edwaffle
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2024
- Messages
- 46
Hello everyone! As promised to you (even though nobody asked for it) here's my trip report! I took too long to write this, I know. I had to get back to work as soon as we got returned and routine did not give me a rest.
This ended up being a much longer text than I expected so I apologize in advance! I swear I tried summing it up as much as possible. I’ve never done a trip report before so please bear with me!
Me and my husband are sort of WDW veterans but we've always been there with family tagging along and always stayed far from the parks. It was our first time at Disneyland but now just the two of us and also staying very close to a Disney park!
Also a disclaimer: We share every food so we can try as much items as possible!
Anyway, from the top. We were going to Los Angeles, more specifically Anaheim for 10 days. We had 4-day tickets with Hopper and LL and Oogie Boogie Bash tickets for the 17th, so almost 5 park days in total (Yes, we are crazy). We flew LATAM from Brazil to LA, with a connection in Santiago. Unfortunately the first flight got delayed and we had a forced overnight stay in Santiago. We were suppose to arrive at LAX on Oct 14th, 6am but ended up arriving at 6PM! 12 hours stripped from our vacation… but oh well, we’d deal with that later. We got our car from AVIS (I advice to avoid them as much as possible, they're very scammy) and had to drive from LA to Anaheim late in the night but it was much better than I thought. The roads were so smooth and easy to drive on I didn’t even notice 40 minutes have passed from the airport to the hotel. We were staying at the Alamo Inn & Suites @ West Katella Avenue, right across from the parks. Very nice and cozy place, definitely worth the price specially because it's right beside Disneyland, just a 10 mins walk! I was very excited! It was something we were never able to accomplish in Orlando. Even though it's a budget hotel, the room was very good, the bed was perfect for us, very clean and spacious room. It had tv, mini fridge, a few drawers and an ok air conditioning, a good shower head and a tub. We don't ask for much in a hotel, so a clean room and a good bed is five stars in our ranks! Only problem is the parking lot. Spaces were very limited and tight so big cars definitely have trouble parking there.
So we checked-in, hurled our luggage into our room and rushed to Downtown Disney. And oh boy, I was definitely not expecting how incredible that place is. It's so alive even late at night! And just 10min from our hotel, I could not believe it! We thought DTD wouldn’t have the same vibe as Disney Springs (we love DS), but that thought went right away because we were all teary eyed as soon as we got in
(don’t judge us, we get very emotional with Disney). The band playing right as we walked in, people dancing on the astroturf, even the guards by the entrance wishing us a nice trip made us feel welcomed by Disney with arms wide open. As soon as we landed at LAX I couldn't wait to get to Downtown Disney, I just wanted to enter the Disney bubble ASAP and it totally paid off! All the weariness from those delayed flights was healed with Disney magic. We had dinner at Earl (we love Earl) and strolled around the area, a bit of shopping at World of Disney, got ice cream at Salt & Straw (amazing, btw) and headed back to the hotel because we were drained!
Next day we just went shopping around the area to adapt to the jet lag. We got coffee and donuts at Krispy Kreme, Visited Orange Outlets and South Coast Plaza, had lunch at In-N-Out, dinner at Bubba Gump and ended our night with some beignets from Beignets Express, an incredible way to end the night
Beignets instantly became a favorite for us! We went to bed early because the next we were going to brave the...
ROPE DROP!! We were up by 6am, dressed teeth and brushed clothes, we were ready to powerwalk! It was a bit chill and sky was cloudy, but it didn't matter, we were going to enjoy the heck out of this day! Left hotel at 6:45 and by 6:55 we were already at the entrance to DTD, OH YEAH!! By the Disneyland gates there were no more than 5 groups ahead of us in line and by 7:30am they opened gates and we headed to Tomorrowland's rope. At 8am the rope literally dropped and we witnessed the energy of people rushing to Space Mountain! I couldn’t stop smiling!! And wow, DLR’s Space Mountain is a whole other beast compared to WDW’s, much faster and longer, exactly how it should be!! So we went on the morning riding everything we could while the lines were short, and we’d book LLs whenever possible. We met @alleighboo, the creator of October’s check-in thread while walking around New Orleans Square! She stopped to talk to us while she was in line for Jack and Sally and she was sooo sweet, she gave us tips and we had a good laugh together. It was nice surprise meeting someone from the forums so shout out to you Allison, thank you for reaching out to us, you’re amazing!!
We stopped for breakfast at Jolly Holiday and I can't compliment those snacks enough! The JH combo and Mickey Pumpkin Macaron are delicious!! I'd say by 12pm we'd done almost every important ride in the park, the only ones missing were Haunted Mansion (I wanted to ride it at night, so I'd try to get a late VQ group) and Rise of Resistance. We shared the Chicken and the Chocolate Dig In Shortcake for lunch at Plaza Inn and they were really good! Husband loved it like nothing else. He said gravy is now his favorite American food Not so surprisingly, I fumbled the Haunted Mansion VQ. By 1pm the queue was CLOSED! I was in shock and upset, my husband wanted to kill me but we had 3 park days ahead of us, we could try again another time, for sure. In the afternoon we slowed down, went to the shops, rode the monorail, took some photos and got the Blueberry Corndog for an afternoon snack. Weirdly good I’d say, I loved it. We rode Rise of Resistance around 7pm. Standby was 45 minutes, but I think we got to Ray's room in barely 20 minutes!! We had dinner at Tiana's, shared the House Gumbo, Lavender Lemonade () and the Strawberry Beignet, and they were spectacular!! The lemonade is the most refreshing drink I’ve ever tasted in my life, the gumbo is spicy as heck though. To round off the day I tried checking if I could get us into Haunted Mansion through standby queue and effortlessly we did it! And got to ride it twice!! The CM by the entrance just said “standby is on the left” and there we go!!! 
It became my favorite ride from Disneyland! Hot take but I don't even want to go on the regular version By 11pm we left the park and I gotta say I don't think we've ever left a Disney park as happy as we did that day. We were glowing with happiness if that’s ever a thing. We truly had a magical day, we did everything we wanted, ate everything we wanted, rode every attraction we wanted, and no tired feet whatsoever! Seriously, completely different experience from WDW. I’ve seen on YouTube videos and other websites stating that October is the worst month for crowds nowadays, but I thought the park was quite ok, not empty but not packed too. Of course we stayed the entire day there, but even if we had left earlier, I'd say arriving early in the morning is the best strategy because by 12pm we had gone through almost every ride we wanted. Even without LL, i'd say it's pretty doable.
On the next day, we were going to Oogie Boogie Bash! We sort of messed up the order of days, so we used the mix-in to get acquainted with DCA first. We were not expecting it to be so beautiful! I was very excited to see Grizzly Peak and it lived up to the hype, it’s gorgeous there, with the bear mountain and the trees, it’s my favorite land from DCA. But Cars Land at night is a close competitor! I could not appreciate the canyons enough! We tried a Blue Raspberry Twirler from Rita’s Turbine Blenders and… it was bad… too sweet, 1/10. We had a checklist of things to do for the party and my main objective was to get a picture with all 3 of Kingdom Hearts characters. So before it started, we line up for the Sanderson Sisters at around 5:40pm. After it started moving, we stayed in line for about 30mins even though it was moving pretty fast. So checklist item number 1 done! Then we went through all the Treat Trails. I found it weird that the line for Judge Doom was empty every time we went through it, I thought it was a popular character. Hades’ and Agatha’s were our favorite though Then we watched the first parade and visited Villain’s Grove right after, about 5 mins wait in line. We did all treat trails again like 3 more times lol. I kept looking out for Donald and Goofy at the Kingdom Hearts spot but unfortunately I never saw them, Mickey was the only one there every time, so checklist item number 5 was only 1/3 done lmao, but that’s ok, I’ll try again next time for sure! By the end of the party, we were able to ride Monsters After Dark (5min line!) and got into Radiator Springs line (30min) a few minutes before park close. In the end, we were able to do everything we wanted and our bag was PACKED with candy, we even had Oogie Boogie pose for a selfie with us… so I’d say we were pretty successful! The longest line we stayed in was for the Sanderson Sisters. The rest was a breeze. But why the heck do they give out carrots as candy???
Next day was Friday. We decided to take it slow that day cause we were getting kind of tired (who would've thought!). We had Disney California for starter and we arrived a bit later, around 9:30am, and Lightning Lane Multi Pass worked a little magic on our day. We were pretty chill, not trying to rush anything and we still managed to go on every ride we wanted with no hassle just by booking LLs. We were even able to ride some attractions twice because the standby lines were somewhat short through the day! So we went to a few PhotoPass Spots but I was pretty bummed that some character lines didn’t have photographers with cameras, they were shooting with people’s own phones. We had breakfast at Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe. We tried the Garlic Cream Cheese Bread for pre-lunch snack. 10/10 very good, hope they keep it as a regular! We had lunch at Award Wieners (I know, basic, but we love hot dogs and the Uptown Chili Dog with Asada Fries had us mouth-watering) and then we tried both the Matcha Chai Churro and the Pumpkin Spice Churro and both were EXCELLENT. We never cared much for Churros and now we regret having looked down on them for so long, they were pretty good! We also tried the Pixar Pier Frosty Parfait, MUCH better than the Twirler from before! By 6:30pm, we crossed over to Disneyland for Halloween Screams. We were dead set into waiting right in front of the castle for the fireworks not matter what, and for our surprise when we got there… there were some crew, a band, John Legend and Christmas decorations all around, shooting some sort of a Christmas special (CM words) and, you guessed it, they were right in front of the castle
they had roped off the area for the crew so we were a bit by the side of the castle. Our view was somewhat 3/4 with a tree covering the castle for us. Everybody outside the rope was confused whether they would open it later for the show or not. I asked several Cast Members and they all said the ropes would indeed be dropped for the show. But they didn’t… Only for a few D23 premium special extra rocket ship select members So there was that… but it was great anyway, we could at least see the fireworks up close, not ideal, but oh well… I blame it on John Legend! Anyway, after that we were able to get a spot for Fantasmic and it was pretty great too. It’s a little different from Orlando’s but just as beautiful! I need to praise projections quality though. They were much sharper and more vibrant! Hook’s ship made my jaw drop, I was not expecting it at all! Lastly, we went to Haunted Mansion to finisht the day off once again. Grabbed a Jolly Holiday Combo (the tomato soup that comes with it is perfect!!!) and hot cocoa for a night snack before going back home. There is nothing like having a wonderful snack, sitting by the hub, listening to the ambient music while looking at the castle near park close. That’s something I’ve always wanted to do but never really got a chance at WDW. That feeling is inexplicable. I wish we could’ve stayed there forever!
On Saturday we pretty much did the same thing as the previous days, but we entered Disneyland via Monorail this time. We had breakfast at Jolly Holiday again but this time we got the Raspberry Mickey Macaron with a few other things and it did not disappoint, the fruits in it were pretty good! For lunch we went to Red Rose Taverne to try both Autumn Harvest Flatbread and Enchanted Pumpkin Stuff. And it completely WOWED us! We love pumpkin and things with pumpkin in them so the flatbread with its sweet pumpkin puree and along with the pumpkin stuff dessert, had us thrown out of our tracks. One of our favorite foods from the entire trip, for sure. 100/10. Surprisingly I’d read many bad reviews about them but I was glad I did not listen to them, so I learned my lesson! Always try stuff for myself. We got the Fantasyland Garlic Cheesy Brat for an afternoon snack. We had high expectations for that because we love garlic and it lived up to them, so 10/10! At night we wanted to watch Fantasmic again (it’s our favorite show) and something funny happened. We got a perfect spot on the Pirates bridge exactly in front of the stage and while we were there waiting for the second show, Halloween Screams started on Rivers of America, we had totally forgot! So we unintentionally watched it again, and I gotta admit, it was a much better experience. The projections on the water were much more crisper (crispier? More crisp?) and the fireworks were all beautifully spread across the sky, complete different view from the castle! In a way, it made up for the day before so I guess thank you Disney? Then we watched Fantasmic for the last time, entered Haunted Mansion (it’d become a tradition already), and headed back to the hotel. Walking through Downtown Disney and the feeling of walking home after a wonderful park day is magical on its own. I was so glad we were staying somewhere so close to Disneyland. It was one of the highlights of our trip for sure, and now I don’t want to do it any different in the future. I could only imagine what staying at a Disney Hotel feels like.
On Sunday we drove to Los Angeles for the basic tourist stuff: we drove to Lake Hollywood Park for a picture with the Hollywood Sign, went to Hollywood Boulevard for Walk of Fame, Chinese Theater, El Capitan, etc. We had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, pretty good overall but the Home-Made Apple Cobbler took the spotlight! We finished the day by going to Santa Monica Pier to watch the sunset there. Husband wouldn’t stop saying how much he loved it and I felt proud of my trip planning skills haha! For dinner we went to Cheesecake Factory. We LOVE their Truffle Honey Chicken!!! Don’t judge us, we are suckers for American chain restaurants!
On Monday we drove around Long Beach, dipped our toes in the Pacific waters, had lunch at Chili’s, strolled around the lighthouse park, drove to San Pedro to check a few spots we’d seen on movies and series. Driving through Vincent Thomas Bridge is so cool and Point Fermin Park has a breathtaking view of the ocean. Lastly we drove around Rancho Palos Verdes to watch the sunset at Point Vicente. Husband loved it so much he shed a few tears. I admit I did too. I think we were already in love with California in a way we were not expecting it.
Next day we drove around Anaheim in the morning to shop for a little bit and headed to Griffith Park in the afternoon to check the merry-go-round over there. I knew it was closed but it’s still a shame it is closed down. I really do hope they find a way to revitalize it and have it open again in the future. The Walt Disney Company could totally do it, couldn’t they? For historical purposes at least. Anyway, after that we drove up the road to Griffith Observatory. Of course we didn’t get a spot to park up there, so we stopped by the Greek Theater parking lot and walked all the way up to the observatory. It was a nice walk even though it’s uphill. The views from the observatory were a good way to end our trip off. We stayed there until sunset too. Watching Los Angeles lights from that height feels like you’re in a movie somehow, I cannot express that feeling in words, I recommend everyone going to LA to visit Griffith Observatory at least once. We headed to Anaheim and had one “last” dinner in Downtown Disney at Naples. We shared a Margherita pizza and the Pumpkin Ravioli. Another Pumpkin dish we absolutely lost our minds over! So creamy and “pumpkiny”, I definitely recommend it for the pumpkin lovers out there.
For our last day, we went to Disneyland for a farewell. We rope dropped Disneyland one last time. We pretty much went to our favorite rides from both parks and just had an amazing time once again. Unfortunately rides kept breaking down on us this time as soon as we got into the line. We got breakfast at Red Rose Taverne. The Maple French Toast was surprisingly good. We had lunch at Earl of Sandwich one last time. For dessert, we tried the Graveyard Banana Funnel Cake and we were a bit sad we didn’t get it before so we could’ve eaten it twice haha! We finished the day off with one last ride on Haunted Mansion and then got some Mickey Beignets at Mint Julep, sat on a table at Tiana’s and just contemplated the river while eating those delicacies. I remember watching a video from FreshBaked where he does the exact same thing and I thought “That’s it! That’s what I want to do at least once”, and there we were. I’d been planning this vacation for almost an entire year by then so I was pretty hyped up to it… I admit I was somewhat bummed out that some rides and shows were under refurbishment at the time, but it didn’t matter in the end, we still had a blast! Disneyland surpassed all our expectations. Sitting there made us realize this was one of the best vacations we’ve ever had. He said he still prefers WDW but I’m pretty sure his eyes said “Disneyland if my new favorite park!”. We waved goodbye to Walt’s office as we were leaving the park and headed to the hotel to pack (which we finished by 3am!). We checked out of Alamo the next day on the 24th. The road to LA was fine, no heavy traffic. Arrived at LAX around 1pm and our flight took off at 4pm. 1 month later and I still have the post vacation blues.
I gotta say this trip was one of the highlights of my life. We had the most amazing time there. As I said before, we had been to Walt Disney World a few times already but nothing like this. Disneyland is completely different. It felt spontaneous? I can’t describe it. Both parks being so close to each other, and Downtown Disney right in the middle is a fantastic way to be in the Disney Bubble and it’s going to be hard to beat that for us (also not sure I’ll be able to visit Orlando again and not stay on-site anymore!). I sure hope to be able to come back as soon as possible just to have this magical feeling again.
Lastly, I need to thank everyone in here who helped me plan with all the tips and tricks you gave, directly or indirectly, specially @LKing and @BrianL for helping me with the fireworks show (John Legend messed us up but everything was fine in the end!). This was our first time just the two of us and we truly had a magical vacation thanks to you guys. This forum is amazing and I’m very glad I joined it. We are already planning our next trip to Disneyland, but this time we want to go for the holidays!
So if you've read until here, congratulations and thank you! I hope you enjoyed it. But again I’m sorry for the text wall haha. I know it’s long but believe me I summarized it as much as possible. I just had a lot of feelings! haha
Since this post is not long enough, I'll be adding some pictures too!
This ended up being a much longer text than I expected so I apologize in advance! I swear I tried summing it up as much as possible. I’ve never done a trip report before so please bear with me!
Me and my husband are sort of WDW veterans but we've always been there with family tagging along and always stayed far from the parks. It was our first time at Disneyland but now just the two of us and also staying very close to a Disney park!
Also a disclaimer: We share every food so we can try as much items as possible!
Anyway, from the top. We were going to Los Angeles, more specifically Anaheim for 10 days. We had 4-day tickets with Hopper and LL and Oogie Boogie Bash tickets for the 17th, so almost 5 park days in total (Yes, we are crazy). We flew LATAM from Brazil to LA, with a connection in Santiago. Unfortunately the first flight got delayed and we had a forced overnight stay in Santiago. We were suppose to arrive at LAX on Oct 14th, 6am but ended up arriving at 6PM! 12 hours stripped from our vacation… but oh well, we’d deal with that later. We got our car from AVIS (I advice to avoid them as much as possible, they're very scammy) and had to drive from LA to Anaheim late in the night but it was much better than I thought. The roads were so smooth and easy to drive on I didn’t even notice 40 minutes have passed from the airport to the hotel. We were staying at the Alamo Inn & Suites @ West Katella Avenue, right across from the parks. Very nice and cozy place, definitely worth the price specially because it's right beside Disneyland, just a 10 mins walk! I was very excited! It was something we were never able to accomplish in Orlando. Even though it's a budget hotel, the room was very good, the bed was perfect for us, very clean and spacious room. It had tv, mini fridge, a few drawers and an ok air conditioning, a good shower head and a tub. We don't ask for much in a hotel, so a clean room and a good bed is five stars in our ranks! Only problem is the parking lot. Spaces were very limited and tight so big cars definitely have trouble parking there.
So we checked-in, hurled our luggage into our room and rushed to Downtown Disney. And oh boy, I was definitely not expecting how incredible that place is. It's so alive even late at night! And just 10min from our hotel, I could not believe it! We thought DTD wouldn’t have the same vibe as Disney Springs (we love DS), but that thought went right away because we were all teary eyed as soon as we got in
(don’t judge us, we get very emotional with Disney). The band playing right as we walked in, people dancing on the astroturf, even the guards by the entrance wishing us a nice trip made us feel welcomed by Disney with arms wide open. As soon as we landed at LAX I couldn't wait to get to Downtown Disney, I just wanted to enter the Disney bubble ASAP and it totally paid off! All the weariness from those delayed flights was healed with Disney magic. We had dinner at Earl (we love Earl) and strolled around the area, a bit of shopping at World of Disney, got ice cream at Salt & Straw (amazing, btw) and headed back to the hotel because we were drained!Next day we just went shopping around the area to adapt to the jet lag. We got coffee and donuts at Krispy Kreme, Visited Orange Outlets and South Coast Plaza, had lunch at In-N-Out, dinner at Bubba Gump and ended our night with some beignets from Beignets Express, an incredible way to end the night
Beignets instantly became a favorite for us! We went to bed early because the next we were going to brave the...ROPE DROP!! We were up by 6am, dressed teeth and brushed clothes, we were ready to powerwalk! It was a bit chill and sky was cloudy, but it didn't matter, we were going to enjoy the heck out of this day! Left hotel at 6:45 and by 6:55 we were already at the entrance to DTD, OH YEAH!! By the Disneyland gates there were no more than 5 groups ahead of us in line and by 7:30am they opened gates and we headed to Tomorrowland's rope. At 8am the rope literally dropped and we witnessed the energy of people rushing to Space Mountain! I couldn’t stop smiling!! And wow, DLR’s Space Mountain is a whole other beast compared to WDW’s, much faster and longer, exactly how it should be!! So we went on the morning riding everything we could while the lines were short, and we’d book LLs whenever possible. We met @alleighboo, the creator of October’s check-in thread while walking around New Orleans Square! She stopped to talk to us while she was in line for Jack and Sally and she was sooo sweet, she gave us tips and we had a good laugh together. It was nice surprise meeting someone from the forums so shout out to you Allison, thank you for reaching out to us, you’re amazing!!
We stopped for breakfast at Jolly Holiday and I can't compliment those snacks enough! The JH combo and Mickey Pumpkin Macaron are delicious!! I'd say by 12pm we'd done almost every important ride in the park, the only ones missing were Haunted Mansion (I wanted to ride it at night, so I'd try to get a late VQ group) and Rise of Resistance. We shared the Chicken and the Chocolate Dig In Shortcake for lunch at Plaza Inn and they were really good! Husband loved it like nothing else. He said gravy is now his favorite American food Not so surprisingly, I fumbled the Haunted Mansion VQ. By 1pm the queue was CLOSED! I was in shock and upset, my husband wanted to kill me but we had 3 park days ahead of us, we could try again another time, for sure. In the afternoon we slowed down, went to the shops, rode the monorail, took some photos and got the Blueberry Corndog for an afternoon snack. Weirdly good I’d say, I loved it. We rode Rise of Resistance around 7pm. Standby was 45 minutes, but I think we got to Ray's room in barely 20 minutes!! We had dinner at Tiana's, shared the House Gumbo, Lavender Lemonade () and the Strawberry Beignet, and they were spectacular!! The lemonade is the most refreshing drink I’ve ever tasted in my life, the gumbo is spicy as heck though. To round off the day I tried checking if I could get us into Haunted Mansion through standby queue and effortlessly we did it! And got to ride it twice!! The CM by the entrance just said “standby is on the left” and there we go!!! It became my favorite ride from Disneyland! Hot take but I don't even want to go on the regular version By 11pm we left the park and I gotta say I don't think we've ever left a Disney park as happy as we did that day. We were glowing with happiness if that’s ever a thing. We truly had a magical day, we did everything we wanted, ate everything we wanted, rode every attraction we wanted, and no tired feet whatsoever! Seriously, completely different experience from WDW. I’ve seen on YouTube videos and other websites stating that October is the worst month for crowds nowadays, but I thought the park was quite ok, not empty but not packed too. Of course we stayed the entire day there, but even if we had left earlier, I'd say arriving early in the morning is the best strategy because by 12pm we had gone through almost every ride we wanted. Even without LL, i'd say it's pretty doable.On the next day, we were going to Oogie Boogie Bash! We sort of messed up the order of days, so we used the mix-in to get acquainted with DCA first. We were not expecting it to be so beautiful! I was very excited to see Grizzly Peak and it lived up to the hype, it’s gorgeous there, with the bear mountain and the trees, it’s my favorite land from DCA. But Cars Land at night is a close competitor! I could not appreciate the canyons enough! We tried a Blue Raspberry Twirler from Rita’s Turbine Blenders and… it was bad… too sweet, 1/10. We had a checklist of things to do for the party and my main objective was to get a picture with all 3 of Kingdom Hearts characters. So before it started, we line up for the Sanderson Sisters at around 5:40pm. After it started moving, we stayed in line for about 30mins even though it was moving pretty fast. So checklist item number 1 done! Then we went through all the Treat Trails. I found it weird that the line for Judge Doom was empty every time we went through it, I thought it was a popular character. Hades’ and Agatha’s were our favorite though
Then we watched the first parade and visited Villain’s Grove right after, about 5 mins wait in line. We did all treat trails again like 3 more times lol. I kept looking out for Donald and Goofy at the Kingdom Hearts spot but unfortunately I never saw them, Mickey was the only one there every time, so checklist item number 5 was only 1/3 done lmao, but that’s ok, I’ll try again next time for sure! By the end of the party, we were able to ride Monsters After Dark (5min line!) and got into Radiator Springs line (30min) a few minutes before park close. In the end, we were able to do everything we wanted and our bag was PACKED with candy, we even had Oogie Boogie pose for a selfie with us… so I’d say we were pretty successful! The longest line we stayed in was for the Sanderson Sisters. The rest was a breeze. But why the heck do they give out carrots as candy???Next day was Friday. We decided to take it slow that day cause we were getting kind of tired (who would've thought!). We had Disney California for starter and we arrived a bit later, around 9:30am, and Lightning Lane Multi Pass worked a little magic on our day. We were pretty chill, not trying to rush anything and we still managed to go on every ride we wanted with no hassle just by booking LLs. We were even able to ride some attractions twice because the standby lines were somewhat short through the day! So we went to a few PhotoPass Spots but I was pretty bummed that some character lines didn’t have photographers with cameras, they were shooting with people’s own phones. We had breakfast at Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe. We tried the Garlic Cream Cheese Bread for pre-lunch snack. 10/10 very good, hope they keep it as a regular! We had lunch at Award Wieners (I know, basic, but we love hot dogs and the Uptown Chili Dog with Asada Fries had us mouth-watering) and then we tried both the Matcha Chai Churro and the Pumpkin Spice Churro and both were EXCELLENT. We never cared much for Churros and now we regret having looked down on them for so long, they were pretty good! We also tried the Pixar Pier Frosty Parfait, MUCH better than the Twirler from before! By 6:30pm, we crossed over to Disneyland for Halloween Screams. We were dead set into waiting right in front of the castle for the fireworks not matter what, and for our surprise when we got there… there were some crew, a band, John Legend and Christmas decorations all around, shooting some sort of a Christmas special (CM words) and, you guessed it, they were right in front of the castle
they had roped off the area for the crew so we were a bit by the side of the castle. Our view was somewhat 3/4 with a tree covering the castle for us. Everybody outside the rope was confused whether they would open it later for the show or not. I asked several Cast Members and they all said the ropes would indeed be dropped for the show. But they didn’t… Only for a few D23 premium special extra rocket ship select members So there was that… but it was great anyway, we could at least see the fireworks up close, not ideal, but oh well… I blame it on John Legend! Anyway, after that we were able to get a spot for Fantasmic and it was pretty great too. It’s a little different from Orlando’s but just as beautiful! I need to praise projections quality though. They were much sharper and more vibrant! Hook’s ship made my jaw drop, I was not expecting it at all! Lastly, we went to Haunted Mansion to finisht the day off once again. Grabbed a Jolly Holiday Combo (the tomato soup that comes with it is perfect!!!) and hot cocoa for a night snack before going back home. There is nothing like having a wonderful snack, sitting by the hub, listening to the ambient music while looking at the castle near park close. That’s something I’ve always wanted to do but never really got a chance at WDW. That feeling is inexplicable. I wish we could’ve stayed there forever!On Saturday we pretty much did the same thing as the previous days, but we entered Disneyland via Monorail this time. We had breakfast at Jolly Holiday again but this time we got the Raspberry Mickey Macaron with a few other things and it did not disappoint, the fruits in it were pretty good! For lunch we went to Red Rose Taverne to try both Autumn Harvest Flatbread and Enchanted Pumpkin Stuff. And it completely WOWED us! We love pumpkin and things with pumpkin in them so the flatbread with its sweet pumpkin puree and along with the pumpkin stuff dessert, had us thrown out of our tracks. One of our favorite foods from the entire trip, for sure. 100/10. Surprisingly I’d read many bad reviews about them but I was glad I did not listen to them, so I learned my lesson! Always try stuff for myself. We got the Fantasyland Garlic Cheesy Brat for an afternoon snack. We had high expectations for that because we love garlic and it lived up to them, so 10/10! At night we wanted to watch Fantasmic again (it’s our favorite show) and something funny happened. We got a perfect spot on the Pirates bridge exactly in front of the stage and while we were there waiting for the second show, Halloween Screams started on Rivers of America, we had totally forgot! So we unintentionally watched it again, and I gotta admit, it was a much better experience. The projections on the water were much more crisper (crispier? More crisp?) and the fireworks were all beautifully spread across the sky, complete different view from the castle! In a way, it made up for the day before so I guess thank you Disney? Then we watched Fantasmic for the last time, entered Haunted Mansion (it’d become a tradition already), and headed back to the hotel. Walking through Downtown Disney and the feeling of walking home after a wonderful park day is magical on its own. I was so glad we were staying somewhere so close to Disneyland. It was one of the highlights of our trip for sure, and now I don’t want to do it any different in the future. I could only imagine what staying at a Disney Hotel feels like.
On Sunday we drove to Los Angeles for the basic tourist stuff: we drove to Lake Hollywood Park for a picture with the Hollywood Sign, went to Hollywood Boulevard for Walk of Fame, Chinese Theater, El Capitan, etc. We had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, pretty good overall but the Home-Made Apple Cobbler took the spotlight! We finished the day by going to Santa Monica Pier to watch the sunset there. Husband wouldn’t stop saying how much he loved it and I felt proud of my trip planning skills haha! For dinner we went to Cheesecake Factory. We LOVE their Truffle Honey Chicken!!! Don’t judge us, we are suckers for American chain restaurants!
On Monday we drove around Long Beach, dipped our toes in the Pacific waters, had lunch at Chili’s, strolled around the lighthouse park, drove to San Pedro to check a few spots we’d seen on movies and series. Driving through Vincent Thomas Bridge is so cool and Point Fermin Park has a breathtaking view of the ocean. Lastly we drove around Rancho Palos Verdes to watch the sunset at Point Vicente. Husband loved it so much he shed a few tears. I admit I did too. I think we were already in love with California in a way we were not expecting it.
Next day we drove around Anaheim in the morning to shop for a little bit and headed to Griffith Park in the afternoon to check the merry-go-round over there. I knew it was closed but it’s still a shame it is closed down. I really do hope they find a way to revitalize it and have it open again in the future. The Walt Disney Company could totally do it, couldn’t they? For historical purposes at least. Anyway, after that we drove up the road to Griffith Observatory. Of course we didn’t get a spot to park up there, so we stopped by the Greek Theater parking lot and walked all the way up to the observatory. It was a nice walk even though it’s uphill. The views from the observatory were a good way to end our trip off. We stayed there until sunset too. Watching Los Angeles lights from that height feels like you’re in a movie somehow, I cannot express that feeling in words, I recommend everyone going to LA to visit Griffith Observatory at least once. We headed to Anaheim and had one “last” dinner in Downtown Disney at Naples. We shared a Margherita pizza and the Pumpkin Ravioli. Another Pumpkin dish we absolutely lost our minds over! So creamy and “pumpkiny”, I definitely recommend it for the pumpkin lovers out there.
For our last day, we went to Disneyland for a farewell. We rope dropped Disneyland one last time. We pretty much went to our favorite rides from both parks and just had an amazing time once again. Unfortunately rides kept breaking down on us this time as soon as we got into the line. We got breakfast at Red Rose Taverne. The Maple French Toast was surprisingly good. We had lunch at Earl of Sandwich one last time. For dessert, we tried the Graveyard Banana Funnel Cake and we were a bit sad we didn’t get it before so we could’ve eaten it twice haha! We finished the day off with one last ride on Haunted Mansion and then got some Mickey Beignets at Mint Julep, sat on a table at Tiana’s and just contemplated the river while eating those delicacies. I remember watching a video from FreshBaked where he does the exact same thing and I thought “That’s it! That’s what I want to do at least once”, and there we were. I’d been planning this vacation for almost an entire year by then so I was pretty hyped up to it… I admit I was somewhat bummed out that some rides and shows were under refurbishment at the time, but it didn’t matter in the end, we still had a blast! Disneyland surpassed all our expectations. Sitting there made us realize this was one of the best vacations we’ve ever had. He said he still prefers WDW but I’m pretty sure his eyes said “Disneyland if my new favorite park!”. We waved goodbye to Walt’s office as we were leaving the park and headed to the hotel to pack (which we finished by 3am!). We checked out of Alamo the next day on the 24th. The road to LA was fine, no heavy traffic. Arrived at LAX around 1pm and our flight took off at 4pm. 1 month later and I still have the post vacation blues.
I gotta say this trip was one of the highlights of my life. We had the most amazing time there. As I said before, we had been to Walt Disney World a few times already but nothing like this. Disneyland is completely different. It felt spontaneous? I can’t describe it. Both parks being so close to each other, and Downtown Disney right in the middle is a fantastic way to be in the Disney Bubble and it’s going to be hard to beat that for us (also not sure I’ll be able to visit Orlando again and not stay on-site anymore!). I sure hope to be able to come back as soon as possible just to have this magical feeling again.
Lastly, I need to thank everyone in here who helped me plan with all the tips and tricks you gave, directly or indirectly, specially @LKing and @BrianL for helping me with the fireworks show (John Legend messed us up but everything was fine in the end!). This was our first time just the two of us and we truly had a magical vacation thanks to you guys. This forum is amazing and I’m very glad I joined it. We are already planning our next trip to Disneyland, but this time we want to go for the holidays!
So if you've read until here, congratulations and thank you! I hope you enjoyed it. But again I’m sorry for the text wall haha. I know it’s long but believe me I summarized it as much as possible. I just had a lot of feelings! haha
Since this post is not long enough, I'll be adding some pictures too!
