Lots of Completed Trip Reports....Nov 2009 - April 2014

[deejdigsdis]

I love your TR, it inspired me to start my own in Dec. I love the pics and now I feel I have to attend a flag ceremony one of these days. Halloween has never been special to me but it looks like a good time at DLR, so maybe when my babies are older it would be a good idea to try it. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the report. Doing a trip report is a really good way to re-live those memories. Especially if you come back with a case of the post-Disneyland blues like I do. Like I said, the Flag Retreat Ceremony is worth the effort. When my husband and I went to DL alone in April, we were only there for 2 afternoons and we made time for the ceremony both afternoons. Each was a bit different. It was a trip highlight for me.

My kids would love the Halloween Party. My 10 year old wants our next trip to be during Halloween Time so he can trick-or-treat and ride Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy. Halloween Time was very fun, but if I had to choose one time to go it would definitely be during the Christmas season. I've always preferred Christmas over Halloween. Thanks for reading.

33 days!! I first saw your pic of the BB menu and said to myself "Deej must have a powerful flash!" Then I kept reading and found you were outside when you took it. That was one of the main problems we had with BB - we couldn't see to order or eat. Perhaps the ambiance is on purpose so you also don't focus on portion size per dollar spent

After dining there and at Cafe Orleans my family is glad we ate ONCE at BB and prefer go to CO or CC.

My hubby would have mourning the passing of 3 triangles of Monte Cristo too.

Still laughing about Random Dancing Guy. You are very entertaining!!

Hmmm...I didn't think about the portion size per dollar spent as a reason for the dimness! I've yet to try CO. I wanted to this trip but it didn't work out. Hopefully next time. I know we won't go to BB next time because it isn't a place I would take my kids right now. When they are older and their tastes expand a bit, yes I will take them. But until then...I will have to enjoy BB from the sidelines as I sail on by. Or go on another trip without them. But I want them with me the next time I go to DL. Two trips in a row without them was enough.

Glad you got a kick out of Random Dancing Guy! I STILL laugh every time I see that picture, and it's been almost a month ago now!

Things are shaping up to finish DAY 4 today, and then that leaves a partial day for Day 5. Kind of bittersweet to finish these things. OK, off to upload some more pictures!

 

[deejdigsdis]

So we just finished up with the Flag Retreat Ceremony. One last shot of flowers in Town Square before moving on...

We also stopped to get a group shot in front of the big Mickey Pumpkin. Non-winking side. We did this earlier in the week, but my camera battery died before the Photo Pass guy could take a picture. He got one with his camera and my sister's camera, so we had to make sure and go back so I could get one as well.

OK, let's put some Fast Passes to use!

I remember the wait was really short. This has been my best trip yet as far as Indy waits go. Speaking of Indy, my sisters were at Disneyland together years ago (without me!) and were walking by Indy before it was officially open. They were pulled in to take a test run on the ride.

Up next, the Jungle Cruise. One of my favorite parts of the ride...seeing the backside of water!

We had an excellent skipper. At the end of our cruise, instead of saying something like "please disembark" -- something along those lines -- he said, "Get out." The 4 of us just lost it and laughed and laughed. We were taken back to 1985 when my mom was getting out of the canoes. When we reached the dock the canoe CM simply said "Get out." My mom thought it was the funniest thing and started laughing like crazy and fell out of the canoe as she was trying to disembark. (Dockside, not waterside. ) She just laid there on the dock laughing and laughing. I'm sure any passers by would have thought she was a bit tipsy. The whole "get out" thing just struck her as really really funny and she lost control. Of course my teenage brothers inched their way away from her. They were horribly embarrassed. D36 and I, who were 11 and 12 at the time, didn't know enough to be embarrassed. We just thought it was funny that our mom was laying on the dock laughing, so we laughed right along with her. OK...back to 2010. When the skipper said "Get out" we all lost it. Not enough to collapse on the dock in fits of laughter, but we did seem to be the only ones laughing.

I took a picture of the skipper so we could remember him. He got embarrassed and looked away just as I snapped the picture.

Oh, and here's a cute joke. D36 has a friend who used to be a skipper on the Jungle Cruise. He told her one of the jokes he used to say on the ride: "You know how at the end of the Matterhorn ride they say, 'please remain seated with your seat belt fastened'? Do you know what they are saying right after that? (He was referring to the Spanish translation of Permanacer Sentados... Por Favor...) No? Nobody knows? They are saying 'Cinnamon toast and tacos...On the floor!'---------------------- OK, that has to be said just right to have it come across just right. I'm sure it loses something in me just typing it as opposed to a Jungle Cruise skipper saying it with the same inflection as the Matterhorn recording...but I thought it was funny.

We hit Pirates one last time before going to Rancho del Zocalo for dinner. (Is that what it's called? I'm feeling too lazy right now to go check.) This was a first for me. Growing up, our favorite nighttime restaurant was La Casa Mexicana which was located where RdZ is now. Anyway, a few pics...

I can't remember what this was called, but it wasn't quite as good as it looked. I will go back and try this place again, though.

Here's M48's dessert:

OK, I love chocolate. Love, love, love it! But one bite of this was enough for me. Too tasteless. The taste it did have was on the bitter cocoa-ish side, instead of the melt-in-your-mouth decadent chocolatey-side.

We enjoyed the ambiance here. We sat right by where the Big Thunder trains come in after their "wildest ride" -- and even saw one put to bed for the night. I thought I took a picture of the trains back in the ... hmmm. I don't know what that area is called. "Warehouse" comes to mind, but I know that's not it! Anyway, no pics of that.

OK. More later.

 

[tksbaskets]

OK, now you've got me laughing about your mom laying on the dock at the end of her cruise "Get out"!

Hope that desert was as yummy as it looked

 

[deejdigsdis]

OK, now you've got me laughing about your mom laying on the dock at the end of her cruise "Get out"!

Hope that desert was as yummy as it looked

My mom will never live that story down! 25 years later and we are still talking (and laughing) about it!

OK, let's finish up Day 4...

After dinner we (everyone except D36, for some reason) rode HMH. One last tour of the mansion at night, you could say. We met D36 outside when we were done, with the goal of heading to Big Thunder Mountain for our last ride of the night. We headed over there, and wouldn't you know it, we just missed getting in line before closing time. That's twice now. So we headed toward Main Street.

Crowds leaving the park:

Oooohhh...a light I don't have yet.

I wanted to get my last bit of shopping done tonight. First stop...

DS10 asked for a tin of truffles...just like the ones we picked up for my sisters a year ago. Grrr... They were nowhere to be found. So none of the treats that my kids asked for were around this trip. I did pick up some dark chocolate peanut cluster candies for my husband, though.

Here's a funny sight from the Candy Palace. Another colliding of holidays!

Now I was off to get the mug I had my eye on all week. I'll have to post a picture of that one later. I also wanted to get a new Christmas tree ornament. I ended up choosing a snowman head (I snowman tree ornaments) with a Mickey ears hat. I'll post a pic of that one after I hang it on the tree. It is still wrapped up. (Boy, they mean business when they wrap fragile things, don't they?!? The package I came away with seemed like it was 7 times bigger than the ornament I put up on the counter. So happy it made it home safe and sound.)

I'm sure we sauntered down Main Street, enjoying the lights on our way.

That concludes Day 4!

 

[Dizzy4DL]

Loving your report! It's such a treat to read.

I know what you mean about wrapping fragile items. I bought a mug for a friend and when they were done wrapping, it was as big is a basketball! No kidding! My Mom was there and asked if their machine had broken.

 

[tksbaskets]

Smiling about the nice Coca-cola light Looking forward to more...

 

[deejdigsdis]

Loving your report! It's such a treat to read.

I know what you mean about wrapping fragile items. I bought a mug for a friend and when they were done wrapping, it was as big is a basketball! No kidding! My Mom was there and asked if their machine had broken.

Thanks so much! Yes, the wrapping... I figured 1 mug and 1 ornament wouldn't take up much space. But wow...after all that wrapping they were both so huge.

Smiling about the nice Coca-cola light Looking forward to more...

You won't have to wait much longer. The first part of Day 5 will be up this morning.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Last Day.

Being that it was a Friday, Disneyland opened at 8am. The plan was to leave HoJo at 7:15am. I went over to the office at 7am to check out and drop off my luggage. I would be flying home, the others would be driving. While the others were packing up the car I took a few pics around HoJo.

On the street by HoJo:

When they were all loaded up we made the trek to Disneyland one last time.

We were through the turnstiles just after 8am. I filmed as we walked in and headed down Main Street, so no pics of that. We decided to have breakfast on The Front Porch. (I know. I'm practically oozing anti-DISer philosophy this trip.) Two of us secured our seats while 2 of us went to Blue Ribbon Bakery.

I had my usual chocolate chocolate chip muffin. So moist! I also had my first Caramel Apple Spiced Cider (or Spiced Caramel Apple Cider -- can't remember exactly). Some sips were good, some were not. It was a little weird. The last swig tasted and felt like I was drinking spiced melted butter. Ewww. We enjoyed watching all the happy people walking down Main Street. D36 is a big Oregon Ducks fan, so she called out "Go Ducks!" quite a few times to unsuspecting Ducks-gear-wearing fans. Actually she was doing that all week, but there were more fans around this morning due to the game the next day.

Another thing we saw while we were eating and people-watching:

Some sort of training, perhaps?

20 minutes after taking that picture, we were already riding Peter Pan. Not bad.

I know we also rode Pinocchio and Snow White. Well, only half of Snow White. You might remember from the beginning of the TR that we broke down and walked out. Some reminder pics:

When the CM came to release us and lead us out, M48 asked what had happened. The CM said, "Well, Sneezy and Dopey are a little slow and seem to need a little nap..." You'd think with that excuse she might have included Sleepy in there.

We wandered over by IASW. It was closed for the installation of the Holiday overlay. We just wanted to see the status of the lights outside.

Bathroom break. Usually our DL trips consist of many stops at the Adventureland entrance restrooms. This trip we seemed to make an awful lot of stops at this one:

Then we wandered over to the old Motor Boat Cruise area.

Now I'm wondering how the boats fit in that area. It just looked small to me. You'd never know a ride used to be there.

Time for a ride on the Matterhorn.

I love the wildflower look of the flowers over there.

I finally remembered to turn on my camera at the end of the ride and record "Permanecer Sentados Por Favor!" Now I can listen to it anytime I want instead of bugging my husband -- who speaks Spanish -- to say it at the most random of times.

My next order of business was to pick up Space FPs while everyone else headed over to get a Dole Whip.

Christmas is coming early to Disneyland!

I met up with everyone else near the hub. They were all enjoying their Dole Whips. My sister picked up a pineapple spear for me. That's another thing that has gotten noticeably smaller since my last trip. I've never had a Dole Whip myself, but I thought this was kind of chintzy:

That will do for now. Be back later!

 

[tksbaskets]

Fun update! Inquiring mind wants to know....are the bobsleds smoother now since the refurb?

I noticed the holey Dole Whip too. Must get some castmember training on how to make the cup look full by filling around the outside whilst leaving a gaping hole in the middle.

Tasty anyway....

I'll be watching my email for notification of more fun to come....

 

[deejdigsdis]

Fun update! Inquiring mind wants to know....are the bobsleds smoother now since the refurb?

I noticed the holey Dole Whip too. Must get some castmember training on how to make the cup look full by filling around the outside whilst leaving a gaping hole in the middle.

Tasty anyway....

I'll be watching my email for notification of more fun to come....

Matterhorn Bobsleds...you know, I'm the wrong person to ask! I've never thought they were jerky. I've been riding them forever and never knew they were jerky until I read about it here on the DIS. Our first ride this trip we doubled up in our seats and rode the FL side. That was the first time I noticed definite jerkiness. On our last ride we each took our own seat and we rode the TL side. I didn't think it was jerky. I feel like our first ride was jerky because I was sharing the seat with someone else. Usually I don't do that. With the closer quarters I felt like I got tossed into the sides more.

OK, so we're still enjoying our pineapple and Dole Whips. I noticed the popcorn cart was keeping busy filling lots of Ghost Mickey buckets. I thought they were really cute but I didn't feel the need to buy one. They had a ton of buckets behind the popcorn cart.

Pretty flowers near our bench:

M48 had been wanting to ride the Monorail full circle all week, so we did that next.

We actually got to ride up front...something we've never done before. We loved it! Pictures from our front seat:

When we landed back in Tomorrowland we rode Autopia again. Once again Mom ended up with a bum car. It kept stopping on her. (I kind of think it wasn't completely a car issue, though. )

Time to use the Space FPs. Just Mom and I were up for the ride this time.

Woo Hoo! Front row again! I've really gotten lucky with all my front row-ness this trip.

I really do like the Ghost Galaxy overlay. Very Halloween-y to me. We met the others at Tomorrowland Terrace when we got out.

Oops! Thought I had finished uploading all the pictures. Guess I'll be back!

 

[deejdigsdis]

5th and final day is coming to a close way too quickly. After getting off Space Mountain and before meeting the others at Tomorrowland Terrace, I popped into The Star Trader to pick up some things for my boys. I brought 3 $25 Disney gift cards with me and I still had a balance on one of the cards. (By the way, I got my $75 worth of gift cards at the grocery store for $45! They had a promotion going that if you spend $30 on certain products, you would get a coupon for $10 off any gift card they sell. The products in the promotion were things I buy anyway -- so it was a big score! I did it 3 times and bought 3 $25 Disney gift cards for $15 each. ) I have 3 boys. I bought each of them a lightsaber key chain that lights up. I noticed that if you push a button, the lightsaber lights up in a periwinkle color. I thought it was pretty cool as is, but I had no idea what it was really capable of doing. When I gave them to the boys, they turned them on and started battling. When you move the lightsaber around it is no longer periwinkle-colored. It's very cool multi-colored! They loved them. I also found a replacement key chain for me. Love it!

OK, we are all back together again. It's about 12:15pm. Time is ticking away. I wanted to leave the park at 3:15 so I could go back to HoJo, grab my luggage, and be ready for my 3:55-4:10 pick up from Super Shuttle. We decided we'd have our final meal at Hungry Bear. We all really like sitting there by the water. The plan was for me to scoot on ahead and pick up BTMRR FPs and then meet them at Hungry Bear. I really really really needed to ride it again. We just barely missed getting on Tuesday night and Thursday night and I was overdue for my favorite "mountain" ride. As I was heading over I decided it might be a better idea to grab FPs for Splash instead. We could still ride BTMRR. The line for Splash seemed like it would be much longer so I put our FP efforts into that one instead.

We all met up at Hungry Bear. I ordered the Turkey Club this time. It came with plain potato chips. I thought it was pretty good.

We kind of lingered after eating, waiting to be able to use our Splash FPs. Finally it was time to go. Lucky me, I got the very front row seat again! (Normally I'm all for the front seat. But this time I had a plane to catch and wasn't all that crazy about heading to the airport in wet clothes.) "Maybe we won't get too wet," I thought. Well, we got SOAKED! All 3 of us (M48 sat out -- tailbone) might as well have been in the front seat! The only dry spot on me was on my upper left thigh. I totally looked like Cousin Itt.

In our drenched-ness we grabbed M48 and headed toward BTMRR and left her on another bench. We were in line! We made it! Or so we thought... This is actually as close as we came:

This was supposed to be our train! We were there! We were already holding onto our hats and glasses! Then... SCREECH! The train came to a screeching halt right here. Right before it reached us. So this is what I think happened... I saw a CM on the other side of the tracks moving someone's ECV. He crossed the "safety" line. Another CM lunged forward and pulled some lever. So I'm guessing the lever shut the whole ride down. There was a mass exodus as they had to realign stuff. I couldn't believe this was happening. We were so close! (By the way, ECV-riding CM was fine. He was already on the safe side of the line before the lever was pulled or switched or whatever it was.) So with no spring in our step, we left BTMRR behind, never to ride it again during this trip.

 

[tksbaskets]

First - A+ for composition of your 'DL in motion photos' with the horse drawn car with the Materhorn and twirly ride from Tomorrowland (can you tell we've never been to DL with little kids?) Your monorail pic was my absolute favorite! Did you color the sky a bit more blue?

Next, WHAT a bummer about BTMM. Your plans were derailed. I know how you feel. SOooo close.

Lunch looks delish. Can't believe we have to leave your trip report this day

 

[deejdigsdis]

First - A+ for composition of your 'DL in motion photos' with the horse drawn car with the Materhorn and twirly ride from Tomorrowland (can you tell we've never been to DL with little kids?) Your monorail pic was my absolute favorite! Did you color the sky a bit more blue?

Next, WHAT a bummer about BTMM. Your plans were derailed. I know how you feel. SOooo close.

Lunch looks delish. Can't believe we have to leave your trip report this day

Thanks for the compliments! Twirly ride...I like that! If I did boost the sky color it would have been just a bit. More of a lighting change than a color change.

So are we ready to bring this trip to an end??? It looks like I'm going to hit my goal of finishing before I leave for Thanksgiving.

 

[deejdigsdis]

This is it. The final installment. I meant to come back and finish last night but I got sidetracked. Anyway, here we go. I mean "Here we goooooooooooo!"

So we were totally bummed about missing out on BTMRR. It was almost 2:30 by this time. There was no question as to where we should spend our final moments. POTC. Always POTC. We grabbed M48 from her bench and off we went.

Yikes! There was a line.

I had grown accustomed to walk-on or nearly walk-on for this ride during all of my visits in the past year, so this line was not a fun thing to see. Nevertheless, we hopped in line.

I love ending my trips on this ride. Because it is longer, it draws out the experience for me.

One last pic of NOS as we walked away:

Last minute business that needed to be taken care of:

* M48 wanted to walk through the tree house and reminisce about Swiss Family Robinson days.

* I needed to pick up some fudge from Candy Palace.

* D36 needed to head over to the AP center and upgrade her park hopper. Good grief, she lives only 4 hours away. It was a must-do.

So...Mom and M48 headed to the tree house. I went to go buy fudge, and D36 walked along with me so I could show her where to go. The sign outside the pavilion said it was a 20 minute wait, so D36 began to waver. I knew it wasn't that long of a wait and told her to get in line. Besides, she didn't need to leave DL by 3:15 -- I did.

The plan was for everyone to meet me where they make the candy in Candy Palace. If everyone wasn't there by 3:20 I would just make the trek back to HoJo alone and they would all catch up. I was done taking care of business first so I went over by the candy-making area.

This is what was going on outside:

Notice the time in the clock on the right. I had 10 minutes.

Well, everyone made it back in time, but we were cutting things pretty close. Notice the time now:

We tried to exit to the left of the train station -- my usual exit -- but the MHP guests were coming in so we had to exit through the other side. Ack -- this puts a damper on being able to properly say goodbye to Disneyland.

It was a rushed exit. I normally like to linger. It was a little unsettling to me. Anyway, we made our way out of the park with nearly 5 whole days of Disneyland Magic behind us. D36 took one last picture of me from behind as I departed...

It was all over. I rushed ahead of everyone else so I would be ready for the shuttle's arrival. I got there in plenty of time. Super Shuttle picked me up -- in my still extremely wet Splash Mountain clothes, mind you -- at about 4:15. So about 5 minutes after the window. We had to wait for another HoJo guest to come down. I didn't like that middle-of-the-roadness. Sitting in the van and just waiting for 15-ish minutes, looking out the window at my mom and sisters who would be continuing on their journey without me. I just wanted to go straight from DL to my plane and home to my family. This was actually the easiest Disneyland exit I've ever made because it was more like "I'm going to see my family!" instead of "I'm walking away from Disneyland for the last time..."

The trip home was uneventful. I landed at the airport at midnight and texted my husband that I would meet him in the car outside the baggage claim. He said, "OK." I was off to grab my bag with thoughts of my family dancing around in my head. All of a sudden I heard pounding on a window next to me. I looked up and saw the 3 smiling faces of my 3 boys, waving a big "Welcome Home Mom!!" sign, my husband lingering in the background. I was not expecting them to come in to meet me, but what a pleasant surprise! They sure had a lot of energy at midnight. DS7 was more than willing to carry my trick-or-treat bag full o' candy that had been in my carry on. I noticed that his front teeth had come down a lot further while I was gone. They were just barely emerging when I left. He looked so different when he smiled. DS4 was still wearing his red and white pirate socks from his preschool Halloween party the day before. He ran up and grabbed my hand and said as he studied my face, "Are your eyes still blue or are they brown now? Yep, they're still blue... Are you going to go to Disneyland again without me???" Then there was DS10, seeming so grown up but still my little boy at the same time. He just kept hugging me. Then it was time to reunite with my husband. 9 days was a long time to be apart from everyone.

Our next trip is planned for 2012. I am leaning toward a trip when the Christmas stuff is in full swing. DS10 wants to try Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, and all 3 boys would love to go trick-or-treating, so another Halloween Time trip might win out. As for now, it's killing me to have 154 days of use left on my AP which will most likely remain untouched. (Well, 154 days until it expires, so technically less days of use when you factor in blocked out days. ) With D36 having an AP now, it makes it even harder. But it would probably kill me more to leave my kids behind and take off to DL without them.

I guess that brings us to the end of the Halloween Trip! Thank you for joining me as I re-lived some very fun memories!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

-Deej

 

[tksbaskets]

Now that you have this sappy head puddled up....how sweet that all your men came to pick you up

I enjoyed your trip report. It would be hard to decide between Christmas at DL and Halloween. I'd lean towards Christmas but my boys are 19 so trick-or-treating doesn't hold the same appeal.

You can follow my family to WDW next month
TK

 

[Dizzy4DL]

Thank you so very much for sharing with us. I really felt like I was along for the trip and that is hard for a writer to do. Thank you also for the wonderful pictures. I saw things I have never noticed before at DL.
As for your AP, thats why I don't get one. It would drive me nuts knowing it was available to use.
And the part about your family waiting with a sign, I actually teared up! So sweet!
Thanks again for sharing!

 

[eeyore7360nc]

Thanks for sharing your trips with us. I'm thinking a Halloween trip to DL is in my future. Hope you and your family have a great holiday.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Ack! All my pictures are gone! I've been out of town for 6 days. (Longer than we expected...got snowed in at my in-laws.) Will the pictures come back eventually or is there something I need to do?

Now that you have this sappy head puddled up....how sweet that all your men came to pick you up

I enjoyed your trip report. It would be hard to decide between Christmas at DL and Halloween. I'd lean towards Christmas but my boys are 19 so trick-or-treating doesn't hold the same appeal.

You can follow my family to WDW next month
TK

Thanks for joining me! You know I'll be there stalking you on the other side.

Thank you so very much for sharing with us. I really felt like I was along for the trip and that is hard for a writer to do. Thank you also for the wonderful pictures. I saw things I have never noticed before at DL.
As for your AP, thats why I don't get one. It would drive me nuts knowing it was available to use.
And the part about your family waiting with a sign, I actually teared up! So sweet!
Thanks again for sharing!

Thank you for your kind comments! Every time I go back I see things I've never noticed before. I love that.

Thanks for sharing your trips with us. I'm thinking a Halloween trip to DL is in my future. Hope you and your family have a great holiday.

Glad you followed along! I hope you are able to visit Disneyland during Halloween Time some year. And thanks for the holiday wishes.

 

[deejdigsdis]

Fixed it.

 

[Markie Mouse]

Loved it. Beautiful pictures. This made me consider Halloween for next year.