Kiwis Do Dis! - AGAIN! - This time our first ever Halloween

[Saskiwi]

Decisions, decisions...what to see and where to go..besides DL of course!

We have 14 days in Anaheim, which seemed a lot at the start, but now the more research I do, the more there is we want to see..

We want to spend a day in San Diego - probably hitting the zoo for a few hours - kids are free in Oct so that sounds like a deal. I have always loved the look of the Del Coronado Hotel so maybe lunch or early dinner there could be in order before we drive back to Hojos..

Anything else anyone can recommend we must see in SD? We have been to SeaWorld in Australia earlier this year so that's not such a biggie for us, even though the SD one is more extensive - we also went to the great zoo in Sydney this year, but the SD Zoo is the mother of all zoos apparently, so feel we really SHOULD check it out...

Back to things Disney - I have found a top hat for DS9's hitchhiking ghost MHP costume - phew - only $2 too - now to work out how to get it across the Pacific in one uncrushed piece (DH thinks I am mad!)

 

[Saskiwi]

Excitement levels are rising in our house - it is the school holidays here and our boys are just cooling their heels waiting for Friday when we leave- thank goodness for the internet, ipods and other electronic distractions is all I can say, otherwise they would be driving us up the wall with anticipation!

Just read the Disunplugged blog about the new Cirque de Soleil show "Iris" which is on at the Kodak Theater - sounds great!
DH and I have seen 2 Cirque shows but they very rarely ever come all the way to NZ - and when they do they only go to Auckland, which is an hour's flight away anyway, so it would be great to get to take the boys to one.

And of course the Kodak Theater is worth seeing on its own - after watching umpteen Academy Awards shows over the years...

So, now to see if we can a) afford it and b) squeeze it in to our already pretty full two weeks!

 

[Saskiwi]

Having a lazy morning this morning as we are off to MHP tonight, so thought I'd grab the chance to update my PTR - which is now a TR!

We had a pretty good flight here -it worked out to be a 24 hour journey from the time we left our home until we arrived at Hojo, but we survived it pretty well!

Virgin Australia was good - there definitely seemed to be more legroom in economy than when we came over on Qantas two years ago. We all managed to get a couple of hours' sleep on the flight and breezed through immigration and customs at LAX easily.

We LOVED catching the Disneyland Express bus to Hojos - so much better than queuing forever at LAX to hire a car and then trying to negotiate the freeways system while jetlagged - much less stressful for DH (driver) and me (navigator)!

We arrived at Hojos v. early - 8.30am, so they couldn't check us in yet, so we dumped our bags and headed over to Mimi's for a second breakfast (had eaten no. 1 on the plane) Being at Mimi's made us really feel like we were at Disneyland, so despite our tiredness it was a good start to our first day.

We then wandered down to the DL entrance plaza and checked out all the changes to the front of DCA. Had a walk thru Downtown Disney and did a little shopping at the Disney store, just to get in the mood! Then we found Alamo behind Compass Books and picked up our hire car from the very friendly folks there (so much nicer than the grumpy, crowded LAX office last time!)

Drove to Walmart in Anaheim Plaza - just a couple of exits up the I5 from Hojos - and did a grocery shop for breakfast and snack supplies: trashy US cereal - a bit of a holiday tradition with us (Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, for the record!), pop tarts (we don't have them at home - thank goodness!) milk, juice etc. The boys were excited to see Angry Birds stuffed toys at Walmart, several dollars cheaper than they had just seen them at DTD (surprise, surprise!) so bought them also.

By the time we got back we could check into our Disney-view room in Bldg 1 - not such a great view during the day - the roof of the bldg below isn't that pretty! - but the fireworks view is great at night.
Then time for a nap on those comfy Hojo beds - such bliss after a long, jet-lagging trip!

We woke up around 5pm and went out to In n Out burger for dinner - another favourite US holiday tradition with us - the fries were a bit flour-y but the burger was supergood.

An old friend was flying down from San Francisco for the day the next day, just to see us, so we had already told the boys we wouldn't be hitting the parks until Sunday, which they were very understanding about - with a 14 day pass, it's not like we are going to miss out on anything!

We spent the morning at Long Beach (excellent coffee at Peet's) and had lunch back in Anaheim at PF Chang's in the Gardenwalk - really good Chinese food in an upmarket setting - nice outdoor area too - our friend, who used to be a chef, recommended it. Then we wandered over to DTD again to check out the new tiki bar at the Disneyland Hotel. Trader Sam's is great- but tiny and at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon was already packed!
We couldn't get a seat in the bar, but were able to order drinks and take them to the Tangaroa Terrace seating area outside, which was empty.

The drinks weren't cheap but they were good, and fun - DH had a light up icecube in his which came in a souvenir Tiki mug - we will be going back again before our 14 days are up! I'm betting Disney is going to expand Trader Sam's in the near future - they have a winner on their hands.

We dropped our friend back at the Metro station (only $1.50 to get a train from LAX to Norwalk - the nearest stop to Dis - such a deal if you have someone to pick you up!) and decided to go for dinner at a BBQ place we discovered on our last trip.

Blake's Place is on E. Miraloma in Fullerton - only about 5 mins drive from DL. It is a very unlikely location for a restaurant - sort of light-industrial area,but look out for the green awning and you'll find it! We discovered it through Yelp! - it had good reviews.
It is definitely not the sort of spot tourists are likely to stumble across, - more a low-key local's favourite. The BBQ is excellent - the boys all got ribs and I had the pulled pork sandwich - fantastic. the people who run it are really friendly and we had a coupon from their website too, so it was a great deal all round!

OK, so far it seems all we have done is eat and drink, but next day, Sunday, we finally hit the parks!

 

[kitsch]

Great to see you made it here safely and are having a good time. Hope the chilly rainy weather we're currently having doesn't damper you fun.

Glad you found Peet to your liking--it's one of the better chains here (much better than Starbuck IMO)

Keep us posted and add any pics if possible.

BTW, congrats to the All Blacks for going all the way.

 

[Saskiwi]

Great to see you made it here safely and are having a good time. Hope the chilly rainy weather we're currently having doesn't damper you fun.

Glad you found Peet to your liking--it's one of the better chains here (much better than Starbuck IMO)

Keep us posted and add any pics if possible.

BTW, congrats to the All Blacks for going all the way.

Thanks - we are actually LOVING this weather - slightly warmer than the cold spring we were having at home, but not too hot for us to enjoy the parks-Spring Break weather last time we were here was a little too warm sometimes!

And well done knowing about the All Blacks! Here's a pic taken on Sunday morning:

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For those who are not rugby fans; the All Blacks are NZ's national rugby team (they wear an all black uniform!) and they were in the final of the Rugby World Cup against France on Oct 23 - a super-big deal in NZ - kind of like having the Superbowl and World Series rolled into one... any way, it wasn't on live TV in the US - we tried to watch the game online but ended up having to follow a live blog of it at 2am from our hotel room...,which was interesting!

So, as we have a 14 day pass I won't go through a day by day account, as it would be a little repetitious, to say the least! ("Day 12 - rode Indy for the 23rd time, still great..")

Things we have noticed and loved so far:
The refreshening of Splash Mountain earlier this year has paid off - our favourite family ride, we have ridden this a lot and know it well, so we noticed the new greenery and planting and the refreshed paint work - it looks just great!

World of Colour - saw this for the first time last night - Wow! So much bigger and better than I thought it would be - amazing use of technology and all Disney's wonderful story-telling "intellectual property": -the songs and images of so many movies that we love brought to life in a jaw-dropping new way - we will be watching this a few more times on this trip for sure!

The in-parks food: seems to have improved! Yummy fajita salad at Cocina Cucumonga yesterday, DH had the Chinese chicken salad bowl from the Boudin bakery - in an amazing sourdough bread bowl, which was the best bread I've eaten in ages, the parmesan and garlic fries at Cafe Orleans - OMG (we kind of knew they were good already, but they seemed especially good!) and the boys loved their pumpkin tiramisu mousse dessert (sounded hideous but was actually ok) and Jack Skellington coffin cake. We also tried a corn dog from the Red Wagon for the first time - and they were really good, as Disers had promised!

Cast members; our interactions have been almost universally positive - great helpful, friendly - I am doing a separate post about one particularly amazingly helpful City Hall experience yesterday..

OK gotta go - gates open at 9 this morning and we want to be there!
More to come...including what we haven't loved so much...

 

[Caroline NZ]

Sounds like you are having an awesome time Saskiwi

 

[Saskiwi]

Oooookaaay - here we are a week and a half into our 2 week stay - time for another update!

We have just had two non-parks days in a row (I know, how could we??!!) - but after 7 park days back-to-back, we felt it was time for a little break..

Some highlights from the past week:
Mickey's Halloween Party on the 25th: such fun seeing everyone dressed up in costumes - some really inventive ones too, as well as all the Disney classics.
We had already done a lot of rides in the preceding days so we just concentrated on getting a photo with Jack Skellington, seeing the fireworks and parade and of course, CANDY!

We queued for ages for Jack - at least 30 mins - they went through two 'Jacks' while we waited, but it was worth it. DS9 was dressed as a hitchhiking ghost and Jack spent ages with him chatting about the Haunted Mansion, it made his night. We watched the parade from opposite Pixie Hollow and then immediately followed the end of the parade round to get a good spot in front of the castle.

LOVED the Halloween Screams fireworks - almost as much as I love "Remember...Dreams come True" - but they are still tops!

We seemed to score an unholy amount of candy - and we weren't even trying that hard - we only did about 8-10 trails - there were many we didn't get to. The park seemed very busy - equal to a busy weekend day or Spring Break when we visited 2 years ago. We had had enough of it all by about 1030pm and left, but it was definitely worth doing.

Aladdin: still a great show, even though we were sad to see the flying carpet is still out of action following it's accident a month or so ago.

Sorcerer's Workshop Building: one of the great unsung spots of DCA - I love just sitting in the big entrance foyer where you can watch highlights of Disney films on the giant 360 degree screens - a great spot to wait while the boys do the TOT - which I don't care for! Also love the detailing in the Beast's Library and the animation room before it - I forget it's correct name - beautiful lights all over the ceiling.

The Little Mermaid:A mixed bag here - love the way this building has incorporated marine motifs into the queue area, but I feel the ride falls short somehow - it just doesn't have the "magic" it should have. FWIW here are my boys' thoughts: there should be 'real' water involved somehow, as there is in some of the FL dark rides - e.g. the fountain in Pinocchio (I think- or is it Toad?) - and even something as simple as real bubbles drifting through the main "under the sea" scene would give it a "live" feel. It just relies too much on animatronics, we thought - and you don't hear enough of the great songs that made that movie so wonderful.

WOC viewing: - the show is amazing - just WOW, but the queuing and FP carry-on to get to see it from a good spot is a mess - there's a good thread about this on the boards at the moment. We just went for the "fire hydrant" blue FP spot and it worked well, but we had to be there about 45 mins before hand to stake it out.

Food: we have eaten several times at Mimi's - joined their email list and got discount coupons - yay! good quality, reasonable price and good service too. We also drove to Marie Callenders up on E La Palma as DH wanted some good ol' American pie - their menu is a bit similar to Mimi's, but they are famous for their pies - banana cream and coconut cream - mmmmm.

After some Yelp! research, we also tried Portillos which is near Knott's Berry Farm one night. GREAT - very casual - order at the counter, but Italian sliced beef sandwiches dipped in jus - OMG - soooo good! We plan on going back tomorrow!

We went to DTD for dinner at Tortilla Jo's on Saturday night - excellent margaritas and guacamole made at your table, but the main course was pretty average gringo-Mex we thought. We hope to try a more 'authentico' Mexican place this week, also recommended by Yelpers - will let you know!

Food disappointments have been fairly scarce though - apart from some shockingly bad coffee!! Even after asking for a small double-shot latte, with the cup only half full of milk, I have still been served dishwater strength pale beige blah - (small, of course, being what we would call large in NZ/Australia!)
This has happened at Blue Ribbon Bakery in DL, Boudin Bakery in Costa Mesa and La Brea Bakery in DTD. The search for good espresso near DL continues....apparently the new Jolly Holiday Bakery is going to have "improved coffee offerings", so we live in hope!

Off to Knotts tomorrow - I'm expecting to be disappointed with a non-dis park experience, but maybe seeing Snoopy will make up for the lack of Disney "magic" (love Snoopy!)

 

[Saskiwi]

Back home and several loads of washing later - time to finish this sucker!

So, Knott's Berry Farm- not as bad as I thought - the kids loved the rollercoasters and everything was walk-on - talk about quiet! No "magic" of course, but it was fun, we saw Snoopy and had our chicken dinner at Mrs Knotts, which was pretty good, if a little like eating at your Grandma's - which I guess is part of the charm!

Back to Disneyland and DCA:
Shows- we saw WOC a second time from the blue zone bridge - also a great viewing spot we thought. We never got to see it from down close to the water - we never got the timing right to get to line up early enough to nab one of those spots, but the nights were quite cool and I wasn't keen on getting wet really anyway.

We only saw Fantasmic! once - the first time in over 10 years as it was down when we visited 2 years ago. Unfortunately the dragon was off, which I had been really looking forward too, so the whole thing was a little underwhelming - especially compared to WOC. So we didn't bother trying to see it again.

Billy Hill: - so great - we love these guys and would never have bothered catching them if it wasn't for the tips on these boards! We enjoyed lunch while we caught their show - really good chicken nuggets and the kids loved their root beer floats.

Aladdin: as I have already mentioned, it was sad not to see the flying carpet in action. We caught the show a second time, this time from the Orchestra section, which I think is the best spot now there's no carpet to watch - you get to see the elephant and camels better. The two different Genie actors we caught were both good too - just a great show all round.

Parades: Soundsational was excellent - a big improvement on the poor old Celebrate parade we saw 2 years ago, that was panned by all the regular visitors! It felt like a return to the big budget Disney parades we remembered from visits in the 80s and 90s - lots of floats, great costumes, plenty of characters.
Halloween parade: kind of short and a bit of a token effort - apparently the WDW one is much bigger? But it was cute and a chance to see all the characters in their Halloween outfits.

Fireworks: So happy when we discovered "Remember.." was going to be on during our visit - it is a wonderful show - all the best music and sound bites from all the rides - we just love it! The Halloween fireworks were excellent too though, - suitably spooky and the fire effects were spectacular. You needed to be right in front of the castle to appreciate it fully though, with so many lighting effects on the castle and Matterhorn.

A grumble: we had one Magic Morning with our 14 day pass and chose to leave a lot of Fantasyland rides until then - we were at the gate on opening and headed straight to Peter Pan - we were first in line but....they weren't ready to open! We had to wait about 10 minutes and by then big crowds had arrived and it kind of threw our hour out - the benefit of being at the park ahead of everyone was diluted somewhat! So a bit grumpy about that - but hey, when you have a 14 day pass you're not really going to miss out on anything are you!? (Except POTC, which was closed... still sad about that)

 

[Caroline NZ]

It sounds like you had a great time Saskiwi. I can't wait until our 2013 trip, though only our last 8 days will be Disneyland based. However I am really looking forward to a good road trip ( Phoenix, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas,Yosemite,San Fran, Monterey etc.)
I love all the Dinsey night shows, the Remember fireworks and WOC are both equal favourites with me.

 

[Saskiwi]

I'm not sure if I should post this separately in the main thread but here are a few off-site dining options we experienced which might be of interest:

Blake's Place BBQ - already mentioned but worth another plug - nice people, great BBQ

PF Chang's in Gardenwalk - fresh, modern Chinese in an upmarket setting -outdoor patio

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co - also Gardenwalk - worth trying once if you saw the movie - lots of shrimp of course - lots of movie "stuff" on the walls, kind of overpriced but fun.

Cheesecake Factory - for Kiwis and Aussies who aren't familiar with this chain, 'giant temples to gluttony' pretty much sums it up - the menu is about 20 pages long, meals are huge, and there are about 30 cheesecakes to choose from - pace yourself! Good quality food, delicious cheesecakes, also available to go. We went to the one in Gardenwalk and also at Brea Mall.

Marie Callender's: again, needs no explanation to locals, but for non-Americans; think Mimi's-style menu but with pie! We went to the closest one which is just up the I5 near the Anaheim Plaza shopping mall. Good sandwiches, salads and of course, pies: coconut cream, banana cream, cherry rhubarb -also available to take back to your hotel room....

Portillo's: near Knott's Berry Farm in the Buena Park mall shopping area. A Chicago-based hot dog and Italian beef sandwich chain- also has salads, burgers etc. Get a double dipped Italian beef roll -so good!

OC Rotisserie and Poultry: this is one you have to take on trust - or check out the raves on Yelp! Vietnamese 'banh mi' sandwiches on crusty French bread: roast chicken, crunchy slaw, tasty dressing, lots of cilantro (coriander) - unbelieveably good and only about $3! Spotless family run place in a strip mall on Ball Rd - you'd never just "stumble" onto it, but it is worth seeking out.

Coffee: Haagen Daz in DTD have Peet's coffee which is pretty good - otherwise we just doubled-up our K-pods in our Keurig machine at Hojos (i.e 2 pods per cup), and managed to get an acceptably strong brew that way. Gave up on trying to get anything decent in the parks...

 

[kitsch]

Glad you see you made it home safely and that you had a good time here. Did you ever get a chance to see Iris or go up to the Huntington?

 

[Saskiwi]

We did get to the Huntington! On one of our few non-Disney days- October 31st, we drove up to Hollywood first thing in the morning, as the boys wanted to see the hand prints outside Graumann's Chinese Theater and the walk of fame stars.

Graumann's was roped off for some event with lots of press milling about, so we had a look at a few of the hand prints that we could get too, and found some stars the boys knew (Michael Jackson, Kermit the Frog!)

There were lots of panhandlers around, and being Halloween there were plenty of people dressed in costumes wandering around too. We were just about to head off, when a security guy in a suit and sunglasses came up and asked us if we wanted wristbands to get us into the "Mickey Rourke handprint ceremony" that was starting in a few minutes outside Graumann's!

The boys were like "Mickey who?" -"He was the bad guy in Iron Man 2" we hissed - (sorry Mickey- Loved you in Rumble Fish back in the 80s!) and a minute later we found ourselves on the other side of the velvet rope, next to a few other random 'fans'. Eric Roberts and Jon Favreau - both mates of Mickey's apparently - gave an introduction and then the man himself appeared and gave an emotional - if a little rambling - speech in which he paid tribute to his late Grandmother who inspired him to make something of himself. He also thanked his agent, lawyer, trainer, stunt guy, girlfriend, dogs and even his mechanic, - who were all present!

All in all, a slightly surreal Hollywood moment - our kids only really appreciated how random it was and how lucky we were after we looked on the internet next day and showed them articles and photos of the event they had attended!

We grabbed some early lunch at the Hollywood and Highland center (Aunt Annies Pretzel's) and then hit the road for our friend's place in Pasadena - thanks GPS!

We headed to the Huntington Library nearby and toured the gardens and galleries - just lovely! We saw Gainsborough's famous 'Blue Boy':

Our boys really enjoyed the children's garden - it was a hot day so splashing in the fountains was a good way to cool off.

We also had a great time in the conservatory where a very helpful guide showed us the cocoa and coffee plants and had a ripe cocoa (or cacao) pod so we could see where chocolate comes from.

After the Huntington, we headed back to our friend's house to get ready to go trick or treating with their young boys. We headed to an amazing street full of beautiful restored California bungalows with amazing Halloween decorations. Some homes had animatronic spiders and ghosts on their front yards, and hundreds of carved pumpkins
Here are our boys outside one:

We were there about 5pm as our friend's kids are very young- and it was still light, but apparently this street is packed once it gets dark.
My boys loved their first real trick or treating experience and scored even more candy to add to their haul from Mickey's Halloween Party!

At about 8pm we piled two tired kids - and parents - pack into the car and headed back down to Anaheim and our beds at Hojos

 

[Davids-Coco]

How were the crowds for this past October? We are considering a trip the 20-27th next year. Sounds like you had a magical time!

 

[Saskiwi]

It was busy on the weekends prior to Halloween but not too bad on weekdays at all, really. I can only compare it to our visit in 2009 during Spring Break and it seemed less busy than then - We didn't feel the need to Fastpass rides nearly as much this time as we did during that visit, when we were FPing all the time.
And in the week immediately after Halloween it was VERY quiet...