July 4th Disneyland Resort Trip Report!

[thealfi]

Every year since 2006, my parents and I have been heading to Disneyland to celebrate Independence Day. Of course, we go just about any other time of the year as well (anytime is a good time to go to Disney!), but July 4th is when we love to show our patriotism for the nation we call home. We'll be visiting Disney California Adventure on July 4th and Disneyland Park on July 5th.

My parents and I came to the US back in the early 90s when I was just a baby. Having grown up in Burma (Myanmar), my parents have always dreamed of one day visiting the Happiest Place on Earth. They grew up hearing about how Disney magic transported people to see far off jungles (and sights like the back side of water), swashbuckling pirates, a land where you never ever grow up, mermaids and the might kraken, and everyone's favorite flying elephant.

When I was 7 they surprised me on my birthday with a trip to Disneyland. Till this day, we sometimes talk about that trip and how we each felt as we passed through the entrance tunnel into Main Street, U.S.A. Needless to say, we immediately fell in love with the place!

Actually we've loved Disney since before I can remember

The Cast

A decade-and-a-half later, we've become hardcore Disney park addicts! Donning our red, white and blue on July 4th, 2010 at Disneyland.

My name is Alfred (the guy in the middle). I'm Burmese, Chinese, Indian, English and Hebrew. My dad's Burmese-Chinese, and my Burmese-Indian-English-Hebrew ancestry comes from my mum (gotta express my British heritage from time to time). I'll be graduating from the University of San Francisco soon (expect another trip report from me for my graduation trip to Walt Disney World). Now let's get to the more fun Disney stuff about us!

Since our first trip to Disneyland, we've lost track of how many times we've been to the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort. We've also been to the Tokyo Disneyland Resort once (I'll never forgot how weird it was to hear the Haunted Mansion ghost host in Japanese).

When it comes to our favorite Disney live-action movies, mine is Pirates of the Caribbean (soon to be Star Wars: Episode VII), my mom's favorite is the original Freaky Friday and my dad's favorite is the original version of The Parent Trap. I guess this sort of gives you a ballpark figure of how old we are.

My favorite Disney cartoon is undoubtedly The Lion King. My dad's is Aladdin and he can't get enough of the show over at Disney California Adventure. My mom's favorite is Mulan!

Our favorite Disney resort? THE DISNEYLAND RESORT
My favorite ride is Star Tours - The Adventures Continue . My mom's favorite attraction is Radiator Springs Racers. My dad loves both Disney's Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror scared1 equally.

The Plan
When it comes to flying versus driving down to Southern California, we love to drive down. Driving down Interstate 5 gives us a good six hours for family time, especially considering our busy everyday schedule. The sights are nice, too. A perfect way to start the trip. We'll be driving down from San Francisco before the break of dawn on the July 3rd. Here's a short video of our drive down to Disneyland back in January http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy_NISgf_PQ

Once we're in the parks, we plan to use the Lines app fro Touring Plans. It's done a great job of lining up attractions and saving time so far from its website. We'll see and let all of you know how useful the app and optimized plan will be as we're in the parks.

We're staying at the Anaheim Plaza Hotel from the 3rd and checking out on the 6th. It's not the best off-site hotel (and many would say it's far down on the list of off-sites), but since we only use the hotel for the basics like a good night's sleep and for breakfast & lunch. It's cheap price makes it a definite plus for us.

This brings us to July 4th Independence Day. I think the "norm" is to visit Disneyland Park on this day. We've been doing that for the past decade. It's about time for a change in tradition. We'll be visiting Disney California Adventure this year on July 4th. There are also practical reasons for doing so:
1. There will be less people in DCA than at DLP.
2. See above.
3. Now that we're all of legal drinking age, gotta try out some of the drinks at the Carthay Circle Lounge
With Cars Land as DCA's newest addition, crowds will no doubt be higher there than they have been in the past, but Disneyland will still draw a lot more crowds (mostly SoCal locals). As usual, we'll be dressed in red, white and blue. If you see somebody with in Spider-Man tye-die t-shirt, that's probably me!

On July 5th, we'll be at Disneyland Park. We can't wait to watch the new show Mickey and the Magical Map; it's been a long time since there's been a show there, and I believe the last show being Snow White for Disneyland's 50th Anniversary back in 2005.

After seeing a lot of families with matching attire, we've planned to wear our Star Trek t-shirts this day. If you see a family of three with the tallest in command gold, the dad in science blue and the mom in operations red that's us.

If you'll be in the parks on these days and happen to spot us, please feel free to chat with us about anything Disney! We'd love to meet other fellow DIS'ers and Disney fanatics

 

[thealfi]

Every magical Disney vacation starts at home in a not so magical way. At least that's how it's been for all of our past trips to the resorts! This time, however, I think we've actually finished packing a record one day before we leave! I had originally intended for this part to be much longer considering our packing track record, but now with everything in the bags there's really nothing to do | Except maybe watch Disneyland videos on YouTube

Then I started thinking about how I did things differently this time. Usually I just pack enough clothing items to last the trip along with a few extra shirts, socks, etc. just in case. I tuck all my shirts away to one side of the bag, pants in another, socks have their own area and so on and so forth. With everything bundled together, sometimes I might overpack or I don't pack enough shirts. Another problem is that the different sizes of clothing items turns packing into a game of tetris; "with pants all on this side and some jackets here, where do I put my shirts!?!?". Before that I just threw things into the bag when I was a little kid.

This time, I decided to do things differently. I figured I could just set aside what I would wear on a particular day. I folded a pair of jeans, placed boxers in between a fold and placed a t-shirt on top of the jeans; I then placed an undershirt on top of the t-shirt. I was done with what I'd wear for the last day of the trip (Day 4). So, I placed Day 4's stack at the bottom of my bag. I did the same thing for Day 3 and placed that stack on top of the stack for Day 4. I repeated until I was done for all four days of the trip.

If it helps, here's what a cross section of the bag would look like from the side:

- Top of Bag -
Extra Shirt | Hoodie
Day 1 Hotel | Day 3 DLR
Day 2 DCA | Day 3 Hotel
Day 2 Hotel | Day 4 Drive home
- Bottom of Bag -

"Hotel" means what I'd wear each night at the hotel. There are two columns of clothes. I topped it all off with an extra shirt on top of the left column and a hoodie on top of the right. The rest I believe is self-explanatory.

Now I know exactly what I've packed (and where). And with each new day, I just need to open my bag and grab a stack of clothes without having to rummage through it. I don't have to worry about putting together what to wear for the next day, it's already been done.

Now that everything's in my bag, it's just one more day before before we leave foggy San Francisco for sunny Southern California.

 

[MarbleBob]

After seeing a lot of families with matching attire, we've planned to wear our Star Trek t-shirts this day. If you see a family of three with the tallest in command gold, the dad in science blue and the mom in operations red that's us.

If you'll be in the parks on these days and happen to spot us, please feel free to chat with us about anything Disney! We'd love to meet other fellow DIS'er and Disney fanatics

That's awesome! We won't be in the parks until about 2 weeks after you, but if we were there next week, I'd definitely keep an eye out for the Star Trek family. Too cool!

 

[thealfi]

That's awesome! We won't be in the parks until about 2 weeks after you, but if we were there next week, I'd definitely keep an eye out for the Star Trek family. Too cool!

My parents and I wish your family an awesome road trip vacation! We hope you'll have a great time visiting San Francisco (bring the little ones to the Exploratorium!!!) and we can't wait to continue reading your trip report of your days at Disneyland!

 

[thealfi]

We're going to try out some optimized plans from Touring Plans this time. As three adults, my parents and I can power through the parks faster than families with children, but it looks like the plans we've come up with below might be able to save us even more time (around 4 to 5 hours each day!!!).

We've customized the plans for minimal walking between attractions. Also, the 1 hour+ long breaks around noon seem like the perfect time to go around the parks to take pictures. We also hope to spend some of the free time riding the smaller attractions like those in Fantasyland.

What are your thoughts on Touring Plans in general? Have you used Touring Plans before? What do you think of the site, their Lines app, or even the plans below?

Disney California Adventure - Touring Plan - July 4th

We never had a chance to see Five & Dime and Minnie's Fly Girls (both of which we hear are great), so I'm excited to see time freed up for both! The FastPass for Radiator Springs Racers might get tricky... We want to ride in the late afternoon/evening before World of Color; let's hope there will still be FPs available at 9:15 AM! Also, we've tried Animation Academy once before on our last trip in January 2013; we LOVED it and still have our sketches of Oswald the Lucky (and adorable) Rabbit. As a firm supporter of the arts, this is one attraction I must go to. I think I know where all that free time will be spent now I highly recommend all families visit this often overlooked attraction!

Disneyland Park - Touring Plan - July 5th

This actually follows our typical route in Disneyland Park, except this time we'll be eating in the park instead of eating at Downtown Disney or back at our hotel. The earliest reservation we could get for "lunch" Big Thunder Ranch BBQ was 4 PM. Since we'll probably be starving by then, the food will taste even more delicious and we'll probably be more stuffed to compensate for our hungry appetites.

Can't wait to share the rest of our trip! We leave before the crack of dawn tomorrow. Bags, check. Tickets, check. Books to read, check. Disney songs playlist, check. Disney podcasts downloaded, check. I'll update again once we're all settled in Anaheim. TTFN! Ta ta for now!

 

[DisneyMarvelStarWars]

I have enjoyed your pre-trip report so far and I look forward to reading all about your patriotic Disneyland resort trip.

Pirates of the Caribbean is also my favorite movie! And I am looking forward to Episode 7. And I am wearing a Marvel (Captain America) shirt. So already we have much in common!

Enjoy your vacation!!!

ETA: I have also stayed at the Anaheim Plaza and think it's rather pleasant! They have a great pool, are within walking distance, and the upkeep is decent.

 

[Skippydoo]

I used Touring Plans at WDW for Christmas week and they were wonderful! Christmas, like 4th of July, is busy- but we were in the parks for a couple of hours before we had to wait for anything.

We stayed ahead of the crowd and did a ton of things by getting there early and having a super plan

Hope it worked out for you!

 

[disneydeb64]

So, I have to ask...just how busy was it? I just made ressies for July 4th weekend, and the Disney resort agent I spoke with said that July 4th DLH is typically a ghost town until 10:00 AM. He added slow until around noon, with crowds really picking up late afternoon. What was your experience?