If You See It: Eat It! Via Panama to Disneyland - Completed and Link to New Trip Report 2/24

[Flossbolna]

Maggi, Thank-you for sharing your trip report. I am on this cruise in May 2015. Yay. Just need to inform you that cloudy days you are at an increased risk for sunburn! Because the UVA and UVB rays are not blocked. In addition you don't see sun you don't sunscreen.

Happy to hear that you enjoyed the trip report! Have a great cruise, I wish I would do it again this year!

 

[Flossbolna]

Once we were done with the shopping excursion we had another highlight on the agenda. Originally we had planned to not waste one day from our park tickets that day. We had gotten 4-day-tickets and felt that those would give us plenty of time to do everything we wanted at DL and DCA. But we wanted to use those tickets on days when we would not arrive late and maybe fade early from all the hassle of getting off the ship. But then Michael’s friend wanted to meet us that day – and as a CM he was able to take us into the park for free! So thanks to him we had an added free bonus day at DL!

Walking from the Grand Californian towards the parks you see this large open space with this on your right:

And this on your left:

No, the first picture is not the entrance to the Disney Hollywood Studios, but to Disney California Adventure. It used to be totally different, but was remodelled recently to look like DHS. I find it a bit strange, but since I love the DHS entrance, I am fine with it.

The second picture is the entrance to Disneyland behind the monorail beam. I love how quaint it looks, much less grand than the Magic Kingdom at WDW. But I just love how simple the entrance it is – the more surprised you are how much you will find beyond it.

I was so excited to be back at Disneyland since this is the park that started my obsession with Disney theme parks back in 1992 on my first visit. Even though it is the resort I have spent the least amount of time at, it comes with so many happy memories from the two visits I had until then (1992 and 2005).

So, let’s get inside the park:

It was a Saturday afternoon – yes it was really crowded. But since it was a bonus day for us we did not mind!

I love the smaller scale of the DL Main Street. Even though I am used to MK’s and DLP’s Main Street now (they are more or less the same, just painted differently), I still remember how at first I thought they were out of proportion and far too big. DL’s Main Street has far more of that small town vibe I think should be associated with Main Street because the houses are smaller.

I loved how green Main Street was – and later realised that the whole park is far greener than the MK. The landscaping is really wonderful there and there are plenty of trees!

My first stop was for a snack in the candy store. I got a pineapple spear that was dipped in chocolate – which was delicious. When I bought it the CM asked whether I had anything that would qualify me fore a discount and I said that I was a DVC member and got a discount! It was really nice at DL that nearly all CMs reminded me of the possibility of getting a discount and there were plenty of discounts! Even all counter service restaurants gave me a 10% discount for being a DVC member.

No picture of my pineapple spear, but of these lovely treats:

When we entered the park we got the information about which attractions were closed. We knew that quite a few popular attractions were going to be closed while we were there. One of them was supposed to be Space Mountain. However, when we got there, it was not closed! I was really happy as I loved the DL Space Mountain in 2005! So, our first stop was there to verify that it was open and check out how long the line was. It was 120 minutes and FP was gone for the day. So, we decided to not get in line.

My first request was to go and see whether we could ride the Matterhorn.

This was Katharina’s and my favourite ride in 1992. Of course the normal wait time was really long, but there is a single rider line (DL has single rider lines for so many attractions, it is really helpful). So we made use of that and while we still waited for 15 minutes, it was much much better than the 50 minute wait it had otherwise! It is quite a rough coaster, but I still love it! After this ride we wandered around the park quite a bit and I was happily taking lots of pictures!

It’s a Small World was one of the attractions that were closed. I was a bit sad about that as I would have loved to see the original. But at least I got some nice pictures of the façade with no one around:

Our next stop was Toontown:

I liked it that at DL all the waste bins come in pairs:

They made me think of Pat and I was contemplating what a mixed message that pair was sending out. One asks you to waste, the other wants you to recycle.

Continued in Part 2

 

[Flossbolna]

We walked over to Frontierland to check on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. When we got there the ride was down and they had emptied out the line. While we were standing there we saw an empty train making the round:

And then saw a CM coming up to the entrance, so we quickly moved over there and were lucky: They opened up the line! So we quickly got in and got loaded onto the first train leaving the station with passengers! Great luck with being at the right place at the right time as once we got off the line was pretty long already again! However, we were able to score a FP for later!

I really enjoyed BTMRR at DL! It is funny how different this ride is at all the three parks I know. So many elements are the same, but enough are different as well. However, I still think Paris has the best one.

From there we walked over to Splash Mountain, which we rode using the Single Rider line as well. Here you walk in through the exit which makes you think you are doing something wrong. But it worked well again and we had more or less no wait again.

On the way there I got a picture of the Sailing Ship Columbia:

After Splash we went for a ride on Pooh:

For a very busy Saturday afternoon we were not doing too badly with riding 3 E-tickets in a row with really short waits!

I had read good things about the food at the Hungry Bear restaurant and suggest that we stop there for dinner. Which we did:

On our trip in 1992 we had lunch there on our first day after a horrible trip on Splash Mountain. First we waited for 90 minutes for this ride as my aunt insisted that it was a must do and then Katharina and I were scared all along that the big drop was going to come as this was our first ever flume ride. And I had no clue what those singing animals were supposed to be about. And then afterwards we had lunch at the Hungry Bear where we got really bad burgers… This time the whole experience was very different. I am no longer afraid of the drop, I understand the story line of the attraction and love the music (even though I still prefer the WDW version of Splash Mountain) and dinner at the Hungry Bear was far better as well!

Michael’s friend and I both got the Fried Green Tomato Sandwich - Cornmeal-crusted Fried Green Tomatoes layered with two slices of fresh Heirloom Tomatoes topped with Havarti, Rémoulade, Jicama-Mango Slaw and served on a Multi-Grain Roll. I chose the sweet potato fries as a side, he had regular fries. Michael got the Crispy Chicken Sandwich with Lettuce, Tomato and a Honey-Mustard Sauce and got some kind of slaw as a side (I think it might have been a portion of the slaw we had on our sandwich):

I never had green tomatoes, so I was very curious what this was all about. It was a really delicious sandwich! Lots of different tastes. The friend liked it, too. Michael really liked his sandwich as well as his side. So all in all a good meal. I was just a bit disappointed that the sweet potato fries were not as delicious as I thought they would be. However, on this last trip I had sweet potato fries on two more opportunities (non Disney) and I have to say that while I love sweet potatoes, I think they don’t taste their best in fries form. So, I don’t think these were bad sweet potato fries.

After dinner we went on to ride the Haunted Mansion. I love the setting for this ride here. I was very appalled when I found out that at Disneyland Paris the Haunted Mansion was part of Frontierland. Now I have come to like it the way it is in Paris, but the Haunted Mansion seems to fit into its surroundings the best at Disneyland. We also used our BTMRR FP from earlier and explored some of the shops. We were pleasantly surprised to see some real theme appropriate merchandise at the shop in Frontierland:

The shirt was made by a company called Pendleton:

This is of interest as the shop we were in used to be a shop selling only products from this company (as Michael informed me, I am not that knowledgeable about DL trivia). So it was nice to see that they were still carrying those products.

We skipped Fantasmic (I think it was going on when we went on the Haunted Mansion – which made the wait shorter). But we watched the fireworks which I really enjoyed! Tinkerbell is far more interesting at DL!

After the fireworks we explored a bit in Fantasyland and I got to ride on Mr Toad’s Wild Ride. I still don’t see the great attraction of this ride…. On our first visit in 1992 this was one of the few disappointments we had – together with Journey to Mars.

Disneyland was as lovely at night as during the day – it was however still hopping with people!

Back at the hotel we some kind of query at the front desk and while Michael chatted with a nice castmember about what kind of utter craziness we had to expect at the end of the week (when they were going to have the parks open for 24 hours) I amused myself with taking pictures of the lovely lamps they have at the front desk:

We finally got to bed at 12:40 am after a very long and eventful day that started out with some stress but then turned in a perfect day!

Up Next: Carsland!! Part 1

 

[Poolrat]

YAY for a free day in the park!!
You did get a lot done for a Saturday afternoon.

I meant to get by the Hungry Bear but I guess the timing was wrong.
You have a great night shot of the castle.

Great luck with BTMRR, being there right when it reopened.

I still have not been on SM with the regular version. Both times I have had the Ghost Galaxy Halloween version.

CARSLAND!!!

 

[franandaj]

Wow! You have been updating like crazy! Sorry to see the cruise come to an end, but I always love hearing about other people's opinion of Disneyland. It feels like a second home to me.

I usually get the view that you had which is not my favorite, but I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

You did pretty good getting on that many rides on a Saturday. I try to avoid the parks on the weekends, it's just too crazy there.

I'm looking forward to your next TR. I'm considering an Eastern Caribbean trip on the Fantasy, it's the last ship we have yet to book a cruise on and the Eastern sounds good as the Western goes on the same route that we have done on our past two cruises.

 

[nodnol]

Yes, today was the Day of the End of Sea Voyage. Fortunately it did not mean End of Vacation.

It took us two hours to get from breakfast to the front of the taxi line. It was totally crazy!

Wow, I really do hope this won't happen to us in June! Do you have any idea, why it took so long? I do hope they'll have line for EU citizens in Copenhagen and it will move fast. I don't want to loose too much of our time for Tivoli

We got a much later start than we had wanted (we left Alamo at 11:20am) and quickly realised that our original plan to eat lunch once we arrived at Disneyland would not work. So we decided to stop along the way and chose this nice restaurant:

Where we both got some mini-tacos:

They were quite tasty and for me they were quite a novelty!

I've been to one of these. But our experience was nothing spectacular and I think we only got burgers. We were REALLY hungry when we got there, as there was no place we could get dinner close to our hotel and had to drive over half an hour to get something to eat. After a very long day in the car when we planned to just walk to some restaurant… So it's not Jacks's fault that dinner didn't impress us.

Well, it is a new year and I think your resolution for 2015 needs to be to stay up to date with your comments on my trip reports! It certainly is of uttermost importance!!!

Of course it is.

I think we should easily fit in some dining room breakfasts unless they do to us what they did to Karin on her Med cruise where they only offered buffets for breakfast!! What a stupid decision!

I very much hope they don't repeat this!

The Grand Californian is an amazing hotel! In my opinion it is the Disney flagship resort (at least in the USA, I think the Miracosta at Tokyo Disneyland might still be far superior). It is totally luxurious, has direct access to the park and a beautiful theme.

Your room looks great and I like the view from the balcony. Mike would love it, as he already loved Sequoia Lodge in Paris. I have to work on that trip to California...

I know that my American readers will find the normal fast food not overly exciting, but have you seen how much Katharina complains if I forget to provide pictures of Starbuck pastries? She would have killed me if I would not have posted pictures of a fast food chain that she is unfamiliar with!

You did well, although the was not an unfamiliar fast food chain, I appreciate you took pictures just for me!

Once we were done with the shopping excursion we had another highlight on the agenda. Originally we had planned to not waste one day from our park tickets that day. We had gotten 4-day-tickets and felt that those would give us plenty of time to do everything we wanted at DL and DCA. But we wanted to use those tickets on days when we would not arrive late and maybe fade early from all the hassle of getting off the ship. But then Michael’s friend wanted to meet us that day – and as a CM he was able to take us into the park for free! So thanks to him we had an added free bonus day at DL!

You got a lot of things accomplished on your bonus park day!
As mentioned above - I need to work on getting back to Disneyland.
Looking forward to your take on Carsland!

 

[Flossbolna]

YAY for a free day in the park!!
You did get a lot done for a Saturday afternoon.

It was really great to have that bonus day - especially since the end of our trip turned to out to be a bit unrelaxed in the parks...

I meant to get by the Hungry Bear but I guess the timing was wrong.

It is a really nice spot! I love how DL has these corners that seem to be out of the way even though the park is smaller and filled with more attractions.

You have a great night shot of the castle.

I like that picture a lot! The castle is difficult to get good pictures of as there are always crowds in the foreground.

Great luck with BTMRR, being there right when it reopened.

While it was a bit tedious how often BTMRR was down, for us it turned out to work well.

I still have not been on SM with the regular version. Both times I have had the Ghost Galaxy Halloween version.

Oh! So you probably only know the Haunted Mansion holiday version as well?

CARSLAND!!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Wow! You have been updating like crazy! Sorry to see the cruise come to an end, but I always love hearing about other people's opinion of Disneyland. It feels like a second home to me.

Yes, I need to get this TR done, I want to write about the new trip!

And you will see that I absolutely loved Disneyland! If it were just less busy, I would love it even more.

I usually get the view that you had which is not my favorite, but I'm glad that you enjoyed it!

I was really very pleased with it. But to be honest, I was just happy that we were able to get a reservation there at all! Such a difficult resort to get into!

You did pretty good getting on that many rides on a Saturday. I try to avoid the parks on the weekends, it's just too crazy there.

We did quite well because we were not concentrating on the rides, we did wander a lot and chatted with Michael's friend and the rides were just an added bonus. This way it was lovely. If we had tried to do as much as possible that day it would have been hell. But it was still better than the next day which was a Sunday and just utter craziness.

I'm looking forward to your next TR. I'm considering an Eastern Caribbean trip on the Fantasy, it's the last ship we have yet to book a cruise on and the Eastern sounds good as the Western goes on the same route that we have done on our past two cruises.

I loved the Eastern Caribbean ports! We went to St Thomas and took an excursion to beautiful St John and then the second port for us was San Juan which was amazing as well. I really want to vacation on St John one day!! However, the seas were more rocky in that part of the Caribbean...

 

[Flossbolna]

Wow, I really do hope this won't happen to us in June! Do you have any idea, why it took so long? I do hope they'll have line for EU citizens in Copenhagen and it will move fast. I don't want to loose too much of our time for Tivoli

I am not sure how they are going to treat us there considering that all our ports on the Norway cruise are within the Schengen area. Theoretically we never left the country therefore. But we were in international waters, so that might cause some controls???

I've been to one of these. But our experience was nothing spectacular and I think we only got burgers. We were REALLY hungry when we got there, as there was no place we could get dinner close to our hotel and had to drive over half an hour to get something to eat. After a very long day in the car when we planned to just walk to some restaurant… So it's not Jacks's fault that dinner didn't impress us.

I am not sure whether that chain is a good one anyway. I just took pictures because it was new to me and I was amused by the mini tacos.

I very much hope they don't repeat this!

Yes, me too! But it seems that we are generally arriving at the ports rather late according to our itinerary, so less need to get people off the boat and to their excursions as soon as possible.

Your room looks great and I like the view from the balcony. Mike would love it, as he already loved Sequoia Lodge in Paris. I have to work on that trip to California...

Yes, Mike would love it! If you ever think there is a chance that you might be in California though, I need to know more than 7 months in advance to try to get you a room like that!! The VGC book up very quickly once the WDW DVC owners are allowed to book it!

You did well, although the was not an unfamiliar fast food chain, I appreciate you took pictures just for me!

You are welcome!

You got a lot of things accomplished on your bonus park day!
As mentioned above - I need to work on getting back to Disneyland.
Looking forward to your take on Carsland!

It was a great day! And I think both of you would love Disneyland! It is so fun to see it again and remember our first trip in 1992!

 

[schmass]

Welcome back!

The Grand Californian looks so nice. I hope that we get to stay there one day. I love how it is right in Downtown Disney.

Looks like you had a great "bonus" day in DL. I have only been there once in 2008, but I absolutely loved it.

 

[AussieMumma]

I've just caught up on all of your TR so far and am loving it!
The Panama Canal cruise is on our list of must do's, along with the Alaska cruise, neither of them work in with our school break here in Australia but we're hoping to get there one day!
Looking forward to your week in Disneyland

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Happy New Year Magdalene!

Ok, I think I'm all caught up. That line from disembarking to the taxis looked insane! Thank goodness you weren't alone or it really would have been unbearable.

I'm with Michael--the Mustang really seemed like the only possible choice to make.

The room looks great and so does the view!

And it's cool to see Disneyland. I had such a brief view of it this past summer, it'll be nice to take it slower through your TR!

 

[nodnol]

Wasn't there a holiday yesterday in Bavaria? I really expected an update here....

 

[Flossbolna]

Wasn't there a holiday yesterday in Bavaria? I really expected an update here....

Difficult to post an update without a keyboard - and if you kill your keyboard with a cup of tea (by pouring it over it) on the evening before the holiday, you can't replace it during the holiday when the shops are closed...

 

[wilma-bride]

What a lovely day (afternoon) at Disneyland and you seemed to get loads done. We will be heading there straight after the cruise and only have Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday morning there so hoping we have as much luck as you and can get a lot done.

 

[Flossbolna]

Welcome back!

The Grand Californian looks so nice. I hope that we get to stay there one day. I love how it is right in Downtown Disney.

Looks like you had a great "bonus" day in DL. I have only been there once in 2008, but I absolutely loved it.

The Grand Californian is really amazing! And the location is perfect. One thing I love about DLP is that everything is so close together, but at DL it is even closer! And Downtown Disney there is far far nicer than the verion in Paris (which is a bit of an eyesore...).

I feel very lucky that we were able to stay at the VGC! Without DVC I would have never paid the normal room rates there. And even for a DVC property it does eat up a lot of points! But it was really worth it.

You should really try to get back to DL! I think it would be even an easier Disney park with a toddler than WDW as everything is so close together!

I've just caught up on all of your TR so far and am loving it!
The Panama Canal cruise is on our list of must do's, along with the Alaska cruise, neither of them work in with our school break here in Australia but we're hoping to get there one day!
Looking forward to your week in Disneyland

I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the TR! I am glad that I am pretty flexible as to when I go on vacation as this makes travelling so much easier. But one day you won't be bound by school breaks anymore! And who knows, Disney might change around the time frame for the PC cruises in the future...

 

[Flossbolna]

Happy New Year Magdalene!

Ok, I think I'm all caught up. That line from disembarking to the taxis looked insane! Thank goodness you weren't alone or it really would have been unbearable.

I'm with Michael--the Mustang really seemed like the only possible choice to make.

The room looks great and so does the view!

And it's cool to see Disneyland. I had such a brief view of it this past summer, it'll be nice to take it slower through your TR!

Happy New Year to you as well!

I am still amazed how chaotic getting off the ship was. You would think that the port authority would have an interest in making things as easy as possible.

I see that the Mustang is really popular! Micheal will be happy to hear that all of you agree with him - since I questioned him originally.

I am looking forward to read about your whirlwind visit to DL the past summer!

What a lovely day (afternoon) at Disneyland and you seemed to get loads done. We will be heading there straight after the cruise and only have Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday morning there so hoping we have as much luck as you and can get a lot done.

I guess you know already that you will have to deal with sizeable crowds! But at least you should be there after they start the 60th anniversary celebrations, so you get that as an added bonus!

My experience was that the parks were crowded, but it was possible to get things done. Make really good use of the single rider lines. A lot of attractions have them, at some they are not well advertised. And then you also have FP - and DL and DCA are not linked, so you can hold a FP in each park at the same time. Since it is so easy to hop from park to park this is really helpful!

 

[eandesmom]

Ugh what a mess getting out of port! We had a similarily long experience at Cape Canaveral. NO fun waiting that long for transportation after how long it takes just to get off the ship.

I won't tell you what we call Jack in the Box here.



It is with affection though, honestly around here it is possibly the best fast good. Not for burgers but for the fact they have options besides burgers and many of them are tasty. I don't take my kids to McDonalds but I do take them to Jack in the Box!

How lovely to have a CM connection like that and a bonus park day? Outstanding!!!! I think they did a wonderful job on the BTMRR refurb, interesting to hear you like Paris the best. If I ever make it there I'll have to compare! As I was looking at the pictures and saw the shirts I wondered immediately if they were Pendleton. It's actually a really neat town, we went through there a number of years ago. Growing up to me it was just the place good flannel came from (that we couldn't afford but dreamed about lol) but it was neat to see a lot more of the why and how.

What a lovely first park day and I like your view, definitely gives you that park lodge vibe!

I thought of you on NYE. Eric wanted to do "what we did last year" for NYE. Well, last year we ate at Biergarten. So I actually attempted Schnitzel and Spaetzle. Not quite the same as a full German buffet but it was rather edible.

 

[englishrose47]

Hi Magdalena !! I am slowly catching up with all my Dis friends threads!!My TR is at a Halt till I figure out how to upload pix to my new Laptop!!Will have the Teens show me !!!
Hope your Holidays were great, Did you get to spend time with Michael ???I was just looking at all Kyle's Nutcrackers , he LOVES them , his favorites are Sherlock Holmes , a Fisher man and the 2 Mickey Mouse ones he has !!It still baffles me why he started collecting them but he is definitely hooked on them !!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 21, May 18

After the relatively early morning followed by a late night the day before, we decided to sleep in. It might not have been the best decision from a tactical point of view. But we expected to have more days in the parks that were going to be less crowded, so today was more a day to just enjoy the parks, not so focussed on rides.

Today was going to be my first visit to the refurbished DCA. I had been there on the visit in 2005 and actually really liked the park – even though it generally was not that popular in its original version. That’s why it got a massive makeover. The main additions are Carsland and World of Colour. Otherwise the park has been made much prettier. I think people who complained about it being so ugly before have never seen the Walt Disney Studios Paris and therefore have no idea what an ugly Disney theme park really looks like. BUT I have to admit that DCA in its current version is far improved over the version I saw in 2005!

One thing that is nice about the VGC is that there is a private entrance into DCA directly from the hotel. However, it is a very small entrance and it is easily overwhelmed when more than a handful of people show up at the same time. During most of our stay they were checking room keys so that only hotel guests (I think from any of the three official Disney hotels) could use it. Then at Disneyland they also have little Ipods that scan your ticket and then show the picture they take of you on the first day – to prevent reselling of used tickets. Then there is also the bag check and finally the turnstile. To get all the people through this process makes things really complicated and I hated it every single time!!

Well, before I was put off by how complicated it is to get into a park, I tried to capture the grandeur of the lobby of the GCV:

This is a difficult hotel to take pictures off!

When we entered the park we were in the Grizzly River Run area. GRR is a raft ride – like Kali River Rapids. In 2005 this was one of my favourite rides. Unfortunately it was down for refurbishment when we were there…

We kind of started to wander through the park:

And ended up at the tip board to check out the current wait times:

California Screamin and Radiator Springs Racers were both down…

It was around 11am and I decided that I needed food. So we went to get some very early lunch. I decided that we had to go to the Pacific Wharf Café. I had wanted to eat there in 2005, but it did not work out. The main appeal for me was that they were serving the food in bread bowls made by the Boudin Bakery in the park, i.e. in San Francisco Sourdough bread. I love that type of bread!!

Walking there Michael dragged me past the main Carsland entrance telling me not to look. I thought he was a bit strange, but he usually does know his Disney stuff, so I followed his instructions. And then I was really looking forward to that bread bowl that I had been waiting for since 2005!

Michael had the Broccoli and Cheese: Rich and Cheesy Soup made with Cheddar Cheese, fresh Broccoli Florets and Diced Onions

I got the Chicken, Apple & Walnut Salad: tender pieces of Chicken Breast with Tart Crisp Apples, Celery and Walnuts in a Creamy Honey Lemon Dressing served atop a bed of fresh Salad Greens:

Isn’t it beautiful??

We both really loved our food. BUT as wonderful as the bread was, there was no way I would have been able to finish that whole bread bowl. What a shame to let it go to waste!!! I did see that some people ordered the dishes without the bread bowl, not sure if that would be cheaper. If so, I would suggest only one person getting the breadbowl and then share the bread. My bowl was larger than Michael’s and it was easily enough bread for 3 people!

It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed sitting outside with a view of the area:

Since it was in our general area we went on the Little Mermaid Ride:

I really liked the décor of the line here:

This had recently gotten a refurbishment. Not because it was falling apart already (it is a bit older than the WDW version however), but to upgrade it. They added more little fishes along the track when you first go under the sea and they made the big under the sea room much darker. I thought all the upgrades were really great and made the ride much less plastic and more like a typical dark ride. However, they still had the poor fish with the clear plastic spears in their mouths… That scene totally creeps me out! I know that the clear plastic is supposed to be water, but to me it looks like the poor fish are being stabbed!

Continued in Part 2