our Universal Studios trip.

Got to the bus station, boarded a bus, and immediately we were off!!

Our driver is Juan - funny guy! I am going to write a letter to Gray Line letting them know how much we enjoyed him.

We were early - the first bus leaving the station - and he took us on a couple short tours on the way to Universal Studios. Very cool!

We go to see the court house OJ Simpson had his trial at, the downtown area of LA, a movie crew, and a few other things.

Got to Universal!! DH went to the group ticket window to get our tickets (we had vouchers from Southwest) and I took some photos :

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Got in to the park and waited a bit for them to drop the rope.

The first place you want to go is to the lower level, but it does not open until 10:30am, whereas the rest of the park opens at 10am. So we wandered around a bit, taking a few photos.

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This is the area where they are building the Simpsons ride - we had a blast taking photos next to the characters.

Finally it was 10:30am and we headed down to the lower level - I think it is 4 steep escalators - to Jurassic Park and the Mummy!

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Jurassic Park was great! I am a huge fan of that movie - I own all 3 of them - and I loved the ride!

Next we went on the Mummy. Also very cool.

Then we went to see the Backdraft show.

From Backdraft we went to lunch :

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Then headed to the Studio Tour.

It was amazing! We highly recommend it. Very cool to see the sets. A few movie sets we saw were : War of the Worlds, Jaws, Who-Ville (from The Grinch), and Big Fat Liar.

From the Studio Tour DH went to the House of Horrors while I took DS to the Curious George Foam Ball area.

DS had a blast - literally! There are tons of foam balls and guns where you could shoot them out at people. Nobody was safe!! DH and I even had tons of fun! It was a bit too chilly to go in the water area, but DS couldn't help himself and walked under the "steam" of the rocket and got sprayed with a gentle mist of cool water.

We went on Shrek 4-D and then Terminator 3-D. We saw a small snippet of the Blues Brothers show.

While we were walking through the park, we walked by the animal actors and saw some of the dog "actors".

DS and Morgan - the Bush's Baked Beans dog :

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And then went to the last showing of Animal Actors at 5pm.

The Animal Actors show was great. And made even better because my son was chosen to Co-Star!!!


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He had a blast, and was sooo excited! I took tons of photos!

We hung out a bit, had a piece of pizza (very good!) and then it was time to catch the bus.

Went back to the hotel, and crashed. The fireworks woke us (DH and I) up, so we finally watched them from outside our hotel door (we were 3rd floor - perfect view of the fireworks from Disneyland). We tried to wake DS up, but he wouldn't budge.

The fireworks were beautiful. And we cracked up laughing each time a car alarm went off.


Last day - April 3rd - HOME!!

Caught the Super Shuttle to take us back home. Very uneventful until the plane ride from Oakland to Portland. About 150 miles from Portland it got a bit turbulent. I got all woozy and pale and clammy. But leaned into DH and willed myself not to be sick.

We all made it home in one piece!!



There is NO PLACE like home!!

We had a blast on our vacation - Had fun at Disneyland, thought Knotts was okay, LOVED Universal Studios!

On Friday we still felt like we were on roller coasters. Our stomach would drop and we would get woozy. I ended up buying more Dramamine (the 24-hour stuff) at the store and we took that Friday and yesterday. I may need another one today (can you tell we don't travel??).

We had loads of fun, and our son was the perfect age for the trip. We took tons of pictures ($57 shipped at shutterfly.com - and that is after a 10% coupon) and have many memories.

A light hooded sweatshirt is all we took for jackets and it was perfect. We didn't eat many of the snacks we packed for the hotel (we devoured the beef jerkey though) and didn't use any of the water flavor mixes. We didn't use the moleskin and didn't get any blisters.

If anyone has any questions, let me know!!

Thus ends my trip report!