Five Days in Wonderland: Our Halloweentime Trip: 10/21-10/26

[Lucrezia]

DAY THREE: Wednesday, October 23rd---Continued

Just a quick heads-up: I'm writing this from my dance studio, so I'm not sure how long this update will be. It's all right, though. We're not busy right now and there's really no work that needs to be done. I have a class in about an hour, so I might not be able to update after this for awhile… Eep.

After riding Luigi's, Trent called the GCH to ask when our suite would be ready. The guy he talked to said it was already made-up and we could check in whenever we liked. Because of this, the four of us decided to leave the park early and go check out of the DLH and into the GCH.

We made one more trip up to the concierge to return some DVDs we checked out. I got a few more pictures:



Trent's best friend, the coffee machine:











After that, we checked out and made the loooonnggg trek through DTD to get to the GCH. We didn't have concierge privileges at the GCH because Trent and I both liked the food and the layout of the DLH concierge more. Instead, we had just a normal suite. (We always do a suite when we stay at the GCH. The average rooms are so small they feel more like a closet.)

When we got there, Lucia, Ana and I took a seat in the lobby while Trent went to check in. Here're some photos:









After about five minutes of waiting, I knew something was up. I left Ana and Lucia playing Old Maid in the main lobby and went to the check in desk to see what was holding us up.

Well, apparently, the man Trent spoke to on the phone had been wrong. Our suite was not ready. We had checked out of the DLH for nothing, and now were stuck with our bags and basically homeless.

Don't we have just the best luck??

Trent was in a heated discussion with the guy checking us in. They were both very confused and Trent was upset by the whole thing. I went to sit back down with Ana and Lucia, but told Trent to text me if there was any changes.

We've stayed at the DLH and the GCH before, but the transition this time around was the least smooth and the most difficult. We both agreed we should just stay at one hotel from now on, but the problem is, they each have different virtues.

The DLH has the monorail close by, Steakhouse 55, and the awesome concierge lounge.

The GCH has the special entrance to California Adventure, the amazing lobby, and the superior pool.

Trent likes the GCH slightly more, but I'm completely torn and cannot pick a favorite. They're both great.

Anyway, after arguing with the check-in person for about fifteen or twenty minutes, we were finally able to get a suite. The bad news? It was off in a separate area of the hotel that Trent calls, "Siberia."

As you may've surmised from that ominous-sounding nickname, the part of the hotel we were stuck in is in the middle of nowhere. It's pretty far away from the lobby, the restaurants, the pool, the gift shop… and from all of humanity.

Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.

I didn't mind being in Siberia so much. Yes, it was a bit of a jaunt from the main hotel/lobby, but that's not the end of the world. It was Trent who was really upset, because he'd been specifically told on the phone that we were in the main building.

We dropped off our bags and I took some pictures of the room while Trent cooled off:





The less-than-steller view from our bedroom, which paled in comparison to the view at the DLH:















Slightly-improved view from the deck:









Okay, so you know how I said I couldn't pick between the two hotels? I think I might've been lying. The Disneyland Hotel is probably my favorite. Don't get me wrong, I love the Grand Californian, as well. But there's something about the DLH that draws me in every time. Maybe it's the monorail… I do love that monorail…

More to come

 

[splashtastic!]

Loving your trip report so far!!

 

[Lucrezia]

Loving your trip report so far!!

Thank you so much!

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY THREE: Wednesday, October 23rd---Continued

Okay, I just got back from the studio and I'm ready to update.

So, after checking out our room, we went back into DCA to use our Fast Passes. Looks like I forgot to mention in my last post that when we went over to Cars Land, our real intention was not to ride Luigi's but to ride RSR. Unfortunately it broke down.

Luckily, the CMs there told us that since it had broken down, our FPs wouldn't expire and we could use them later, once the ride was back up and working.

Sooo, we headed over to CL and used our FP for RSR (wow, that's a LOT of abbreviations!). Here's my one-and-only queue picture:



It was great, as usual. Well, at least it was for me. I guess Trent was still mad about getting stuck in Siberia at the GCH, because he said he didn't enjoy it as much as he normally does. As you may've already realized, my fiancé is a bit of a quirky one.

From there, we were all hungry so we headed over to grab a hot dog at Award Wieners. I had heard good things about this place, so I figured it was worth a try.

We found some nice seats with a great view of the Muppets show exterior:





I had the Sicilian Sausage, which is mozzarella cheese & pizza sauce on a hot dog. I can't remember what Trent and the girls had.

Again, I got absolutely ZERO pictures of our food. You must all think I'm the biggest ditz. I swear I don't know where my memory was this trip…

We all enjoyed our dogs, and I would eat here again. It was fast, easy, and surprisingly tasty.

Since neither Trent nor I had ever seen the Muppets show, we wandered over that way. The girls weren't sure what it was and seemed kind of disinterested, even though they like the Muppets. I still thought it was worth trying, though, in the spirit of doing new things.

Sadly, the show had already started. We said we would do it later on in the trip, but forgot and never got around to it… sigh.

Ana had been curious about the Aladdin show for awhile now (it's based on one of her favorite movies), so we decided to go do that instead. We lined up just before it was about to start, and were behind a TON of people, and I was pretty sure, once I saw how popular it was, that we were going to get awful seats. But to my surprise, we actually had a pretty good view.

Some photos:







The theatre was quite beautiful, and I had heard only good things about the show. I was pretty hopeful about it.

Sadly, I was let down.

I know a lot of people adore this performance, so don't hate me when I say I like the movie way better. It's probably just me, but I found some of the Genie's jokes to fall flat. There were too many pop-culture references, and though they were funny, I didn't think they worked in the context of the show.

The parts I did enjoy was when Prince Ali rides in on the elephant, and the flying carpet scene. Both were pretty breathtaking.

The rest of the show I could've done without. Trent seemed to agree with me (though he was a bit shy about giving me his review, for some reason). However, Ana and Lucia really really liked it. And that's the most important thing.

After that, we headed back to the GCH to rest up. We had Mickey's Halloween Party that night, and needed our energy for it.

More to come...

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY THREE: Wednesday, October 23rd---Mini Update

So, after chilling in our GCH suite for awhile, around dinnertime we got a little peckish and headed down to eat at the GCH bar. Even though it's called a bar, it's kind of like a tiny casual restaurant. They have a good menu that features everything from sliders to a cheese board.

I ordered the sliders. Again, I got NO pictures of our food, so I don't have any idea what Trent and the girls got. I don't drink, so I also ordered a virgin mojito, which was delicious. The sliders were great, in fact they were so good that I wanted to try the dessert. I asked for the cheesecake, which I split with Ana & Lucia. They ate the majority of it, but I got to have a few bites, which was all I wanted (at this point, I was stuffed lol).

During our meal, Trent and I had been discussing whether or not we wanted to do the party. We had already skipped one MHP on Monday, and we didn't want to waste the money again, but the girls were dragging their feet. Lucia was worried about seeing characters, and Ana was exhausted all of a sudden.

As for Trent and I… well, we could've easily skipped it. The bar was intoxicating (no pun intended), and by that I mean it was so calm and relaxing to just sit there that we were dreading going back into the busy, loud Disneyland. What can I say? We're lazy.

We were going back and forth. I would say, "Should we do it?" And he would say, "Nah, let's skip it." Then I would say, "Well, I hate to waste the money." And he would say, "Me too, maybe we should go." It went on like that for the whole meal lol.

In the end, he said, "Let's just do it for like thirty minutes and then get the heck out of there and go to bed." Which sounded pretty good to me.

Begrudgingly, Ana & Lucia went along with us. I don't know what happened to those two. They had been so excited about the party in the months and weeks leading up to our trip, but now acted like they couldn't care less.

We made a quick trip back to the room. I had an elaborate costume, thanks to a seamstress friend of mine. In short, it's a Rapunzel costume. An exact replica of her dress from the movie Tangled, with a long gold braided wig woven with fake flowers that ends at my knees. It's pretty gorgeous… yet somehow, I didn't get any pictures of me wearing it.

I suck at remembering to take photos, don't I?

Ana went as Sofia the First, and Lucia had a Tinkerbell costume. They looked precious. Trent doesn't do costumes so he just went as "Man." Lol.

We headed to Disneyland and were greeted right away by large crowds. I had been expecting crowds, and normally they don't bother me. However, these people better resembled angry bulls than human beings. They seemed to be charging at my nieces, who got knocked over at least five times during the course of the night. People have noted---on Sherry E.'s awesome Halloween Superthread---that the general public has discovered they can get cheaper access into DLP if they just buy the party tickets instead of the Hoppers, and therefore, the party seems to breed classless, rude people who normally wouldn't be there. I don't want to sound like a snob, but I have to agree with that assessment. The vast majority of party-goers acted like monsters.

Seriously, when did manners go extinct??

You know how they say in America, other countries can "give us their tired, their poor, their huddled masses"? Well, those masses had to end up somewhere, and their place of choice is Disneyland Park during Mickey's Halloween Party.

I'm just joking around, of course… well, sorta.

I won't review MHP right now, since I was pretty drained and wasn't able to get a good chance at truly "experiencing" it. That wouldn't happen until our final party on Friday night. What I will say is that by the time the party was over and we returned to the GCH, my nieces were scuffed and marked by all the people who had trampled them and knocked them over. Ana was saying she never wanted to go when the park was that busy ever again, and Lucia was crying from a mixture of exhaustion and being knocked around so much. Poor girls.

The only pictures I took that night, of the candy we collected:





Thus concludes Day Three. I promise the next update will be happier and more fun, because Day Four gets good. (Carthay Circle and World of Color, anyone?)

Stay tuned!

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY FOUR: Thursday, October 24th

So, I'm teaching four dance classes tomorrow. I figured I'd sneak in one more update today in case I don't get the chance tomorrow. I should still be able to check in here tomorrow, though, since I can always bring my laptop to the studio with me and update between classes.

The next day, we had MM at Disneyland. Trent really didn't want to go because his feet were killing him (he brought too few shoes this trip, sadly), but the girls wanted to so he put on a brave face for them and was a trooper.

We got a later start than I would've liked. As we waited at the turnstiles (boo! I miss the monorail), I got a few pictures:











Then we walked leisurely down Main Street:









I think we went to Tomorrowland and did Space Mountain. I know we did Star Tours (still no rebel spy amongst us… sigh). We may've done Matterhorn, as well. Ana & I are big Matterhorn fans. Trent, not so much.

Then, some of us (cough cough Trent cough cough) started to complain they were hungry. We headed back down Main Street and ended up at the Carnation Cafe for breakfast.



Here's what Trent ordered (Ana, Lucia and I didn't eat anything, because the girls had binged on candy back at the suite and I wasn't hungry):





He raved about it so much that I said we should return for breakfast the next morning, but we ended up not making it back. I'm still bummed. I hope to try this place on our next trip, either for breakfast or otherwise.

After that, we made a fun little detour to the Fortuosity Shop. None of us had ever been to this store before. It was decorated for Halloween, and I think the CM said it had 240 or 250 birds:























Ana and Lucia went gaga over their toy selection. We ended up buying them each a doll and a stuffed animal. I'm so glad that Ana's still into toys. She's getting so mature with her attraction choices that it's good to see she's not a complete adult... yet.

More to come

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY FOUR: Thursday, October 24th---Continued

After Carnation Cafe and the Fortuosity Shop, I went around Main Street to take some more pictures.













Trent was kind of falling apart since his feet were killing him, and the girls were still tired from the Halloween party the night before. We decided it would be best to go back to the GCH for awhile and relax before our World of Color lunch at Carthay Circle.





Our reservation was around 1-ish. Up until then, we stayed in the suite and took it easy. The girls watched movies and read and played with their toys. I'm pretty sure Trent slept most of the time… lol.

More to follow

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY FOUR: Thursday, October 24th---Continued

Finally, it was time for lunch.











Carthay Circle:







Our menu (there's a separate one for people trying to get a World of Color Fast Pass, which we were):









So, here's the deal with Carthay Circle. Trent and I have been once before, not long after it first opened. We were very excited to try it, and both of us agreed the restaurant was decorated gorgeously.

Unfortunately, we found the menu WAY too limited. All of the food was… well, to put it candidly, weird. I'm adventurous to a certain extent, but this menu was testing my limits. There was literally nothing on it that sounded appealing to me.

The one and only thing that I did really like were the biscuits---stuffed with cheese in a crispy shell, similar to a hushpuppy. They were awesome (though not Trent's cup of tea, sadly).

Anyway, despite the biscuits being delicious, we left there saying we'd never go back. But then we heard about the special World of Color prix-fixe menu. It sounded really good… and, more importantly, much more normal. Lol.

We decided to give the place another shot… and I'm very very glad we did!

Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself again. Let's start with what we ordered.

I think my nieces got the wild berry lemonade:



Trent & I both ordered the soup as our appetizer:



But I still couldn't resist getting an order of the biscuits, as well. They were soooo good. I split these babies with Ana and Lucia. Yummy!!





For his entrée, Trent had the sole. He said it was great.



I treated myself and got the pasta. It's similar to a bolognese, but with pancetta instead of beef. It was one of the best pastas I've ever had.





For dessert, Trent had the apple-pecan pound cake. He loved it.



And I had the ah-mazing chocolate cake.





Keep in mind, I don't normally order pasta and chocolate cake when I go out to eat. However, at the DLR? Everything is fair game.

Did we like our meal? No. Did we LOVE our meal? Yes! I'm incredibly glad we gave this place another chance, because it was our very favorite lunch of the entire trip! I'd definitely recommend.

Plus, after eating our hearts out and loving every minute, we were rewarded with WoC Fast Passes. Mmm, life is good…

More to come

 

[crystal1313]

Great TR!!

 

[Lucrezia]

Great TR!!

Aw, thanks so much!

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY FOUR: Thursday, October 24th---Continued

After our phenomenal lunch at Carthay Circle, we grabbed a Fast Pass for RSR and then headed back to the GCH.

Trent's feet still felt pretty beat-up. We usually went home after four days, so I think we weren't equipped to handle the additional walking. The girls were starting to get tired and a bit grumpy. Trent kept complaining that he missed our dogs---we have a Russian wolfhound, a Bernese mountain dog, and a Newfoundland. Isn't that cute? Lol.

Anyway, I thought a break was in order. We got distracted before we made it to our room by the GCH gift shop, though, and decided to take a quick peek inside. It had literally TONS of Christmas merchandise.























My nieces went gaga over this train set. Don't tell them this, but Trent was able to sneak down and buy it for them as an Xmas present. Shhh!







After splurging on a pair of oversized sunglasses, pins, and holiday shirts/pajamas, we went up to our suite and relaxed for awhile. Despite having a large lunch, as evening fell, I started to get an appetite again. I went to make myself a small portion of our risotto leftovers, and… what? No microwave??

Argh. Maybe it was just because I was tired and grumpy, but I gave Trent hell about that. He said it was no big deal, but here's the thing: I would've finished that risotto had I known we were going to a room that was microwave-less, because it was amazing!!

Yeah. I probably overreacted.

Anyway, after the risotto debacle, we decided to head back to DCA and use our RSR Fast Pass. This would've been a good time to do the Muppets show, but none of us remembered.

RSR pictures:





It was a lot of fun. I love that ride.

As we strolled through Cars Land, Lightning drove by and I got a couple of photos.





More to come.

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY FOUR: Thursday, October 24th---Continued

From there, we crossed the esplanade and booked it over to Disneyland. Since Trent's feet were hurting, we decided to take the train to NOS.





I think we may've done HMH again, but I didn't get any pictures. I know that we ended up strolling over to Critter Country to ride Splash.

The Hungry Bear Restaurant:





We walked back down and did Pirates.





I wanted to head to Main Street through Adventureland so that I could ride Indy again, but Trent's feet were hurting him too much. He really messed up on the shoes he brought with him, but I won't complain.

We took the train instead and I got one more (bad) picture.



All right, so at this point, it was getting pretty late. We've only seen World of Color once before, and we showed up about an hour and a half early to find a spot. We were the first ones there and got to stand directly behind the railing, with an AMAZING view.

This time, we planned on doing the same thing. However our waitress at Carthay Circle said that the park was pretty empty, and therefore, we should only show up about 15-30 minutes early for the show.

Well, stupidly, we listened to her.

We arrived at Paradise Pier about 30 minutes before WoC was set to start. The railing was completely covered by families, but we found one seemingly deserted spot no one had taken with a great view. The key word here being seemingly. These are the pictures I took from that spot:







At this point, I was thrilled and excited and just all-around happy. But then, tragedy struck.

We found out that that perfect spot we had selected was reserved for handicapped people. And now, we had to move far, far away, to a place that was… well, it sucked.

More to come...

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY FOUR: Thursday, October 24th---Continued

Brief recap: So, to conclude Day Four, we decided to do World of Color. Unfortunately we got there late due to our Carthay Circle waitress's misinformation and had to deal with the fallout.

We managed to find a small spot along the railing after being kicked out of what was actually a reserved place for handicapped people. The bad news? The spot we found was pretty awful.

I suppose I should start with the positive. Our new spot was along the railing, with a nice view of Paradise Bay, Mickey's Fun Wheel, etc.

But unfortunately, we were next to some of the rudest people I've ever had the misfortunate of dealing with. To our right was a family that consisted of a daughter, son, mother and father. This family, for whatever reason, INSISTED on spreading out. The father and the two kids also kept sitting down, which wouldn't have been a problem, had they stayed in their own "section." But sadly, these people kept squishing us in even further until there was pretty much NO ROOM for our feet. What jerks.

The kids in the family were also pretty bad. I know that some kids go through annoying phases, where they talk a lot and are just kind of obnoxious. But these children were the WORST. They kept repeating things over and over, very loudly, and slamming into us… argh.

Even my nieces thought they were complete freaks---and they were about Ana's age!

To our left, we had another family that consisted of mom, dad, and baby. They had the hugest stroller with them, which also wouldn't have been an issue, except for the fact that they kept the stroller in our "section" and it repeatedly hit my ankle.

The weirdest part? They had at least a foot of clear space on the other side for the stroller to go, yet for whatever reason, they refused to move it even an inch.

We had so little room that Trent had to stand elsewhere (he's pretty tall) and he had a bad view the whole time. Plus, the mother with the stroller proceeded to give play-by-play narrations of the show to her son THE ENTIRE TIME.

Ugh.

The funny-in-a-bad-way bit was that after we got home from our vacation, we realized we had a message on our machine from Disney. They had called us before our trip to let us know that they were giving us free VIP viewing for World of Color since we were staying on-property.

Of course we felt like the biggest idiots after hearing that.

However, once the show started, I felt a little better. It's hard to feel grumpy/squished once you're watching such an amazing show. Trent had gone and grabbed us hot chocolates from Ghiridelli, and that helped my mood a bit too.

We all loved it, as usual. I give it:

After that, we went back to the GCH and fell asleep instantly.

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY FIVE: Friday, October 25th

The next morning, we had MM access to DCA. Unfortunately we all slept in late, and by the time we woke up and made it to Cars Land, the park was opening for regular guests. So my little plan of hitting RSR several times and then getting in line for the FP right before 8 didn't work out after all.

We decided instead to do Mater's. I'm not a big fan of this one (it, like Luigi's, is also super short), but Trent and the girls like it.



After that, we headed over to Pacific Wharf to grab breakfast because some of us (cough cough Trent cough cough) were hungry.







As you can see, it was deserted.





So, we ended up at Pacific Wharf Cafe. As Trent and the girls decided what they wanted, I took some pictures.













Trent ended up getting the breakfast croissant sandwich, while Ana & Lucia split an oversized cinnamon bun.





The girls adored their cinnamon bun, and Trent said his was pretty good.





We weren't sure where to go from there. Lucia wanted to do Monsters, Inc., and Ana wanted Tower of Terror. Trent proposed going over to Paradise Pier and riding TSMM.

You may've noticed we had yet to visit Paradise Pier, save for World of Color the night before. There's a reason for that. I, like most people, absolutely loathe the tackiness of PP. I don't mind it at night---it becomes kind of pretty when it's dark---but during the day is a whole other story. I usually avoid it like the plague.

However, once Trent mentioned TSMM, Ana and Lucia both got really excited and I didn't have much of a choice.

Some pictures:







TSMM had pretty much no wait, which was awesome. I guess everyone was busy waiting for RSR.

Trent & Ana tied, and so did Lucia & I. It was a lot of fun. Sometimes I forget how cool that ride is.

From there, I looked across the Bay and noticed Goofy's Sky School. We've never done this one before. I asked Lucia if she thought it looked too scary for her, and she (reluctantly) said it would be okay. Score!

We booked it over there. Again, no wait.

Review time: I had gone on Goofy's with a kind of silly fearlessness, thinking it would be just a goofy (no pun intended) kiddie ride to kill time. Well… I was wrong. It was the most terrifying ride I've done in all of DCA, ever.

You're probably asking yourself, "What?? How can that be??" If you don't have a fear of heights like Trent and I do, you probably won't get it. But the whole time, we felt like we were going to fall right out of our little car thing and hit the pavement.

I got stuck on the outer part of the car, so I had a great (read: HORRIBLE) view of Paradise Pier. The whole ride I was digging my nails into Trent's hand with utter terror. And no, I'm not being dramatic, that's really how it went down.

That said… I loved every minute of it and can't wait to do it again. Since there was still no wait when we got off, I begged Trent and the girls to do it again with me right then. Their response? Not a chance.



More to come.

 

[DisneytheKid]

Great trip report so far! I'm looking forward to reading more

 

[Lucrezia]

Great trip report so far! I'm looking forward to reading more

Thank you so much!

 

[Lucrezia]

Happy Halloween, everybody!! ​

Sorry, no update today. I've been busy with my classes and bingeing on holiday movies on my laptop during my breaks… lol. I'm about to start getting ready for this Halloween party I'm going to with Trent. There's a small chance I might have enough energy tonight to give a quick update when I get home, but probably not. I will definitely be posting tomorrow, though. I can't believe I'm already almost done with this report!!

 

[Velvetia]

Really enjoying your trip report so far - thanks so much for posting!

 

[Lucrezia]

Really enjoying your trip report so far - thanks so much for posting!

No thanks necessary; I'm really enjoying writing it. Thank you for reading along!

 

[Lucrezia]

DAY FIVE: Friday, October 25th---Continued

After Goofy's, we walked over to a nearby merchandise stand to browse. I still cannot believe all the Christmas stuff they had out:







Then we left DCA and headed across the esplanade to hit Disneyland. As we walked through Main Street, I saw Daisy Duck out, signing autographs and taking pictures. I'm not positive, but I imagine Daisy's quite rare.

I told Trent to go ahead with the girls so that I could take some photos. Regardless of her rarity, Daisy is one of my favorite characters---I like her more than Minnie, to be honest. I couldn't pass up a picture-taking opportunity.













As you can see, I got about a zillion photos. I couldn't help myself lol.

From there, I met back up with Trent and the girls and we booked it over to Indiana Jones. I rode first, followed by Trent and Ana. Cue the bad queue shots:







After that and a spin on Jungle Cruise to appease Lucia, we headed over to NOS. Haunted Mansion Holiday was calling our names…















It was a longer wait they we would've liked, but it moved fairly quickly and the ride itself was so fun that I deemed it worthy.

More to come