koalagirl5
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2010
- Messages
- 229
We managed to get out of town by 8:30 Saturday morning after grabbing ice for the cooler and loading the car. I can't remember, but I believe we only stopped at one or two rest stops before finally taking the last exit for Weed.
I pulled into the McDonald's so we could use the restroom, and then DD and I sat outside and ate our lunch from the cooler. Here's a shot from the parking lot: (is this Mt. Shasta?)
We continued driving, got gas in Redding. It was my first time pumping gas, so instead of fumbling with it and taking forever I just asked the lady at the next pump to show me. Ended up reaching Santa Nella around 5:30, which I thought was pretty good. After grabbing a room at the Motel 6, we grabbed dinner at Subway, which was free because I had a gift card from mypoints.com for $10. There was an Arco next to Subway, so I filled up the car again rather than waiting for morning. The motel was decent and clean except for the shower floor. No showers for us that night!
I didn't sleep well so I was up by 7:00 Sunday morning, and we were back on the road by 7:40. I have to say, when we reached the LA area, it was pretty nerve-wracking be in that traffic but at the same time, it wasn't as bad as I expected based on what I've heard. There wasn't any stop-and-go traffic, just people zooming across 3 lanes right in front of us, among other things.
We reached Anaheim at noon, but our room at BWPPI wasn't ready, so we checked out the character warehouse in Fullerton. That place is really cool, but I didn't find much that I wanted badly enough to not wait and see what's in the park currently. After that, I got a bit turned around. I wanted to eat at the In-n-Out Burger right up the road, but before I figured out which way was North, Alyssa spotted a Burger King and had to eat there. I was okay with that.
We headed back to the hotel at 1:30 and were able to get a room. It was on the second floor, overlooking the pool. I liked it because we could have the curtains open without people walking right past the window. The pool noise gets kind of loud in the day until about 8 or 9 at night, but we never took naps during our afternoon breaks and never went to sleep too early so it wasn't a big deal at all for us.
As soon as we unloaded the car, Alyssa and I walked over to Downtown Disney. We really just walked through to Disneyland Hotel and back to our room, though, because Alyssa was wiped out. I enjoyed being called princess at the security tables and the ticket booth, where I picked up our parkhoppers. It was cute, though it threw me off a bit.
When we got back to the room, we showered and I set out clothes for the next day so we'd be all ready in the morning.
Some pics during the drive down:
Pics from us heading to DTD:
Pics of our hotel room:
Day 1 in the parks will be posted shortly. I have to finish eating my dinner first. I need nourishment to remember the details of our trip, you know.
I pulled into the McDonald's so we could use the restroom, and then DD and I sat outside and ate our lunch from the cooler. Here's a shot from the parking lot: (is this Mt. Shasta?)
We continued driving, got gas in Redding. It was my first time pumping gas, so instead of fumbling with it and taking forever I just asked the lady at the next pump to show me. Ended up reaching Santa Nella around 5:30, which I thought was pretty good. After grabbing a room at the Motel 6, we grabbed dinner at Subway, which was free because I had a gift card from mypoints.com for $10. There was an Arco next to Subway, so I filled up the car again rather than waiting for morning. The motel was decent and clean except for the shower floor. No showers for us that night!
I didn't sleep well so I was up by 7:00 Sunday morning, and we were back on the road by 7:40. I have to say, when we reached the LA area, it was pretty nerve-wracking be in that traffic but at the same time, it wasn't as bad as I expected based on what I've heard. There wasn't any stop-and-go traffic, just people zooming across 3 lanes right in front of us, among other things.
We reached Anaheim at noon, but our room at BWPPI wasn't ready, so we checked out the character warehouse in Fullerton. That place is really cool, but I didn't find much that I wanted badly enough to not wait and see what's in the park currently. After that, I got a bit turned around. I wanted to eat at the In-n-Out Burger right up the road, but before I figured out which way was North, Alyssa spotted a Burger King and had to eat there. I was okay with that.
We headed back to the hotel at 1:30 and were able to get a room. It was on the second floor, overlooking the pool. I liked it because we could have the curtains open without people walking right past the window. The pool noise gets kind of loud in the day until about 8 or 9 at night, but we never took naps during our afternoon breaks and never went to sleep too early so it wasn't a big deal at all for us.
As soon as we unloaded the car, Alyssa and I walked over to Downtown Disney. We really just walked through to Disneyland Hotel and back to our room, though, because Alyssa was wiped out. I enjoyed being called princess at the security tables and the ticket booth, where I picked up our parkhoppers. It was cute, though it threw me off a bit.
When we got back to the room, we showered and I set out clothes for the next day so we'd be all ready in the morning.
Some pics during the drive down:
Pics from us heading to DTD:
Pics of our hotel room:
Day 1 in the parks will be posted shortly. I have to finish eating my dinner first. I need nourishment to remember the details of our trip, you know.
I got pretty good at getting in and out of the gas stations by the time we reached Oregon again. It felt weird today when I needed to fill up, because I wanted to get out of the car.
She picked out a Minnie ears headband and Minnie shirt.
, and I had a slice of cheese pizza and a drink. Holy cow, the pizza was so good, it was almost, almost, worth the $6! I expected them to be skimpy with the cheese, but instead the cheese was as thick as the crust.
I don't remember what we did while waiting for showtime, we must have wandered towards Critter Country. We were able to take our seats at about 8:30, and got our dessert boxes and drinks:
I didn't get any decent pics of the show, so I won't bother posting them. The fireworks were great, too, but we couldn't see Dumbo or Tinkerbell. Alyssa was excited to hear the Mary Poppins part. Ever since she watched that movie with me a couple months ago, she's been in love with Mary and Bert.
But I think they are only doubles, so it would be crowded if you need 2 people to a bed. Also, they have free internet, but unless you're in the lobby or in a room right by it, the Wi-Fi probably won't work. If you need internet in your room, you'll have to bring your own ethernet cable. And possibly a regular phone cord too, but I can't remember for sure. If you don't want to give them a credit card for incidentals, they take a $30 cash deposit for the whole stay.
