My First TR - DLR June 2007

[Belle Ella]

Haha, I don't know what's gotten into my brain this a.m. but I thought I posted this here, but I posted it over at WDW TR ... silly me!

Anyways ... Let's try this again!

I really, really want to do the TR, but not quite so sure I have much interesting to say about my vacation this summer! I went all on my lonesome this year (no traveling with little kids, family members or friends) while already on vacation in San Diego, and don't have any "funny" or "interesting" stories. But why not give it a shot, yeah?

So, a little background, I'm Jessica (hi) and one of the college-agers around here (and new, lol). I've been hooked on Disney since I was kid, and had my first trip to WDW when I was around 2, so unfortunately too young to remember anything really! Before this year I've had a few vacations to DLR (which is a 6 hour drive from where I live) the most recent being last year as a last minute decision after other vacation plans fell through. But my love for all things Disney of course comes from growing up with many a Disney animated film, and watching them over and over and over again at the theatres my mother managed - big plus!

I had decided that I would be celebrating my 21st birthday at DLR, and was planning on taking some time off from work for some time down in SoCal at some point this summer. My Birthday is in September and I actually wanted to go before then, but that doesn't really matter. But with my sister and cousin both graduating High School this year, my Aunt, Uncle, and two cousins flew out for a middle-of-June vacation to San Diego. I had the choice of whether or not I wanted to tag along with them, the only problem being I couldn't take off time from work for two seperate vacations.

The solution? Do both!!

So I planned on going with them to San Diego and then hitting DL for at least 2 days (1 night) and then going back to San Diego, and it worked like a charm! I went the route of getting the Southern California City Pass through Costco (it was about $20-50 cheaper than anywhere I had seen it sold!) which is probably the best decision I made. For those of you who don't know, it comes with a 3-day hopper pass for DL, a ticket to Universal Studios Hollywood, Sea World San Diego, and your choice between the San Diego Zoo or the Wildlife Park. I am so very glad that I got this, and I didn't even go to USH!

Originally I had only planned on going to DL for the 2 days (1 night) that I had made a reservation for the Grand Californian (what can I say, I splurged for my early-birthday treat to myself) but with only an hour and a half drive from the park to the beach house we rented in San Diego, I made a bit of a detour for a third day later in the week.

OK, am I making any sense so far? Well, I'll get started on the actual TR soon, promise! And as soon as I've reached the post ... what's the word ... requirement, I'll post the photos that I took! I'm a bit of a photo-addict, although I don't think I'm a very good photographer. But I did take lots of photos!

 

[Leggyb]

Yay! Another fellow college student on these boards I look forward to reading your trip report...

 

[Belle Ella]

You know, I'm severely upset with this comptuer atm ... I had an entire post written up about day 1 including photos, and then it crashed before I could post!

 

[Belle Ella]

So let's try this again!

Day 1 @ DLR: June 17, 2007 (Father's Day!)

I was already in San Diego on Sunday morning, fresh from a full night's rest and ready for along day at the park! It made a whole lot more sense in my mind (energy wise) to drive the 7 hours (more when traffic is added) from San Francisco to San Diego and then get a nice, long night's sleep, before leaving bright and early Sunday morning for an hour and a half drive with energy to spare than the alternative of driving the 6 hours (more when traffic is added) straight to Disneyland and having less time, and less energy in the park. Sure it bit when it came to using more gas, but that was kind of why I had been saving my money for this vacation.

So I would probably say that I left the beach house we rented i SD at between 6:30 and 6:45 in the morning, and easily made it to DLR at some time between 8:00 and 8:20 arriving at my destination of choice: The Grand Californian Hotel. I absolutely love that place! We stayed there for the first time a few winters ago on a vacation we had won from my sister's softball league raffle. The style is very reminiscent of my grandfather's woodworking and the way that he has built the past two homes that he has lived in, always a big plus for me! After getting my car parked, and my luggage checked in, I realized that I had completely forgotten about the entrance into the hotel! I had to stare at it for a few minutes and completely forgot to get a photo of it, which is a bummer for me. 500+ photos I took, and I didn't get much of the hotel. That makes me sad. But checking in went quickly, got my postcards to use when I get around to making my summer scrapbook, and yes, I even got a birthday pin. I can't help it! My birthday may not be until September, but I repeat, this is my birthday present to myself. So why not?

While I didn't get as many photos of the hotel as I had originally planned, I did get a few from the lobby:

Since the rooms wouldn't be available until 3 p.m. at the earliest I had at the very least 6 hours of fun in the sun. my next stop was to go and trade in my City Pass voucher for my actual park hopper, and head on in to the park! For some idiotic reason my first 2 days there I skipped on the Photo Pass thing, so I don't really have any photos of me anywhere in the park. Next year, I'll remember (either that or I'll come with more people). Right as I entered Main Street, Chip & Dale had just come out followed by a long line of kids making them my Disney Character sighting #1; it made my insides all mushy - My vacation finally seemed more real, I guess.

I spent a couple of hours wandering around a little, taking photos and just being happy. It's wierd to be there on your own and not having everyone with you pressure you about where you had to be next and what you had to do. My "musts" list was actually pretty short:

- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Haunted Mansion
- Princess Fantasy Faire - had to see Snow White most of all!
- Parade of Dreams
- Blue Bayou
- Nemo

So long as I got that, I was good and happy! And lucky me, I got it all done. When I finally made my way over to New Orleans Square I made a pit stop to make reservations at the Blue Bayou. I had meant to call and make reservations before I went, but apparently I'm a little forgetful. But oh well, I got reservations for the next afternoon at 3'ish, which made me happy, and so I made my way over to Pirates of the Caribbean and went on that twice. I also got Disney Character sighting #2 when Remy and Emille (the rats from the new movie Ratatouille) came strolling along through NOS. For lunch I waited about 20 minutes for Cafe Orleans, one of the few places I've never actually eaten at before, since they hadn't opened up for their lunch service yet. I was a little worried I should have just skipped the wait and gone somewhere else because I was so hungry, but I'm glad I didn't! I haven't been a big eater to be honest, and for the first time in longer than I can remember, I wiped my plate clean! I had a Salmon Salad, and my moth still waters just thinking about it.

After lunch I headed back to Main Street to do a little "window" shopping and get a couple of souvenir coins. I was randomly passing by Refreshment Corner when I noticed another of my favorite Disney characters: Marry Poppins and Bert!! I had never actually seen her in the park before other than the parade last year, and it gave me serious flashbacks to watching the movie with my grandmother all the time! Sadly, I still don't have it on DVD, and I meant to get it while I was there, but again, I forgot. They already had a bit of a crowd lined up for photos and autographs so I passed by, crossing my fingers that I would spot them again at some point. Besides, I hadn't gotten my autograph book yet! So there is Disney Character sighting #3; it looks as though I'm counting now.

I had to make a little pit stop after that to go and find me some sunscreen because what I had put on in the morning I smartly left behind at the beach house, and I was starting to notice that my arm was getting red and splotchy. Yay for me, not even halfway into my day and I'm getting bad news from the sun. So I finished that task, stored the sunblock and took off to go buy my dad his Father's Day present since I was hoping to be able to get into my hotel room not too long after. So I trekked back to Fantasyland and the Castle Heraldry shop and purchased a name history plaque for him. I finally got to give it to him last Saturday, and he loved it!

I know that I'm forgetting some things that I did after that - probably just more walking around the park to different areas and whatnot! But at about 3:30 I made my way to Tomorrowland to hit the monorail back to Downtown Disney, and get a birds eye view of the Nemo Subs. I hadn't actually heard how bad the lines were, just a brief mention of it when I checked in, and the CM told me to hit it first thing in the morning on an early entry day. But seeing the line first hand, it was insanity! I am so glad I didn't wait in that line! It was nice to see the birds-eye-view of the ride this year, when it's open. I have to check out the photos I took of the construction last year so I can really compare the difference. We didn't a long wait though so I didn't get as great a photo as I would have liked. There was a little girl on the platform with me who was so excited to see that we got the monorail car that was decorated for the ride - the other yellow submarine!

When we got to DTD, I made a call to the hotel to see if my room was ready, and they said to try calling back in about 10 to 15 minutes so I did a little bit of wandering around the shops, some more "window" shopping, before I finally got to head up to my room. It was exciting! When I had made the reservations, I was actually supposed to be coming with my sister and 2 of my cousins, but they bailed on me at the last minute. It really frustrated me, but at the same time, I got the room all to my lonesome! My favorite part of the room? The Snow White photo hanging on the wall - she is beyond a shadow of a doubt, my favorite Disney character ever.

-- I love to share my photos, but I took more than 500 over the 3 day period I was at DL, so feel free to check out the rest of my album and drop a comment while you're there --​

More to come from Day # 1 ...

 

[we*luv*orlando!!]

Thanks for sharing!