Florida Natives Finally See the Original! A BDay\1st Visit TR 1/31/12-2/5/12

[shellie may]

to my very first trip report ever! Now I never felt the need to describe a vacation before until I went to Disneyland for the very first time a couple of weeks ago.

I was born and raised in Florida or in Disney terms I was born and raised about 50minutes from Disney World. I basically grew up going to Disney World, my first visit was to Magic Kingdom for the 25th anniversary or as I remember it as the one with the birthday cake castle. Since then I was obsessed with anything Disney: theme parks, movies, soundtracks, books, and tv shows. Now as I grew up I became more fascinated with the history aspects of Disney and I decided I needed to take a trip to California to see the original park (I was 14 when I came up with this bright idea) but my parents, or mainly my Dad, were against it saying "we don't need to go there we have Disney here". Oh how that phrase enrages me sometimes, I would hear it often until I would go to Disneyland.

I would never drop the topic of California to my parents every birthday and Christmas I would ask for the same thing...Disneyland. Flash forward to last October me and my mom were sitting in the All Star Music food court and we started talking about what I wanted to do for my 19th birthday and of course I said I wanted to go to Disneyland. My mom told me we could price out vacations and see if we could go (for fun me and my mom used to plan California vacations together we did it every year just for my Dad to say No). However, this time it was different because my mom was dealing with some health problems and she said life is too short and we should go to Disneyland! Our dates would change four times from presidents day week, last week of February, march, and finally to Jan.31 to Feb.5 2012.

Now that I'm back and dealing with some serious Disneyland withdrawal I decided to write a trip report to relive the memories of my first trip to California, my first time on an airplane, and my first time experiencing the complete magic of Disneyland!

The Cast:

Me (Kayla) and if you haven't found out already I'm Disney obsessed. To be more specific I love Disney pins, figment\EPCOT, Hercules, and Duffy. non-Disney obsessions all types of movies (i live at my local movie theater), my awesome pets that are all named after a pop culture reference, and multiple tv shows (glee, HIMYM, supernatural, burn notice,.....i could go on forever). I'm also a full time college student majoring in education.

Mom: shes awesome and Disney obsessed just like me. Her favorites are stitch, Duffy, tangled, monsters inc, and old nostalgic attractions (she cant walk into Magic Kingdom without going on a rant about them taking out classic attractions you can imagine her excitement when she saw Mr.Toad and huge submarines at DL). She works full time and we usually spend every Friday together doing something Disney related.

The Plan Highlights:
Jan.31 to Feb.5 2012
Plane tickets from Orlando to Orange County
5 nights at the Quality Inn on Manchester
4 day parkhopper tickets
ADR's: Storytellers Breakfast, Plaza Inn Breakfast, Cafe Orleans, and Goofy's Kitchen Breakfast

I'm in the middle of trying to edit all my photos and hope to have another update up tomorrow. Now I hope all of you will join in the fun on my past vacation and feel free to comment!

 

[PlutoRocks]

I am reading - although I don't always have time to post between my students and meetings. However, I am interested in what you thought of Disneyland and how the rest of your trip went.

 

[shellie may]

We departed on Jan.31 which happened to be a Tuesday and our flight was at 7:10am in Orlando. Since my Mom hasn't flown since business trips in 2001 she wanted to get there super early so we wouldn't miss our flight or get lost. This wouldn't have been an issue, but I have class on Mondays and it goes from 7pm to 9:55pm. That particular day my professor made the class last the entire time period and I wouldn't get home until 10:30pm and I still had to pack. Needless to say I went to sleep really late just to wake up again at 3am.

I admit Ive never flown on an airplane and Ive never been inside an airport so naturally I was seriously intimidated. The flight to Dallas was uneventful they showed Crazy,Stupid,Love as the inflight entertainment and it was hilarious and I actually enjoyed flying, but the Dallas airport was huge and our connecting flight was on the other side of the airport (all of our flights ended up being that way). We boarded the aircraft to Orange County and saying we were excited was an understatement. On the flight to Orange County there was tons of turbulence, amazing mountain views (I was really excited about that because in Florida mountains don't exist except at Disney World), and the movie Moneyball. We arrived at John Wayne at 11:50am and headed straight to baggage claim and the super shuttle area. We waited about 10min for a shuttle and where quickly whisked away to our destination the Quality Inn on Manchester. We were able to check in early and basically ran out the door to finally see Disneyland.

I must admit we were awestruck it was all so close together (which we loved!) and almost empty. We were shocked we were actually there after years of dreaming it was finally a reality. We walked through Downtown Disney taking in all the sites and went to rain forest cafe to eat (we hadn't eaten basically all day). The place was empty Ive never seen a rain forest cafe empty before however we had the best service ever. That's always a complaint at Disney World's two rain forest cafe locations the service is less to be desired.

We loved these for some reason

This was one of the first things we saw and we screamed " They have Mickey Benches" like the losers we are

My Mom wants this in her pool if she ever gets one

After lunch we stopped in stores and the Disneyland Hotel and met a very friendly cast member in the gift shop who was very shocked we were from Florida (this would happen often).

We were crazy excited to see this the next night!!!

World of Disney was a ghost town and we loved it! The one we have is always crowded no matter what day it is or what time it is.

Overall, I enjoyed Downtown Disney I think we under estimated the size of it because it was actually pretty big and I loved the hotels being so close we went and snooped in all of them. Before we arrived we debated on adding an extra day to our tickets for when we arrived we were glad we didnt because we were super tired from the time change and actually went back to our hotel early around 6pm to get ready for our first day at DLR in California Adventure!

But first a character breakfast at Storytellers!

 

[Little_Birdie]

Great start to your trip report!! I love reading about WDW perspectives on DLR.
And noo crowds sounds nice!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[mt mommy]

What a fun Mother/daughter trip! Can't wait to hear more about it!

 

[heatherleigh]

Interesting report- I'm following! I was wondering if you got a surprised reaction from CMs. I read about someone else on here (from FL.) who got that as well.

 

[KCmike]

Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[CB Jamboree]

I am so excited to hear about you and your moms trip! Can't wait for more

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Joining in!!

Looking very forward to hearing all about your first Disneyland experience. We are not from FL, but we have been to WDW 7 times now and are considering venturing out to DL sometime soon!!

 

[IndayMichelle]

I'm following too! Can't wait to read more!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I'm enjoying your TR so far. I had to laugh, because I'm heading to DL for the first time, I love all things Disney, I ADORE Supernatural and I'm a teacher. (A lot older than you though! ). Keep writing! I can't wait to read more!

 

[Maddie2]

Looks like a fabulous mother/daughter trip! So fun!

We've been to WDW 4x and just visited DLR for the first time last year - we loved the Mickey benches too! In fact, I think I have a photo quite similar to yours! It's such a simple thing, you'd think they'd have them at WDW too.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[nataliakristine]

I'll be reading along too! Looks like you guys had an awesome trip!!

 

[Lucille1963]

I can't wait to read more!

 

[KelsBleep]

I'm following along!

I grew up in California, or in Disney words, about 45 minutes from Disneyland. It's so fun to read a first-timers perspective! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

 

[martinolichfamily]

I'm in! . Great start! Can't wait to read more.
We are making our 1st trip to DL this July!

 

[MotoWifey185]

aww! what a great report, and a special trip to spend with your mom. I am glad your dream of coming to the original came true! I hope to go to WDW one day.

 

[disneyismyheart247]

I'm new to this forum and I personally love hearing about first trips to Disneyland! I look forward to hearing more!

 

[shellie may]

Ahhhh my poor trip report I haven't totally forgot about it but college stress does take away most of my free time. However I take my finals next week so hopefully I can have an update soon!!!

Update on life though me and my mom bought the premier pass so we are planning our second trip to Disneyland this june\july and have everything booked and we are planning for another off season trip next year, so YAY!!!!

I promise i will have an update next week unfortunately a few months late since the last time I updated was in February shame on me I will definitely get on it!!!

 

[insoin]

How did you like the Quality Inn? I'm staying there next month for an unexpected trip. How was the walk to Disneyland from there?

Thanks.