Disneyland Trip Report 11/25-11/27

[bluedevilinaz]

Hey guys! This TR is a first for me so bear with me while I try to figure all this stuff out.

Cast of Characters:

Me:

Brett, age 25, lover of just about all things Disney and a huge Blue Man Group fan. I've had an AP for 3 of the last 4 years and LOVE DL.

DW:

Brittney, age 26, learning to love DL, first trip was May 2012. She had been to WDW once as a kid but doesn't remember much.


Reason for the trip:
Britt has never been to DL for Christmas time and I haven't been for Christmas in 7 years. It's also our last vacation before she starts her new job.


Plans:
Saturday 11/24/2012
Check into Comfort Inn Maingate. Possibly have dinner at DTD.

Sunday 11/25/2012
Get in line at DCA at 0730 so we can grab FP for RSR and then do Carsland right at opening. Hit TSMM, CS, and possibly ToT before checking out Buena Vista Street and maybe Soarin'. Park hop and check out the refurbed Matterhorn and HMH. Hop back to DCA to see the lighting of the neon at Carsland, hop back to DL to see F!, and the fireworks. Stay until Park closing.

Monday 11/26/2012
Hit DL at park opening again and hopefully get a wristband for a candy cane, PP, hop to DCA before park closing and see WoC.

Tuesday: 11/27/2012
Check out of our hotel, Hit park opening at DCA one more time and try to get early FP's, Leave by 1300 and head home.


We don't have any dinner reservations anywhere. We're open to suggestions!

-Brett

 

[Velvetia]

Hey Brett - hope you have a wonderful time! When we went last month we had some really great meals - the BBQ at the Big Thunder Ranch in Disneyland was great!

 

[bluedevilinaz]

Hey Brett - hope you have a wonderful time! When we went last month we had some really great meals - the BBQ at the Big Thunder Ranch in Disneyland was great!

Thanks Velvetia! I'll keep that in mind!

We made it to Anaheim at about 5pm. We drove by today and my Premium AP started burning a hole in my wallet. lmao! DW only has a so cal pass and it's not valid today so no DL for me tonight. The Comfort in is actually very nice. The beds are comfy, there's a mini-fridge and microwave in the room, a small sitting area with a love seat with a pull out couch in it and a chair, both of which are comfy to sit in, the pool/hot tub are still open and there's free wifi! I will post pictures later.

-Brett

 

[bluedevilinaz]

Arrival Day 11/24:
We made it to Anaheim at about 5pm.

We drove by Disneyland on our way to the hotel and my Premium AP started burning a hole in my wallet. lmao! DW only has a so cal pass and it was not valid Saturday night so no DL for me. We got to The Comfort Inn and it was actually very nice.

The beds were very comfy, there was a mini-fridge and microwave in the room, a small sitting area with a love seat with a pull out couch in it and a chair, both of which are comfy to sit in, the pool/hot tub were still open and there wass free wifi!

We unpacked a little, put some food we'd brought with in the fridge, ate some food and then headed to DTD to meet up with a buddy of mine and his girlfriend who happened to be going to the parks Monday and Tuesday and had just gotten in. We walked around DTD, ate some appetizers at the Uva bar, then went into the GC and admired the tree.

After that, we walked around DTD some more, goofing around and Britt decided to try on hats.

About 10pm we started to get tired and went back to the hotel to crash for the night. We had a VERY early morning the next day as we were trying to get fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers!

 

[bluedevilinaz]

Park Day 1 11/25/2012:
We got up bright and early at 0630. I got up, got ready and headed down to the continental breakfast that was free with our stay. Honestly, it was one of the best ones I've had! They had donuts, pastries, hard boiled eggs, yogurt, coffee, blueberry and plain make your own waffles, scrambled eggs, sausage, cereal, milk, oj, Apple juice, fruit, and instant oatmeal. I had the eggs, sausage, a couple donuts and a pastry. Everything was fresh and tasted pretty good. I didn't get any pictures because it was crowded, sorry. DW said the coffee sucked but everythign else was good. It was pretty overcast so it was cool but humid. I'm a big dude when it's humid I have a tendancy to have issues with my asthma so I knew I was in for a long morning(foreshadowing? ).

After breakfast we headed to the parking structure. We parked and were on the tram by 0720 for an 0800 park opening. Not too bad. By the time we got to the main gates of DCA at 0730 the gates were already open and they were letting people in. I had a little mini freak out because the lines were moving slow but as we walked down the entrance plaza we noticed the ones on the side closest to Harbor Blvd were moving fast. We got through the turnstiles and into the FP line by 0740. At that point it was just past the front doors of Carthay Circle. While I waited in line DW went to get some Starbucks. We heard the park opening speech and the line started moving at about 0805. We got our Fp for RSR at 0815 and got a return time of 955-1055. Not too bad!

We got our FP and headed over to CL. Let me tell you, I was immediately blown away! I felt like I had stepped onto the streets of Radiator Springs! They did a great job with the Christmas decorations! We tried to get in line for RSR and it had a 75min+wait already!! We decided to forego it for now headed over to Luigi's at about 0820 and it was a walk on!

DW & I on LFT

It is a fun ride but only worth waiting less than 20 minutes for. I'm glad I had looked at reviews on the Dis before we went. We never would've gotten it to move if we hadn't. After Luigi's we headed to MJJ and only had a 5 minute wait. There is a lot of detail in the queue we didn't get since we hadn't seen Mater's Tall Tales(we have since we got back though and understand them all now! haha)

Cars Logo in the center of the hub cap!

It's a cute ride and it's a lot of fun! Totally worth a 30 min wait!

By that time it was around 0845 so we headed to TSMM to see what the wait was and it only 20 minutes! Score! While standing in line I started to have an asthma attack. Thankfully I had thrown my inhaler in my backpack so that disaster was averted!

It was both of our first times on this ride and it is AWESOME!!! WAAAY better that BLAB! Of course I smoked the wife since I'm a gamer and she isn't. haha.

After that, it was about 0930 and neither of us was hungry yet so we decided to head to CS and see what the wait was. It was only a 15 minute wait so we jumped in line. Let me tell ya, that's one heck of a way to get the adrenaline flowing at 0930! haha.

After we got off CS it was about 0945, we decided to head back to Cars Land. On the way we stopped by the tree by Mickey and Duffy and get a picture. The Photopass photographer was more than happy to oblige!

After that we headed through the PP entrance for CL. As we headed over I noticed the trash cans.

I love the little details like this that Disney puts in! It's what sets the Disney Parks apart from all the others!

This entrance has an amazing view of Ornament Valley and the Cadillac Range.

Of course I had to get pictures of DW in front of it.

We got in line for RSR just as they reopened it at 1000 after being own for 2 hours! Man am I glad we didn't have earlier FP. I would've been upset had it been down.

We only waited about 15 minutes with our FP. RSR blew my mind! They did such an amazing job with it! We got the new tires side. I now have a new must do ride at DCA!
DW and I in the back row

After RSR, we decided to head to ToT to see what the wait time was. It was about 10:30 and a 35 minute wait but the FP was only for 1055 so we grabbed a couple FP and headed over to see if we could catch the Muppets in 3D so we could rest our feet for a bit. We get there and find out it's closed! Turns out they were showing Prep and Landing in 4D and they were just letting another group in. Neither of us had ever heard of it so we decided to go ahead and see it just to get off of our feet. It was a cute show and we enjoyed it. About that time our FP were up so we headed back to ToT for a trip to the Twilight Zone.

We both enjoyed it as usual. I got a good bit of air time this time too haha.

I'm gonna stop here as I'm approaching the photo limit. Part 2 shortly!

 

[bluedevilinaz]

Day 1, Part 2 11/25/2012:

After ToT, we decided to do some browsing in the shops. As we were walking over we saw Five and Dime headed back from BVS . We missed the show sadly but I got a picture of them headed backstage.

While we were browsing the shops DW saw a couple hats she had to try on. haha.

I don't have a whole lot of pictures from the rest of the day, I apologize. After we finished browsing the shops, it was about noon so we headed over to DL. When we got there we decided to hop on the train to TL and try to ride the MH. As we got off the train, DW spots another hat she had to try on.

After that, we headed to MH at about 1230. I gotta say I HATE the new cars. I'm 6'3" and 375lbs and I don't fit in them hardly at all. My knees hurt REALLY bad after this ride and it seemed a lot more bumpy than before. DW wasn't very comfortable either and she's only like 5'7"(she won't let me put her weight on here. lol). Neither of us will be going back on it. I'm super bummed out because it used to be one of my favorite rides. *sigh* oh well.

It was about 1pm when we got off and we were kind hungry so we went in search of a snack. We walked by a chimichanga stand and got one to share. They are delicious! We wandered through FL and checked the wait time on PP and it was over 45 minutes so we decided to skip it.

We headed through the back way, around Big Thunder Ranch and over to NOS. We saw that POTC only had a 15 minute wait so we jumped in line. After we got off it was about 1330 and we decided to grab a couple of churro's from the cart by HM(a tradition for me every trip, hehe). After that, we headed over to see what the wait time was for JC. It was too long so we decided to get a Dole Whip(*drools*) and head into the Tiki Room to rest our feet a bit. This show is a guilty pleasure of mine. I always get a Dole Whip and head in here to relax a bit.

After ETR, we headed to HMH. I absolutely LOVE this ride and DW had never been on HMH before(only the regular HM) so this was a must do for us. She loved the elevator and the decorations outside and the big marquis thing(no idea what it's called) just past the doom buggies so she insisted I get a picture of it.

She was carrying the backpack at this point and hadn't quite gotten it between her legs yet when we started to go up the staircase and she broke the ride! Not really, but she cause it to come to a stop. haha. The CM came up and helped us get the backpack situated and the safety bar fully lowered and sent us on our way. I gave her a hard time about it the rest of the trip. The new gingerbread house was amazing this year as were the little things they added to the ballroom! DW fell in love with the ride and insisted we do it again later in the trip.

At this point we decided to head out of the park and find the character warehouse. This store is awesome! I have a very hard time finding shirts in my size and I walked out of there with 5 of them for under $20! I was stoked! haha. After we finished there, DW and I headed back to the room, got cleaned up and took a nap.

I'll stop here since I have a TON of pictures in the next update. Thanks for reading!

 

[julydeya]

 

[bluedevilinaz]

Sorry it's taken so long for me to finish this darn thing but my laptop's hard drive went belly up and I am trying to recover my pictures. Thankfully I haven't deleted them from my phone yet. I will be finishing this up between today and tomorrow though(minus the pictures for the moment) as I leave for my next trip tomorrow night! AH!!!